Barnstaple Town Wall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Barum

In the civil parish of Barnstaple.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Devon.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS559331
Latitude 51.07986° Longitude -4.05884°

Barnstaple Town Wall has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

No remains of saxon earth and stone wall utilized post-Conquest. Mentioned by Leland as nearly all fallen down. No contemporary documentary evidence. Several small excavations and watching briefs have located the wall and ditch.

A town wall and ditch at Barnstaple is recorded in a charter of Joel (of Totnes), 1107-1137, and is described as decayed in one of about 1140 and by Leland (1535-43). No visible remains exist of it or its four gates (SS 53 SE 23, SS 53 SE 26, SS 53 SE 28 and SS 53 SE 30) but North Walk, Boutport Street, Maiden Street and Castle Street appear to define the outer lip of the town ditch. R D Gould, borough surveyor, exposed some parts of the wall, 7-8 feet thick, between Paternoster Row and Joy Street, north of Joy Street and 200 foot length aligned on the North Gate (Gribble; Cotton). The possible course of the town wall (A: SS 55813346 to C: SS 55903316) was indicated by Bruce Oliver who stated that part of the wall, built on a cobbled base, had been found about 1933 at the County Garage. Nothing could be found to verify this and the wall footing (A: SS 55813346 to B: SS 55813345) is only 8.0m long and 1.5m wide. It is improbable that the wall followed Maiden Street, as stated by Gribble, as the site of the South Gate has since been determined (Field Investigators Comments-F1 GCS 15-OCT-53). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 33888.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 14292 and numerous other.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 28
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 30,151,254
  Higham, Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 136-43
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
  Haslam, J., 1984, 'The Towns of Devon' in J. Haslam (ed.) Anglo-Saxon Towns in southern England (Phillimore) p. 249-283 esp. 251-56 online copy
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 122
  Barley, M.W., 1975, 'Town Defences in England and Wales after 1066' in Barley (ed) The plans and topography of medieval towns in England and Wales (CBA Research Report 14) p. 57-71 download/view online
  Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 190
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Cotton, R.W., n.d., The Gates and Walls of Ancient Barnstaple (Not unable to identify this reference given in PastScape but see Cotton, R.W., 1889, Barnstaple and the northern part of Devonshire during the great civil war, 1642-1646 p. 3-5 online copy)
  Gribble, J.W., 1830, Memorials of Barnstaple p. 36-9 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
  Markuson, K.W., 1980, 'Excavations on the Green Lane access site, Barnstaple, 1979' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 38 p. 67-90
  Wood, M., 1980, 'Barnstaple, North Gate, east abutment' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 38 p. 123-4
  Oliver, W. Bruce, 1930, 'Barnstaple Borough' Transactions of the Devonshire Association Vol. 62 p. 269-273
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 105
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 169 online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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