Lymington Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Lymington and Pennington.
In the historic county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Modern Authority of Hampshire.
1974 county of Hampshire.
Medieval County of Hampshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SZ321954
Latitude 50.75763° Longitude -1.54506°

Lymington Town Defences has been described as a Urban Defence but is rejected as such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Lymington is first mentioned in 1184-1216 when the borough was founded by William de Redvers the charter was confirmed in c1256 by Baldwin de Redvers. In 1257 a grant to Baldwin de Redvers of a fair. In 1271 a charter of Isobella de Fortibus referring to an extension of the borough. (PastScape ref. Beresford and Finberg)

Lymington was an important port in the medieval period with French wines and other commodities being landed there. In 1346-7 the town provided 9 ships and 159 mariners for the defence of the coast (Jones 1930, 60), but the town suffered from French incursions on several occasions in the fourteenth century, and was last attacked in 1545 (King 1900, 7-8). However, the French attacks have not generated the tales of widespread destruction that are associated with some of the towns on the Isle of Wight which were also subjected to French raids. (Hopkins 2004)

Possible remains of the medieval borough boundary wall of Lymington were excavated by the Avon Valley Archaeological Society in 1996. (Hampshire AHBR)

Excavation in 1996 at Grove Garden by Avon Valley Archaeological Society located the massive limestone blocks of the C13 town wall foundation. (? source)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 879806.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 56846.

Books
- Beresford, M. and Finberg, H.P.R., 1973, English Medieval Boroughs: a Handlist (Newton Abbot: David and Charles) p. 118
  Jones, C.P., 1930, History of Lymington (Charles T. King: Lymington)
  King, E., 1900, Old Times Revisited in the Borough of Lymington, Hampshire (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co: London)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dave Hopkins, 2004, Extensive Urban Survey - Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (English Heritage) 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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