Monument Type(s):

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

Summary

Scheduled Monument and Grade II* Listed Building; the only surviving 13th-14th century watch tower on Shrewsbury's medieval town walls.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA1314 - 1987 field observation by English Heritage
• ESA4929 - 1996 Survey of Town Walls Tower by the National Trust
• ESA7590 - 2015 Conservation management survey of the town walls, Shrewsbury, by SCAS
• ESA7591 - 2015 photogrammetric survey of Shrewsbury's Town Walls by Aerial Cam
• ESA9741 - 2021 DBA/building survey of Town Walls Tower (Wingfields Tower), Town Walls, Shrewsbury by APT Group (Ref: 21/05443/FUL)
• ESA9950 - 2022 WB and building survey (level 3) on 'Tower House', Town Walls Tower, Shrewsbury by Richard Hayman (Ref: 21/05444/LBC)

Description

Watch tower. C13. Coursed and squared sandstone with flat roof. 3-storeyed, square in plan with doorway in NE elevation in slightly projecting lower storey, and a door at first-floor level with moulded steeply-arched head. Arrow slits in SW elevation, and small openings in NW. Renewed embattled parapet. Length of Town Wall (qv) adjoins to left <2>

The surviving tower on Town Walls. A rectangular structure of four storeys plus parapets, attached to an earlier section of town wall (treated together here as a single monument). The tower is accessed via a side door in the east wall, outside the town wall, at basement level or via a street-level door through the town (north) wall, or via a first-floor door in the north wall at wall-walk level. The building is constructed in Grinshill ashlar throughout; the town wall itself appears to be of Keele Beds sandstone ashlar with a rubble core, partly exposed. Rectangular single-light windows to the upper storeys have shouldered lintels (aka Caernarvon Arches) as rear arches, and at street (ground-floor) level in the side walls are cruciform arrow loops. The tower is the subject of a recent (1996) comprehensive structural survey and report by Milne and Woodside for the National Trust [<4>] . Their dating of the building to c.1240 (p.19) is unlikely, given the general date-range of post-Norman shouldered lintels (very late 13th-late 14th century: see PRN 62362 and refs.) and the use throughout of Grinshill stone. Owen's (1808) view that the monument was post c.1400 [<5>] is equally implausible on historical grounds, and a mid 14th century date for the tower is the most probable. The adjoining town wall section was cut back in 1802, according to Parkes [<6>], at which time the wall-walk was removed. For the full structural survey, references, known history, and (awful) background survey, see Milln and Woodside [<4>] <7>

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). Wingfield's Tower is described as 10c, the only surviving mural tower along the town defences. ->

-> The tower is a rectangular structure of four storeys plus parapets. It is accessed via a side door in the southeast wall at basement level or via a street-level door through the northeast wall (on the town side), or via a first floor door in the northeast wall at wallwalk level. The building is constructed in ashlar Grinshill sandstone, suggesting a date after 1300 for its construction. There are narrow rectangular single-light windows to the upper storeys, and internally these have shouldered lintels (Caernarvon Arches). At street level there are cruciform arrow loops in the side walls. ->

-> A photogrammetric survey was undertaken of the tower by Aerial Cam in conjunction with the preparation of the conservation management plan (ESA 7591). 3D pdfs are linked in Library Link [warning large files]. <10>

Leaflet produced for Open Day of 'Town Walls Tower'. <11>

A heritage statement was prepared in accordance with plans for the conversion ot the Town Walls Tower into a single holiday let in 2021. This provides a detailed description of the interior and exterior of the building. <12>

A historic building record of the cellar of Tower House, Town Walls, Shrewsbury, which is listed grade II*, was commissioned by The National Trust and undertaken in February 2022. Recording of the cellar was a condition of listed-building consent for change of use of the building. The record was undertaken to Historic England’s Level 3. An archaeological watching brief monitoring groundworks inside and outside of the building was undertaken in May and July 2022. ->

-> The tower is the only surviving watch tower associated with Shrewsbury’s medieval town walls. It was added to the thirteenth-century town walls probably in the mid-fourteenth century. After its original defensive function lapsed, like other former watch towers, it was leased by the Corporation to various tenants. One of these was a Mr Wingfield, from whom the tower has derived its alternative name. By 1816 the tower was occupied by a watchmaker, John Massey and in the 1860s John Humphries, of Swan Hill Court, converted it to a dwelling for his coachman. His daughter, Miss Rachel Humphries, donated the building to The National Trust in 1930. ->

-> The tower is built of four stages, of which the lower is below street level but stands above the ground on the downhill side, where the ground falls away sharply. Cellar walls incorporate freestone and rubble stone construction, but are probably all the same date. As the tower walls are not aligned with an adjoining section of the town wall, the tower is probably built later than the town wall, in the fourteenth century. Excavation of the cellar floor revealed that three of the four walls were laid directly on a layer of soil, without foundations. There have been various small changes to the cellar, such as the addition of a cobbled and later a brick floor, and the alteration of stairs from the second stage. These can mostly be dated to the alterations undertaken since 1930 by The National Trust. <13>

Sources

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