Thelwall Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Thelwella; Thidewell; Thelowell; Tolwell

In the civil parish of Grappenhall And Thelwall.
In the historic county of Cheshire.
Modern Authority of Warrington.
1974 county of Cheshire.
Medieval County of Cheshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ65538750
Latitude 53.38411° Longitude -2.52237°

Thelwall Town Defences has been described as a Urban Defence although is doubtful that it was such.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

Leland suggested, "not at all conviningly" that town may have been walled. Cullen writes an Anglo-Saxon Burh was order to be built in 919. Bond puts this in his list of burh of no significance after 1066. Turner says did not retain its military importance into late Middle Ages. PastScape records 'Earthwork remains of a bank in the grounds of Chaigeley School - possibly representing the remains of the defences of the burh documented at Thelwall.' Camden records it as walled by tree trunks.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 73074.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 512/0/0.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 157 (mention)
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 269
  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
  Harris, B.E. and Thacker, A.T. (eds), 1987, VCH Cheshire Vol. 1 p. 291
  Cullen, P.W. and Hordern, R., 1986, Castles of Cheshire (Crossbow Books) p. 5
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 250 (placed in Lancs)
  Grealey, S., 1976, The Archaeology of Warrington's Past p. 36, 39, 83
  Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 209
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 2 p. 546-7 (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Angus, W.S., 1938, The English Historical Review Vol. 52 p. 199
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. 269
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 41 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Shaw, M and Clark, J., 2003, Thelwall Archaeological Assessment (Cheshire County Council and English Heritage) 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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