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Monument Types

• TOWN WALL (MEDIEVAL - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (between))
• TOWN WALL (POST MEDIEVAL - 1540 AD to 1900 AD (between))

Associated Events

• 5/13 The Butts (Ref: WCM100193)
• North Wall House, 11 The Butts (Ref: WCM101198)

Full description

City wall, line of / buried remains: constituent of WCM 96100, medieval city defences.

The otherwise continuous line of the north city wall, represented by medieval fabric and/or replacement retaining walls, is interrupted or concealed by the projection northwards of North Wall House and the terrace platforms/earth bank associated with it. This building was in place by the 1880s (1st ed. O.S. 1:500 plan) at which date the line of the wall (continuous with the stretches either side) is probably represented by the line of the then parish boundary.

The immediate environs of North Wall House accommodated the pigeon house of the medieval Dominican Friary (WCM 96027). References to the pigeon house cease after the 16th century. In 1719 an innkeeper built a house inside the city wall over earlier ‘cold baths’ fed from a natural spring. The new building incorporated the city wall as the north wall of its cellar. Pride’s Cold Bath was taken over and the house enlarged in 1779 and a flax-dressing business established there. In the 19th century the house was enlarged over the wall for a grammar school for girls. The city wall is said to still be visible in the cellar {1}. The cold bath may possibly be identifiable with the holy well documented in The Butts area in the 16th century and enclosed by railings in 1661 (WCM 96078).

Two builds of sandstone masonry were recorded in the base of the retaining wall (trench 3, behind Cold Bath Cottage) just to the east of North Wall House. The site report contains an architect’s elevation of the house and retaining walls. The excavator suggested that the northward deflection of the line of sandstone masonry west of North Wall House around its mound/terraces might mark a former tower position on this site {2}. The re-use of city wall building materials is perhaps a stronger possibility.

Although there is evidently a cellar below the main block of North Wall House on the city wall line, it appears to have been sealed up and the current owners are not aware of it (site visit 15/6/07) {3}.

Cross-reference to: 96118, City wall, Angel Place – North Wall House
Cross-reference to: 96120, City wall, Rack Alley area
Cross-reference to: 96139, City Ditch, The Butts – St Clement’s

Sources and further reading

Related records

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