Monument Type(s):

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

Summary

The New Work was an outlier to the town’s defences which ran along the river frontage to the west of the Welsh Bridge. It seems to have been built in the late 13th century to guard a ford which crossed the river from Frankwell. It comprised a stretch of wall some 100m long with a circular tower at each end. In 1337 the Borough granted the Augustinian Friars the New Work, on the condition that they built an “embattled house” there and allowed it to be garrisoned in time of war .

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA1994 - 1960 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA3800 - 1911 discovery of the SW tower of the New Work
• ESA4907 - 1997 Evaluation at corner of Victoria Avenue and St Austin's Friars, Shrewsbury by SCCAS
• ESA6682 - 2012 WB at Shrewsbury Sixth Form College by Castlering Archaeology
• ESA4908 - 1996 DBA and buildings assessment of land between Victoria Avenue and Lower Claremont Bank, Shrewsbury by Richard K Morriss & Associates
• ESA7590 - 2015 Conservation management survey of the town walls, Shrewsbury, by SCAS
• ESA7636 - 2015 WB at Victoria Avenue, Shrewsbury by SCAS

Description

A stone wall c 150 yd long with a massive circular tower (SA 1096 and 1460) at each end built temp Edward I to command the ford below the Welsh Bridge. Extant in 1296 <1a>
Ten feet of the wall was exposed at 40, St Julian's Friars in 1922 but covered over again <1b>
In 1343 granted to St Augustine's Priory when a certain crenellated house on the wall is mentioned <1c>
The south face of the wall was found in 1959 during extensions to Priory School. Sandstone and running between the steel stanchions at the N end of a new science block <1d><1>

The primary documentary references to this part of the town defences require a definitive sorting-out, but three appear to be of fundamental relevance. Drinkwater, in his 1907 article on the Augustinian Friary, transcribed and published an Inquisition of 1342 (16 Ed III), and a second of 1343 (17 Ed III). Both sought to inquire whether it would be a problem to grant to the friars: 'a certain stone wall outside the said town, which is joined to the wall of the same town, with two round towers built upon the aforesaid wall outside the town, and also a certain plat of ground near to that wall, abutting upon the water of the Severn contiguous to the dwelling place of the aforesaid Prior and brethren, together with a certain crenellated house constructed upon the aforesaid wall outside the town and a certain part of the aforesaid plat'. This formula was repeated in the 1343 Inquisition, which responded that the grant could be made without prejudice to the interests of the king or the town, and added dimensions, the wall and contiguous plot being 20 perches long (= 330 feet if statute perch of 16.5ft used) by 2 perches (33 ft) wide [<2>]. Owen and Blakeway (1825) also quote from a grant, said to be of 1337, of the New Work and the ground between it and the river, to the friars, with permission to erect a substantial house, well built and crenellated, also giving the friars the right to a postern through the town wall; the New Work was said to be 120 ells long, and the plot 10 ells broad: the original needs checking [<3>]. The tower at the west end of the New Work was excavated in 1911 and its position thus fixed. The tower at the north end is probably the tower referred to in a document of 1565 being 14 yards from the'spouthole', later the site of a culvert, and originally probably the point at which the town ditch entered the river, thus joining-as per the 1342/3 description-the New Work to the main town wall circuit. This location is consistent with the documented length of the New Work in 1343 of 20 perches (330 feet). As R E Davies [<1a>] and others have noted, the wall thus built commanded the ford from Frankwell, and may be taken as a direct parallel to the wall upstream between Garewald's castellum and Gilbert's Tower, covering Garewald's Ford. The south face of the wall was found in 1959 during extensions to Priory School. Sandstone and running between the steel stanchions at the N end of a new science block [<1d><1>]. <4>

A 1997 evaluation along the line of the New Work found only deep post medieval deposits, believed to overlie the earlier steeply sloping ground surface: remains of the wall may survive at greater depth. However, it was considered more likely that this section of the New Work had been demolished before the late post-medieval dumping took place. It is suggested that this section of the wall had been taken down by the early 18th century. <5>

The reference in [<1b>] must be to a different section of the town wall: see PRN 62471. <6>

No archaeological features were recorded during a watching brief on the construction of a new access at Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, on the line of the existing sandstone wall along Victoria Avenue. It can only be assumed that should the medieval 'New Work' be perpetuated in the alignment of the later wall, any surviving evidence of features associated with it must lie below the depth of current excavations (51.04 mOD). The areas had been subject to extensive disturbance during the second half of the 20th century. <7>

This extra-mural defence was known as the New Work, but its date is not known. Confusingly, according to Owen and Blakeway (<3>), it had been granted to the friars by the town in 1337 and the friars had to agree to build the embattled house on it for use of the town in time of war. The wall reverted to the friars in time of peace. The date of the outwork is not known although its name would suggest that it was built after the rest of the town walls had been completed in the mid 13th-century. It is possible that it may have been the 'wall upon Severn' mentioned in Goeffrey Randolf's gift to the friars in 1295; the main town wall was some distance from the riverside. Presumably the main wall of the New Work parallel to the river bank ended in two round towers (see PRN 62561). These would have been linked to the main town wall by flanking walls and friary itself would appear to have been within this defended outwork. <8>

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 stretch is identified as 7a, defending a ford across the River Severn in the vicinity of the Augustinian Friary. The line of the wall is now marked by the boundary of the Shrewsbury Sixth Form College along Victoria Avenue. ->

-> The sandstone terrace wall on Victoria Avenue runs approximately on the line of the New Work wall, but is thought to be of 19th century or later construction. The
approximate site of a tower at its western end is marked by stone setts laid in the tarmac road surface on Victoria Avenue (PRN 01096). The eastern end of this section of the defences lies beneath a restaurant and bar (The Armoury) complex on Victoria Avenue. The New Work was an outlier to the town’s defences which ran along the river frontage to the west of the Welsh Bridge. It seems to have been built in the late 13th century to guard a ford which crossed the river from Frankwell. It comprised a stretch of wall some 100m long with a circular tower at each end. In 1337 the Borough granted the Augustinian Friars the New Work, on the condition that they built an “embattled house” there and allowed it to be garrisoned in time of war (<10>). In 1342 the wall was referred to in inquisitions of that year and the following year, which described the wall as being 20 perches long (c. 100m) with two round towers. By 1620 the post-Dissolution owner of the friary, the barrister Roger Pope, had converted the round tower (of the New Work) into a tanning room (W Champion, 2006). The tower is shown on several 18th century engravings and paintings with a building adjoining its east side, aligned northsouth (Bowen, 1720; Buck, 1732; & anon, 1739). The Bowen painting also shows boatbuilding on the land to the west of the tower. The tower, by then known as the Round House, was demolished c.1790 (<11>). <9>

A watching brief was carried out in 2015 on an electricity cabling trench along the northern edge of the New Work. This watching brief exposed the footings of the tower at the western end of the New Work (see PRN 01096). <12>

<00> Shropshire County Council SMR, Site and Monuments Record (SMR) cards, SMR Card for PRN SA 01459 (Card index). SSA20722.

<01c> Anon, 1907, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, p113 (Volume). SSA3454.

<01a> Davies R E, 1909/ 1912, Town Walls of Shrewsbury, p183 (Article in serial). SSA5571.

<01b> Anon, 1920/ 1926, Transactions of the Caradoc & Severn Valley Field Club, Pt 4 (1923), p83 (Volume). SSA3676.

<01d> Anon, 1959, Shropshire Newsletter (Newsletter). SSA5588.

<01> Ordnance Survey, 1960, Ordnance Survey Record Card SJ41SE47.17 (Card index). SSA5589.

<02> Drinkwater C H, 1907, The Augustinian Friars, Shrewsbury (Article in serial). SSA5604.

<03> Owen H & Blakeway J B, 1825, History of Shrewsbury (Monograph). SSA4127.

<04> Baker Nigel J, UAD Analysis (SMR comment). SSA20432.

<05> Hannaford Hugh R, 1997, An archaeological evaluation at Victoria Avenue, Welsh Bridge, Shrewsbury (Excavation report). SSA20921.

<06> Gathercole E Clare, 1999/ 2002, Comments by SMR compiler in SMR database, 25/11/2003 (SMR comment). SSA20725.

<07> Frost Pat, 2012, Creation of new pedestrian access, Victoria Avenue Wall, Shrewsbury Sixth Form College (Watching brief report). SSA24026.

<08> Morriss Richard K, 1996, The Welsh Bridge Development, Shrewsbury: an Archaeological Desk-top Study, p.25 (Deskbased survey report). SSA10661.

<09> Hannaford Hugh R, 2015, Shrewsbury Town Walls: a conservation management plan (2 volumes), Gazetteer 7a (Management report). SSA28223.

<10> Baker Nigel J, 2010, Shrewsbury: an archaeological assessment of an English border town, p.146 (Monograph). SSA23647.

<11> Owen H, 1808, Some Account of the Ancient and Present State of Shrewsbury, p.75 (Monograph). SSA5372.

<12> Hannaford Hugh R, 2015, A watching brief at Victoria Avenue, Shrewsbury, 2015 (Watching brief report). SSA28296.

Sources

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