Rayleigh Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Rayleigh.
In the historic county of Essex.
Modern Authority of Essex.
1974 county of Essex.
Medieval County of Essex.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ80679075
Latitude 51.58815° Longitude 0.60865°

Rayleigh Town Defences has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Part of the Medieval town defences, a building and pottery kiln were excavated during excavations prior to redevelopment at 77 High Road. The town defence comprised an Earthen rampart and a timber palisade which were dated to C13. The building was timber framed and late C13 in date, associated features included a hearth pit and cobbled floors. The kiln had been badly damaged by ploughing, surviving features comprised the base and part of the flue. (PastScape at Map ref. TQ803902)

The built-up area (TQ 8067 9075) The morphology of the medieval built-up area is not entirely clear, however it appears to have been concentrated along the High Street, in the area to the east of the outer bailey. The parish church was sited at the north-eastern end of the town, its location perhaps marking the site of the original Domesday settlement. At this point the east-west route of London Hill meets the north-west route of the High Street. To the south of the church is a triangular built-up area, delimited by London Hill, Bellingham Lane and High Street. It is possible that this area originally formed part of the market-place. (Unlocking Essex's Past–ref. Medlycott)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 925484.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 13489.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 262
Periodical Articles
- 1990, Essex Archaeology and History Vol. 21 p. 92-102
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Medlycott, M., 1999, Rayleigh Historic Town Assessment Report

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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.
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