Penrith Town Wall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Penereth

In the civil parish of Penrith.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY516301
Latitude 54.66410° Longitude -2.75146°

Penrith Town Wall has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

New post-Conquest medieval defensive circuits, in their final form mainly or wholly of masonry. ? Penerith; C14; Stone walls; Position largely or wholly unknown; Occasional contemporary references only, but sufficient to confirm that defences existed or were planned; no archaeological excavations of defences known. (Bond 1987)

Though it is certain that Penrith was never in a true sense fortified with rampart walls, yet there are traces of a circuit of narrow lanes extending from the castle round the town, in some parts bounded by old substantial walling, and in other places with the house gables and inclosurce so arranged as to resist at all events the entrance of mounted men. The existing names of the main streets indicate the outlets into the country, and the position of the gates or bars, of which there are five, viz., Castlegate, Middlegate, Borogate, Sandgate, Nethergate. (Taylor)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1346 April 10 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4483.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Matthew Emmott's Castles Blog
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 157 (slight)
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 182, 269
  Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29)
  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
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 97
  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
  Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London)) p. 109
  Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 13) p. 189, 196, 219, 500
  Taylor, M.W., 1892, Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland and Cumberland (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 8) p. 250 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 414 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
  Curwen, J.F., 1918, 'Penrith Castle. Some suggestions and notes from the Patent Rolls as an addition to Dr. Haswell's description, contained in these Transactions, N.S., vii' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 18 p. 176 online copy
  Haswell, F., 1907, 'The castle of Penrith' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 7 p. 286-7 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1891-1916, Calendar of Patent Rolls (1345-48) p. 69 (licence to crenellate); (1348-50) p. 175; (1348-50) p. 248-9 (murage grants)
  - Also see the Gatehouse murage pages for full details of murage grants, petitions and other such.
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2006, Extensive Urban Survey - Cumbria (Cumbria County Council) Download copy

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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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