Summary : The new settlement at Bridgnorth, to the north of the castle was surrounded initially, between 1216 and 1223, by a wooden stockade and moat. Murage grants were made during the 13th to 15th centuries. By Leland's time the town walls were in ruins. There were five gates in the town wall, constructed between 1256 and 1264, of these only the north Gate, now reconstructed survives. |
More information : (SO 71569332 through SO 71389305 and SO 71719304 to SO 71749337) Site of Town Wall (NR) (four times) (SO 71589301) and SO 71639302) Wall (NR) (remains of) (twice) (SO 71660336) Site of (NAT) Moat (NR) (See map diagram) (1) The new settlement at Bridgnorth, to the north of the castle (SO 79 SW 6) was surrounded initially, between 1216 and 1223, by a wooden stockade and moat. Replacement in stone was probably a piecemeal process later in the 13th and 14th centuries (2 & 3). Murage grants being made during the 13th to 15th centuries (4). By Leland's time the town walls were "all in ruins". There were five gates in the town wall, constructed between 1256 and 1264 (see component cards), of these only North Gate, now reconstructed survives (7). Remains of the wall survive at the Half Moon Battery (SO 79 SW 7 2), formerly linked to the wall (2), Hollybush Road, Listley Street and to the rear of 93 Cartway (5). (See SO 79 SW 7 4 for the Barrier Gate or Barbican). Burrow (3) suggests that there were possibly no defences other than natural on the eastern side but the course of the wall is clearly delineated by authorities 1 and 2. The extant remains of the wall shown by authority 1 may be part of the castle wall (see SO 79 SW 6). As part of these are described as being of red sandstone it may perhaps be significant that remains of the wall found at Listley Street are of white stone (2). Taken with the siting of the Listley Gate (SO 79 SW 7 3) and Barrier Gate (SO 79 SW 7 4) it is possible that the actual course of the wall continued eastwards along Listley Street and Cartway to approximately the Cow Gate (SO 79 SW 7) and not shown by authority 1. There was a ditch to the north of castle wall (SO 79 SW 6), this being crossed by a drawbridge from the Barbican (SO 79 SW 7 4). North Gate and remanants of wall grade 2. Moat Street represents part of the line of the moat. (2-7) Although for the most part there is little reason to doubt on the published line of the wall, the surviving evidence is very fragmentary, consisting usually of reconstructed stone walling or patches of stonework in walls rebuilt in brick. The line from the West Gate to Listley Gate follows the crest of a south-facing slope, and almost certainly took in the promontory south-west of Listley Gate with its sandstone cliffs and steep slopes. It is unlikely that it crossed Railway Street on the published line (1) to join the castle wall to the west of the Post Office, since Railway Street runs steeply down from the site of Listley Gate so that a more likely course would be along the south side of Listley Street to the site of Barrier Gate as suggested above. The slopes on the east side are steep but not insurmountable, and would probably have required the additional protection of a wall. (See Map Diagram).(8)
|