Bridgnorth Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Description

The first defences of the town were a moat and timber stockade built between 1216 and 1223 (Mason 1957, 10). From 1220 the town received a number of murage grants (Croom 1992, 34) and the stone defences date from this period. The defences included a ditch except on the eastern edge of the town where the steep slopes down to the river made this unnecessary. The defences had five main gates built between 1256 and 1264: Northgate (SA 379); Whitburn gate (SA 380); Hungary/St Mary's Gate (SA 375); Listley Gate at the top of Railway Street (SA 376); and Cow Gate at the top of the Cartway (SA 378). The town defences were separated from those of the castle by a deep moat in the area of the Victorian Market buildings. Barrier Gate (SA 377) stood on the north side of this moat and was joined to the north gate of the castle by a drawbridge.
A few fragments of the town walls survive and the line in some places is reflected in later property boundaries. The line of the defences has been postulated by a number of authors (Bond 1987; Slater 1988 and 1990), but on the eastern side in particular the line of the circuit cannot be exactly located. It is not clear for instance whether the Franciscan Friary was outside the walls or protected by a wall to the north running down to the river as suggested by Bond (1987). Murage grants continued to be given until the 15th century (Watkins-Pitchford 1942) but by the mid-16th century the town walls "are all in ruins" (Chandler 1993, 392). (Buteux 2005)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1053983 , 1367492 , and others
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 114682; 00127; 00375; 00376; 00373; 00377; 00378; 00379; 00379; 11603; 20753.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00374; 00372; 00374; 00424.

Books
- Keith D Lilley, 2017, 'The Norman Conquest and its influences on urban landscapes' in Dawn M Hadley and Christopher Dyer, The Archaeology of the 11th Century Continuities and Transformations (Routledge) p. 30-56
  Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 34
  Duckers, Peter and Anne, 2006, Castles of Shropshire (Stroud: Tempus) p. 33 (slight)
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 24, 83, 84, 88, 93, 243
  Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 25
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 210
  Salter, Mike, 1993, Midlands Castles (Birmingham) p. 33
  Slater, T.R., 1990, 'English medieval new towns with composite plans: evidence from the Midlands' in T.R. Slater (ed), The built form of western cities (Leicester) p. 60-82
  Slater, T.R., 1988, Medieval composite towns in England: the evidence from Bridgnorth, Shropshire (University of Birmingham, School of Geography Working Paper Series 41)
  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 (plan) online copy
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 435
  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
  Rowley, Trevor, 1972, The Shropshire Landscape (Hodder and Stoughton) p. 190
  Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 201-2
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co) p. 240-1
  Bellett, G., 1856, Antiquities of Bridgnorth (Bridgnorth) (history) 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
  Croom, J.N., 1992, 'The topographical analysis of medieval town plans:the examples of Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth' Midland History Vol. 17 p. 16-38
  Watkins-Pitchford, D.W., 1948, 'A visit to Bridgnorth' Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 52 p. 153-178
  Watkins-Pitchford, D.W., 1938, 'Collections for a history of Bridgnorth, Salop: a MS by William Hardwicke' Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 49 p. 199-204
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Hardy, T.D. (ed), 1833, Rotuli litterarum clausarum in turri Londinensi asservati (Record Commission) Vol. 1 p. 421 (grant of timber) online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1891-1916, Calendar of Patent Rolls (1216-1225) p. 239; p. 387; (1225-1232) p. 116; p. 271; (1232-47) p. 19; p. 256 (1247-1258) p. 135; p. 491; p. 579; (1258-1266) p. 511; (1281-1291) p. 197; (1301-1307) p. 56; (1313-1317) p. 284; (1317-1321) p. 55; p. 594 (1321-1324) p. 400; (1367-1370) p. 109; (1381-1385) p. 69; (1405-1408) p. 177 (murage grants)
  - Also see the Gatehouse murage pages for full details of murage grants, petitions and other such.
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 391-2, 393
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1908, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 2 p. 85 online copy; Vol. 4 p. 168 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Haslam, J., forthcoming, A reassessment of the layout and planning of two twelfth-century towns – Ludlow and Bridgnorth, Shropshire. online draft
  Buteux, Victoria, 2005, 'Archaeological assessement of Bridgnorth, Shropshire' in Dalwood, H. and Bryant, V. (eds), The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6 Download online copy

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