Newnham Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Newnham.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO68881169
Latitude 51.80298° Longitude -2.45271°

Newnham Town Defences has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

(SO 68881169 - 68911154) A Royalist garrison constructed strong fortifications at Newnham during the Civil War, and the earthwork known as the Round Green, running north from the castle (SO 61 SE 3), although it looks like the remains of an ancient town wall, fits the descriptions in 1644 of the Royalists' defensive works at the upper end of the town. The known indications that there may have been an earlier town wall are the occurrence of a "William atte Wall" in 1327, and rents paid to the Lord of the Manor for parts of the town ditch in 1637. The earthwork was used as a terraced walk in the 18th century, and had been laid out as a promenade by 1849 (VCH). "The earthworks on the south-west of the town running north from the castle are probably the Royalist's defensive works constructed at the upper end of the town in 1644, but may follow the line of earlier defences. There are no indications of defences to the north of the Littledean Road." (Leech). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 111785.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 5183.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 257
  Elrington, C.R. and Herbert, N.M. (eds), 1972, VCH Gloucestershire Vol. 10 p. 30, 33 online transcription
  Roger Leech, 1981, Historic towns in Gloucestershire: archaeology and planning (Committee for Rescue Archaeology in Avon, Gloucestershire and Somerset surveys 3) p. 64
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Matthew Tilley, Tim Grubb, 2008, Extensive Urban Survey - Gloucestershire Download 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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