MONUMENT NO. 65975

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The Medieval town defences of Oswestry were built from 1272 by order of King Edward 1 and were one mile in circumference. The walls were slighted during the civil war, but the gates survive. Excavations in 1973 have recovered the foundations for part of the walls.

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The town walls of Oswestry were built in 1272 by
order of King Edward I, although the first murage grant was
received in 1257. They originally ran from the castle along
Arthur Street, Welsh Walls, English Walls and King Street.
Leland said that the walls were one mile in circumference and
contained no towers, although a deed of agreement of 1782 states
that "the Towne was formerly walled round and had several strong
towers ... and four gateways". (See SJ 22 NE 29 - 32 for
gates)

The walls were destroyed after the Civil War, but the gates
survived. (1-3)

A section of the town walls was observed in 1973 on English
walls at SJ 29012947. The wall was reported as being seven feet
thick. (4)

Part of the walls was uncovered in June 1973 by excavations for
new premises for Messrs Mumford near the Golden Tankard public
house. The wall was plotted on the OS 1:500 town plan (1874).
The plan shows the line of the wall as found, and what the
position of the wall would have been if it had continued on the
same line towards the New Gate. This line seems to show that
the buildings inside the wall were set out parallel to the wall
and not, as one would have expected, at right angles to the
street. (5)

No trace of the town walls or of the gates survive. The site of
the walling observed in 1973 is now occupied by a modern
building housing a hairdressing salon. (6)

Murage grants to meet the cost of fortifying towns were first recorded in 1230 but it was not until 1257 that a `muragium' or `wall tax' was obtained for five years to build a wall around Oswestry. It is unlikely that a stone wall could have been built in five years. In 1283, the wall was either damaged in raids or still incomplete, a further twenty years of murage was allowed to complete the wall. (7) An excavation of part of the wall in December 1983 and Jan 1984 was conducted by the Border Counties Archaeological Group and Civic Society with assistance from the Manpower Services. An eight metre length of wall and moat was uncovered, together with a substantial amount of Medieval pottery. (8)

This location falls within the area mapped by RCHME's Marches Uplands Mapping Project, but no traces of the town defences were identified on aerial photographs. (10)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1a) General reference

Leland's Itinerary 2 73

( 1) by Hilary L Turner 1971 Town defences in England and Wales: an architectural and documentary study AD 900-1500

1971 Page(s)207-8

( 2) Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society

(S Leighton) 5 - 1881-2 Page(s)163-5

( 3) General reference

Hist of Oswestry 83 (W Price)

( 4a) General reference

MS 'Oswestry Town Wall' (W J Day)

( 4) Externally held archive reference

Salop Sites & Mons SA 493 (I Burrow 29.9.76)

( 5) Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society

(W Day) 59 - 1973-4 Page(s)278-9

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ASP 05-OCT-79

(7) General reference

Oswestry Town Wall 1981, 4-7 (D. Pratt)

(8) Popular archaeology

Feb 1984 Page(s)5

(9) Council for British Archaeology CBA research reports

Medieval Towns in England and Wales (ed) Barley. 14 - 1975 Page(s)58-9

(10) RCHME/EH Aerial Photographers Comment

RCHME: Marches Uplands Mapping Project

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