More information : The medieval 'old borough' of Scarborough was protected on the
landward (western) side by a wall and ditch and on the south by a wallor possibly a wooden palisade utilising the cliff (1-5) (see 25" map
on illustration card). The date of construction is uncertain but it
must be before 1225 when a grant of murage was received for the 'new
borough' (see TA 08 NW 103).
According to Farmer (2) the early borough was founded about 1135 when
the first Scarborough Castle was built (see TA 08 NW 35), although
Pearson thought it unlikely for commercial and financial reasons. He
was more convinced with the period of prosperity during Henry II's
reign when the castle was taken into royal hands and a borough charterwas granted in 1155. During the 14th century the wall of the 'old borough' had become obsolete and houses built right up to it and stonequarried away. The town ditch is only mentioned in the underdeveloped area around Auborough Gate (TA 08 NW 105), but in the lower town it would have quickly disappeared during suburban development (1).
Hinderwell (4) recalled seeing part of the wall and ditch in the
houses on the east side of Auborough Street, and Farmer (3) in 1955
clearly observed the outline of the top of a wide ditch, running
north-south, through the area now occupied by St Mary's Parish House.
Trial excavations by Farmer in 1967-68 to the rear of the parish houserevealed a partial ditch section some 9m across its lip and a maximum depth of 4.4m cut through the natural boulder clay with the material built up to form a rampart. During the construction of the rampart, substantial stone foundations were incorporated to carry the "town wall", built of random sandstone blocks, averaging 1m wide. The foundations very close to the ditch edge had not been entirely
adequate and there was considerable slippage into the ditch (3).
Pearson considered that the wall was so poorly constructed at this
point that it may have been a property boundary without any defensive
role (1). Foundations of a substantial but short-lived stone building over the levelled rampart probably belonged to the late 14th century development of the town's waste. (3)
In two further trenches, a wall of Auborough House (demolished 1954)
was discovered (6,7) Plans (2,3,5).
Further sections of the town ditch are suggested in other parts of thet own - to the rear of Wilson's Mariners Homes (TA 08 NW 66) but no textual description is available, at Bland's Cliff (TA 08 NW 114) and
in St Sepulchre Street (TA 08 NW 121) although the position indicated
seems to far east of the traditionally accepted alignments. (1-8) |