Monument Type(s):

• TOWN WALL (13th century - 1200 AD to 1299 AD)

Summary

Scheduled Monument and Grade II* Listed Building: A long surviving section of Shrewsbury's medieval town wall, which can be seen along the west end of Town Walls.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA6032 - 2006 WB at 21a Town Walls, Shrewsbury by Marches Archaeology
• ESA7590 - 2015 Conservation management survey of the town walls, Shrewsbury, by SCAS
• ESA7591 - 2015 photogrammetric survey of Shrewsbury's Town Walls by Aerial Cam
• ESA8625 - 2014 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England
• ESA8621 - 2015 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England
• ESA8361 - 2016 Heritage at Risk Survey by Historic England

Description

The standing section of town wall forming the south side of Town Walls. Incorporates a plaque recording its repair in 1740, though this is likely to be but one of very many episodes. Wall-walk survives in part as raised pavement, but height of parapet reduced and crenellations removed in the 18th century (?). Of mixed construction, incorporating large quantities of Grinshill ashlar as well as Keele Beds, and most unlikely to be 13th-century construction throughout. One section at least has a battered stage, on the lines of the original's chamfered plinth, but extending four courses high, constructed of Grinshill ashlar and coursed together with substantial multi-stage buttresses. The whole length is heavily buttressed at irregular intervals. No recording or analytical work has been carried out on this section <1>

Watching brief carried out at 21a Town Walls, Shrewsbury on groundworks including the partial removal of a stepped garden in connection with residential development. No evidence of the town ditch was recovered but this does not preclude the possibility of a smaller ditch closer to the wall. The land rises quite markedly from St Julian’s Friars and therefore the need for a ditch may not have been necessary. <2>

A conservation management plan was prepared in 2015 for the entire circuit of town walls surrounding Shrewsbury (excluding around Shrewsbury Castle at the NE corner). This provides a general historic overview of the development of the town defences, together with detailed analysis and management recommendations for individual sections (in gazetteer form in volume 2). This feature is identified as section 11, runing around the south side of the historic core of the town from No.
21a Town Walls for some 360m to the rear of Beeches Lane. 290m of this section survives as standing masonry walls, most of this revetting the south side of Town Walls
road, with a shorter length forming the boundary of the gardens to the rear of Beeches Lane. The wall has been breached in the 1950s by part of the British Telecom building and the Williams Way road which was constructed in the 2000s over the wall to access a development at St Julian’s Friars. ->

-> The stretch of standing masonry along Town Walls road (together with Wingfields Tower) is today the most visible part of the town’s medieval defences. The inner face of the parapet to the wall along Town Walls forms the boundary to the highway and stands above pavement level for most of its length as three or four courses of mixed sandstone ashlar with a Grinshill coping course. The outer face of the wall stands to a height of up to about 5m, and is of a mixture of red and buff Grinshill sandstones. Much of the land to the south of the wall’s outer face is in use as allotment gardens. ->

-> Some possible stretches of original 13th century wall may survive at the base of the Scheduled section, though if so they have been much degraded through exposure to the elements. There is one section where there may be a survival of the chamfered plinth course, as has been seen in excavated sections elsewhere, although this is much weathered; elsewhere along this entire section the chamfered plinth is absent, and moreover the masonry at the base of the wall does not have the uniform appearance of the primary 13th century wall recorded in archaeological excavations elsewhere in the town. Repointing in both lime mortar and cement may mask any sign of the gritty greenish mortar that is also typical of the 13th century wall. ->

-> Above the base layers, however, is a distinct phase of masonry that has been identified by this project’s photographic condition survey. This phase comprises four courses of buff ashlar blocks of Grinshill sandstone battered back at a slight angle. This phase survives at the western end of the wall from 21a Town Walls running towards the Cathedral, and again at the eastern end opposite Bishopstone Mansions. There is no direct dating for this phase, but it pre-dates the construction of the 18th century brick party wall between 21a Town Walls and the gardens to the east. ->

-> Particularly between sections (11 a) and (11 b) the wall appears to have been a number of episodes of rebuilding (or re-facing) of the wall, largely but not entirely separated by the older buttresses incorporated into the outer face. One section of rebuild is of a fairly uniform mainly red sandstone ashlar (11 d) almost up to parapet level. Elsewhere the repairs are of more mixed stone, both in terms of the mixture of red and Grinshill sandstone and the size of the blocks used. ->

-> Above the courses of battered Grinshill masonry (11 b & c) and across much of this length of the wall are five courses of mixed red and buff Grinshill sandstone masonry. In places this stonework is banded elsewhere it is mixed with an almost chequerboard effect. Whether this represents a single phase or multiple phases of repair, this generally takes the wall up to street level. ->

-> Above street level, the parapet comprises generally three courses of mixed sandstone masonry plus a coping course. Much of this parapet level is pointed in a brown mortar or cement (on the street face it is repointed in cement), and may have been rebuilt in the 20th century; a stone in the western end of the Scheduled section records the rebuilding of this section in 1740 (though this stone is set in cement which suggests that it may have been re-set in the 20th century). There is also evidence of extensive episodes underpinning of the wall, in re-used stone, brick, and concrete, which have been exposed by slippage and erosion of the deposits in front of the wall. A circular brick drain (now blocked) emerges from the base of the wall opposite Shrewsbury Cathedral, and a number of services pierce the wall, mainly just below pavement level. In c. 1904, the owner of 16 Belmont built a tunnel underneath Town Walls road to access his garden on the side of the town wall. The
tunnel entrance on the south side is still visible in the wall of 21a Town Walls. In front of the western wing of Telecom House the Parapet of the wall is jettied out and supported by three brick arches on stone piers (11 e). And at the easternmost end of this section of wall, the parapet is again jettied out and supported this time by three wide stone arches of red Bridgnorth sandstone (11 f). In the western of these arches the town wall at the back has an opening with a flat brick arch, blocked with thin sandstone rubble. The wall in the central arch has at its eastern corner a narrow vertical recess that may also be a blocked opening. It is possible that these features are associated with a tower that is thought to have stood near the bottom of Belmont Bank (PRN 01462). ->

-> It was not possible to closely examine the wall behind the properties on Beeches Lane. The wall here is of red sandstone ashlar and stands to about 2m in height on its outer face. The wall is about 0.5m thick. One of the features of this section of the town wall is the number of buttresses on its outer face. While some of these are clearly of relatively recent date and clearly butt against the fabric of the wall, others are of older date and are built into the sections of wall they support, and indeed the buttresses are shown on many of the 18th century illustrations of the south side of the town. ->

-> This section of the wall was subject to photogrammetric recording carried out by Aerial Cam and a series of orthorectified models were produced (ESA 7591). 3D pdfs attached via Library Link (warning large files). <3>

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.