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Summary

The New Tower. An oval tower set in the angle where the wall turns east-norh-east. Mid 14th century.

Monument Type(s)

• ANGLE TOWER (Mid C14, Medieval - 1333 AD to 1366 AD)
• TOWER (1831, Early 19th Century - 1831 AD to 1831 AD)
• TOWER (1950, 20th Century - 1950 AD to 1950 AD)

Protected Status

• Listed Building
• Conservation Area
• Scheduled Monument

Full description

Tower 32 (NG 60715207. Pl. 42; Fig. p. 136), called in 1380 and 1403 'novam turrim super cornerium versus le Jubiry', is oval, set in the angle where the wall turns to the E.N.E. It has a chamfered plinth and three arrow slits with fish-tailed lower arms set close to the ground. A stone above the plinth on the E. bears a mason's mark, and a reused block has the side arm of an arrow slit. The lower part of the parapet is older than the 19th-century upper part, which has small merlons and an added external string course supported on corbels of 14th-century type. The interior is entered by a square-headed doorway and the arrow slits are set in splayed recesses with rough half-domed heads within segmental arches. Until 1851 the rear of the tower was open and there were the remains of a half-timbered building on top. (fn. 109) The present flat concrete roof was made in 1950 to replace the brick vault of 1871, which had partly collapsed.

¶Bonded into the city wall near Tower 32 are four low shallow original buttresses, each 4½ ft. wide, 4 ft. high, and projecting 3 ins. to 6 ins. Further E. is a taller strip buttress. There are also four blocked embrasures between Towers 32 and 33 (Fig. below), indicating that the level of the wall walk has been raised by about 7 ft. This is evidence that the original stone wall here was only about 6 ft. high to the wall walk and that it has been gradually built in stages. When the blocked embrasures were in use they would have been well below the crowns of the arches supporting the wall walk. There are forty-seven of these arches in this stretch, most of which appear to be 19th-century since they often rest on brick footings and are not bonded into the wall. However, arches existed in 1634 near Layerthorpe Postern, when it was proposed to remove them for building stone. (fn. 110) They also appear on an engraving of 1718, and some of those now visible may be earlier than that date. Those near the Layerthorpe end of the wall, which are most likely to be ancient, measure 14¾ ft. wide, 8¾ ft. high, and 4½ ft. deep, and are larger than those nearer Monk Bar.

In the stretch of rampart running E.N.E. from Tower 32 towards the Foss, including St. Cuthbert's church, the mound gradually decreases in height and disappears entirely at Tower 34, but it is still traceable as a slight rise from the churchyard, where it is 85 ft. wide and externally 15 ft. high with an outer ditch 35 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/york/vol2/pp108-138

RCHME, 1972, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York, Volume II The Defences, p134 (Monograph). SYO63.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.

Sources and further reading

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