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![[Chester]](chester.jpg)
Chester
THIS SITE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION
[This is an extension of the Grobius Shortling Web Page "Castles,
Stone Circles, and Ancient Monuments." All the places listed here have been
personally visited, and any factual errors or wrong-headed opinions are my own
fault. --Grobius Shortling, Jan 1998]
Most towns and cities of any significance were fortified with gatehouses and
a surrounding wall, some dating back to Roman times. Such remains have fared
very badly in Britain compared to the Continent. Most were removed in the 18th
and 19th centuries (when there was no longer any need for them, but before there
was much of a conservation movement) because they hindered traffic and blocked
access to the expanding suburbs. Every place that had town walls has at least a
fragment or two left, often a gatehouse standing all alone in a traffic island
-- such were convenient for converting into jails, records offices, and the
like, and tended to be fairly elaborate, hence objects of local pride. Towers
and walls fared less well, because there was no use for them -- and they
required maintenance nobody was willing to pay for. Portions of town walls that
still exist tend to surround cathedral precincts, where some sort of isolation
was still required.
There are, however, enough remains to justify a
separate web page for the subject. There is something 'snug' about a town wall
that is attractive if you have a certain personality, and what remains is an
interesting study in itself as a sidelight to castles in general -- castles
based in towns always had a town wall associated, so to see the castle without
the rest can be misleading as to its purpose.
- BATH (Roman Aquae Sulis) -- Yes, elegant, Georgian Bath, the
elegant Roman spa of Aquae Sulis, actually had a town wall in the middle ages.
There is one remnant, and that's it. It never even had one in Roman times --
didn't need it, because any civilized person would never attack it. Fallacious
reasoning, so it actually got a wall at some point in time. The city is, in
fact, very strategically located as far as roads, rivers, and other aspects of
its siting are concerned, but it started as a spa and basically has remained
one throughout its history -- and spas do not get major castles or significant
town-wall protection. Harrogate, Buxton, and Cheltenham never had any
fortifications at all to speak of, and never needed them. Bath, however,
behind its wonderful Georgian facade is one of the most historic places in
Britain, so it is pleasing to know that a wall was part of the heritage.
- BERWICK-UPON-TWEED -- There are some medieval bits remaining, because this
was always a strategic city in Scots/English history, but the glory of the
place is its Elizabethan town walls and bulwarks, built for artillery, with
20-foot thick earthen embankments faced with stone and arrow-shaped flanking
bastions. No town similar to this exists in Britain -- you have to go to the
Netherlands for something similar. If you like 16th-17th Century
fortifications based on the principles of the master Vauban, this is the place
to go. (St. Augustine's Castle in Florida is built on similar lines; there are
also Fort George in Scotland and Tilbury Fort on the Thames. But none of these
are 'walled towns' even if they are big enough to hold a town.)
- CAERNARFON (Wales) (Roman Segontium) -- A massive castle, built as
the administrative center of Edward I's conquered province of North Wales,
with a tidy little walled town attached to it (to house the English
bureaucrats, probably). Beautifully situated, well kept-up, not ruined by
development -- although the area where the castle/town abutted on a tidal
estuary has been paved over to make a gigantic parking lot for tour buses,
which kind of spoils things from that point of view -- but left the town
itself pretty much traffic free. Although they are intact, the town walls are
not very impressive, in fact serving mainly as the precinct wall of a very
large outer bailey to the castle.
- CANTERBURY (Roman Durovernum) -- Half of the circuit still exists,
wrapping from the Castle up around to the Cathedral precincts, with wall
towers, but no gatehouses any more (torn down to make wider roads). There is a
ring road where the moat used to be, and the walls make convenient backsides
to large parking lots. Pity. On the other side of town, which is less
developed in the way of suburbs, where one could have expected the wall to
survive, it didn't, except for the very fine West Gate (which was used as a
prison and survived only for that reason).
- CHESTER (Roman Deva)-- Almost totally intact, and hence a great
tourist attraction. Very nice, but not especially remarkable except for the
King Charles Tower (where Chas. I watched his army being defeated at Rowton
Moor) and the really neat-looking East Gate, built in 1769 in place of the
original gatehouse. The north side, along the canal which looks like a moat,
is the most interesting part. (Click here for a portmanteau
shot of that.)
- CHICHESTER (Roman Regnum) -- No castle, but old Roman town walls;
they worked for 2000 years, because the place was never one that suffered
invasions and sieges and rebellions and any of that; the port of Bosham nearby
is where Canute defied the tides (sarcastically)-- that's where my father
parked his car at low tide and came out of the pub to find it inundated up to
the windows, wondering at first why people were laughing and snapping pictures
until he saw what had happened; Bosham never even needed a castle, but at one
time it was one of the most important ports in the British Roman Empire,
certainly more interesting than the nearby Bognor-Regis (made Regis by George
V's publicists to humanize him as being interested in seaside resorts--on his
deathbed, he is reputed to have said 'bugger Bognor'--good for him: the place
is appalling). A Roman city, the original wall still exists as a 'precinct'
marker (picture),
although there is very little masonry left. In effect, it is now a high
embankment with a very pleasant pedestrian path on top of it. No gatehouses
remain.
- CONWY (Wales) -- Another one of Edward I's colonial suppression towns.
Compared to Caernarfon, which was built later after the province had been
subdued and was designed to impress more than oppress, this is much more
businesslike as a fortification. There are countless tall and threatening
towers both in the castle and the town walls. One of the best medieval sites
in Britain. The town itself within these impressive walls is rather grubby
compared with the almost suburbanite neatness of Caernarfon -- but then this
was always a garrison and trading town, with a good harbor and access to the
wild interior of Snowdonia.
- DENBIGH (Wales) -- Now this is a real working-class Welsh town,
impressively sited on a large hill, surrounded by a weak but mostly complete
town wall, and commanded by a very large and grim castle built by one of the
powerful Norman Dukes. The castle is very badly ruined (by Cromwell or one of
his cronies), the town is a major center of unemployment and economic
depression, and the surrounding countryside is rather rural and boring from a
tourist and sightseeing point of view -- but it has the redeeming feature of
having something like 30 pubs.
- LONDON (Roman Londinium)-- Obviously, London was the biggest walled
city in Britain. The walls and gatehouses (except for their names, like
Newgate, Bishopsgate, etc.) are long gone. There are, however, some bits
remaining, like one twenty-foot high stretch near the Tower of London. The
area in the northwest was heavily bombed in World War II and a lot of the old
Roman/Medieval wall came to light, having been built into the backs of
warehouses and office buildings. A lot of that has now been left out in a
pleasant environment of duck ponds and walkways in the Barbican high-rise
development (which a lot of people hated, but I kind of like).
- RYE -- A fine gatehouse dating from the reign of Edward III and the
keep-like Ypres tower on the other side of town are all that remain, even
though the town is compactly sited on its hill. It could have kept its walls
for a better appearance (but they were probably never very substantial) -- in
any case, this attractive town doesn't really need them; the gatehouse, tower,
and fine church, as well as the wonderful houses and pubs, provide enough.
- SOUTHAMPTON (Roman Clausentum) -- More than half of the circuit
survives, including some gatehouses and an interesting stretch of wall
liberally provided with arrow slits, etc. I haven't been there in years, so I
can't really describe it properly -- this will be updated if I ever get back
there again.
- TENBY (Wales) -- I never spent any time here, except to drive through it
and look at the peculiar town gate, which is a round tower with three
archways. It is on this page to publicize the Walled Towns Web Site that is
headquartered here.
- WAREHAM -- An Anglo-Saxon burgh town (one of Alfred the Great's
strongholds built to protect against the Danes) surrounded by a massive
earthen embankment. Included here to provide an alternative to the medieval
model (because it was a communal defense and not a "ghetto" as the Norman
towns were to some extent, in that they warded off the countryside as opposed
to being a kernel or core part of it), and also because if you go there you
can see the very fine monument to Lawrence of Arabia in a Saxon chapel
attached to the 'walls'.
- YORK (Roman Eboracum)-- This city vies with Chester as being 'the
best walled city in Britain'. Both were major Roman legionary cities. It is
larger than Chester and has more wall left, but Chester's is "prettier" being
built of red sandstone whereas York uses a very drab gray limestone. The
gatehouses of York are particularly impressive, as is its cathedral, Roman
displays, railway museum, and the incomparable Heritage museum in the castle.
Walking the city walls of York is a must, but only as a sidelight to a visit
to this must-see place.
Almondsey Island is noted for its walled towns
(These plans are 'pristine' in that they do not show modern and suburban
development. The keys have been omitted as irrelevant as these drawings are just
as effective as decoration. Needless to say, Almondsey and its walled towns, is
totally imaginary -- regretfully.)
OTHER LINKS
WALLED TOWNS There actually
is a guild to connect all the walled towns of Europe on the Internet. This is a
great idea, although the last time I checked not all the members had set up web
pages to link to.
NOTES
