Monument Type(s):

• TOWN WALL (13th century to 15th century - 1200 AD to 1499 AD)

Summary

Scheduled Monument and Listed Building: Shrewsbury's 13th century town walls, including a number of surviving sections, some Scheduled or Listed.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA1308 - 1974 excavation
• ESA1311 - 1960 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA7590 - 2015 Conservation management survey of the town walls, Shrewsbury, by SCAS
• ESA3573 - 1987 Shaft inspection during 1987 WB on Darwin Centre construction by BUFAU
• 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

A synthesis of the history and course of the Town Wall has not yet been compiled. PAW 14/11/90. <0>

LB desc: Beeches Lane section: Begun in 1226 for Henry III. Red sandstone ashlar in large blocks, c 3m high.; two buttresses to west with chamfered plinths and moulded weatherings, and the base of a third. Continues eastwards as base of north Wall of Severn House (not itself listed.) <14>

LB desc: Town Walls section: A substantial part of the C13 town wall remains, the street known as Town Walls being laid across the top of it. Built of sandstone with rampart and raised steps and buttresses. Overlooking bank sloping to river. Begun by Henry III in 1226. <15>

LB desc (1995): Remains of medieval town wall and attached building, St Mary's Water Lane. Remains of wall and building. Probably C13 and later. Coursed and squared red sandstone. Length of wall originally part of city wall which also forms the long wall of a single-storey building with low pitched Welsh slate roof. Remains of carved finial at apex of gable, but no orginal openings. ->

-> In 1989 two evaluation trenches were excavated by BUFAU in advance of the proposed development of the Nurses Home site at c SJ4937 1265. Three walls, F1, F12 and F4 were revealed, one of which was probably the C13 town wall. <19>

In 1987 a deep pit was excavated by contractors involved in the construction of the Charles Darwin centre at the rear of No 23 Pride Hill. It was dug against the SW corner of the standing building and cut through a mass of purple Keele Beds sandstone rubble set in a greenish gritty mortar, at a distance of c 32.5m from the street frontage. The stonework and its matrix were identical to the core material of the C13 town wall observed and excavated at three other sites in the area. <20>

In November 1993 the SCC AS carried out a watching brief on the site of the new Records and Research centre. A wide ditch revealed in the lower terrace of the development site, curving south westwards from c SJ 4933 1284 to SJ 4931 1282 may represent a section of the town ditch now thought to have run outside the line of the thirteenth century town walls in the Roushill area. <38>
In 1993, Baker, Lawson et al depicted two variants on the course of the wall from that marked on the SMR Record map in one of their figures illustrating the development of the plot pattern in Raven Meadows <38>

In 1993 the Oxford Archaeological Unit carried out an evaluation of the St Julian's Friars area on the site of a proposed development. Trench 10 centred at SJ 4950 1228 was intended to locate the town wall as projected from previous sightings to the W. Most deposits down to 50.4 were late, and they dipped across the line of the town ditch, the upper fills of which contained C18 finds. A wall probably revetted the outer edge of the ditch at this period. There was a C14 English jetton in the primary silt. The masonry of the town wall was encountered at OD 50.2 and survived to two courses of ashlar plus one offset course on the outside face. …The town wall was built on a silty clay, with C13 pottery, overlying an alluvial silt. Trench 8 centred at SJ 4955 1229 had been rotated N/S in order to cross the projected line of the town wall exposed in Trench 10, but instead only encountered layers of post medieval fill. It appears that the wall line at trench 10 could be following the relict profile of a bank on the alluvial surface. …This excavated section of wall can be seen as providing a defence in the early C13 for what had previously been only a suburb. The failure to locate the wall in Trench 8 indicates that it had returned N before this point…..The property boundary visible on early maps forming the E side of No 46 Wyle Cop may indicate the line of the wall here. The substantial ditch found immediately outside the town wall in Trench 10 is assumed to have been an integral part of the medieval defensive system. A grant of land made in 1303/4 refers to all that place behind the walls called la Mote of the said walls down as far as the Severn next to the tenement of the friars minor, i.e. the Greyfriars. The OAU report proposed that the town ditch followed the wall when it turned N, and argued for the existence of channel to it from the river, forming a wharf for barges. This would have been in the vicinity of the site of the Kennings garage, formerly the Barge Garage, itself built on the site of the Barge Inn. See PRN 04716. <39>

The town walls date from the 13th century (though earlier phases of town defences for Shrewsbury have been suggested, little is known about these). In 1218 Henry III ordered the townsmen to strengthen and enclose the town. Many repairs and alterations were subsequently made and are evidenced in the documents. <40>

Where the 13th century town wall has been identified, it has a number of distinctive characteristics. It was constructed of red and purple sandstone blocks bonded in a greenish, gritty mortar, was of about 1.8m width and had a chamfered plinth course near the base of its outer face [<5>]. <44>

The early defences of the town had relied primarily on the river, with its limited crossing points, and the castle to guard the narrow land access to the north. With the unrest at the beginning of the 13th century the town was provided with a defensive circuit consisting of a stone wall with an external ditch. This work was finished by 1242, when rights of murage are first recorded and excess stone was granted to the Dominican Friars. Where they have been investigated archaeologically, the preparation works for the building of the wall removed all earlier deposits and features. A clay bank up to 7 feet high and 30 feet wide was created - though this could conceivably be of an earlier period than the wall itself. The wall was 4.5 feet (1.37m) thick and had a rubble core. Its external face had a chamfered plinth which varied in height from 2 feet to 2.5 feet (0.61m-0.76m), stepping down to conform to the slope. An original wall height of 15 to 20 feet has been postulated. By the 15th century, however, timber framed houses were being built behind and on the wall, and some parts of the wall, behind Pride Hill and Castle Street, had beed demolished and reused as foundations for town houses. This may have been a result of the pacification of Wales, after which Shrewsbury's strategic importance declined. <45>

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). ->

-> Volume 1 contains an overview of previous archaeological work related to the town defences and summarises phases of construction. It provides an overall statement of significance, identifies conservation issues and makes a series of general management proposals. Volume 2 contains much further detail on idnividual sections of wall and associated features such as gates and towers (see child records for more detailed information). ->

-> A photogrammetric survey was undertaken of several sections of the town wall in order to produce 3D models and orthophotos. The photogrammetric survey covered the entire scheduled section of the wall along Town Walls from the British Telecom building to 21a Town Walls, the short section of wall adjacent to 26 Town walls, and the Wingfields Tower and adjoining section of wall. The survey also included the western section of sandstone wall on Meadow Place, and St Mary’s Water Gate. A photographic condition survey was then made of the other sections of wall and associated features where access could be obtained. A selection of these photographs are held on CD, with the full archive being held as a digital archive by SCAS. <47>

Sources

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