More information : City Walls (Rems). Early C14th town walls included 32 towers and 12 gates. Destroyed 1662 on the orders of Charles II.(1-3).
SP335793 and SP335794. Remains of wall, well preserved, max. height 3.0m. See GP. SP339790. Remains of wall. The height varies from 0.3m-1.8m. It now forms the foundations for a brick wall. SP341789. Foundation remains of the wall are visible in the West bank revetment of the R. Sherbourne. SP34147867. No extant portion visible. SP33037907. Remains of wall visible in the gable end of a building. SP32997900. Remains of wall 2.8m high, 2.0m thick. SP33177929 - SP33177933). Remains of wall restored and partially rebuilt. max. height 2.0m. SP33227944. Remains of wall, max. height 1.3m.(4,5)
SP332794 - SP335794. Twelve sections of Coventry City Walls are scheduled, W Mids No.21.(6)
Additional reference.(7)
Coventry did not become a walled city until the second half of the C14th, but there was a town ditch and entrance bars in the C13th, and possibly even in the late C12th. The only physical evidence for an early ditch is one 20' wide and 9' deep to the NE of Well Street Gate, and sections have been found on the South side of Smithford Street aligned with the Spon Street bars, and continuing North and East to Barr's Hill and St Nicholas' Church, (SP37NW12). The North and East sides of the town may well have not been ditched. A licence for murage was obtained in 1329, but work does not seem to have begun for some time. A licence to crenellate was obtained in 1363, and in 1385, a licence was granted to complete the work. The wall was constructed using material in situ; therefore a ditch surrounded the whole circuit. Twelve gates were erected at strategic points, (SP37NW49 and 55-65), these being built from ca.1367 onwards, most being completed by 1411. In addition, there were at least 20 intermediary towers, of which 15 lay on the South side of the town between Hill Gate and Gosford Gate. The sections to the NE of the Priory appear to have been the last section built, in the C15th. During the C17th Civil War, the three miles of city walling were comparable in strength to London's City Walls, with four strong gates guarded by 400 guards. In 1662, Charles II ordered that the walls should be pulled down because Coventry had harboured rebels after the restoration. However, this was revoked in 1672, and efforts were made to preserve the circuit. Attempts were made to convert both gates and towers to domestic habitation in the late C17th ad early C18th, but from the middle of the C18th onwards, the gates and walls were gradually removed. In 1870, only two gates remained, the Swanswell (Priory) Gate, (SP37NW61), and Cook Street Gate, (SP37NW49). Between these gates lies the only substantial surviving section of the city wall, although not to its original height. It is constructed of two outer skins of ashlar masonry with a rubble core.(8)
The section of wall to the North of Swanswell Gate is listed, Grade I.(9)
A 110m section of the wall at SP340791 was excavated in 1972, and on both sides of the wall material of the C12th-C17th was found. The earliest defences were a ditch and earth rampart.(10)
(See also SP37NW114 for further excavations on the walls, and also SP37NW103 for a chapel incorporated into the walls in the C14th.) |