Macclesfield Town Defences
Has been described as a Certain Urban Defence
There are no visible remains
| Name | Macclesfield Town Defences |
| Alternative Names | |
| Historic Country | Cheshire |
| Modern Authority | Cheshire |
| 1974 Authority | Cheshire |
| Civil Parish | Macclesfield |
No remains of medieval earthen ramparts. (Bond)
About the year 1100, the town was fortified, and we find that whilst it continued the residence of the Earls of Chester it was surrounded by a rampart, or walled fence, which had three principal gates, called, respectively, Jordangate, Chestergate, and Wall, or Wellgate, which names are still retained although no vestiges of the gates remain. The former, it is said derived its title from Jordan de Macklesfield living here in 1347, one of a family of Stayley, who held considerable property in this Chapelry, and the proper name of the river in this part, is by some considered to be the Jordan, but we find no mention of it under this title. The question is not very easy of solution, unless we suppose the stream flowing through Macclesfield and Sutton to be called the Jordan till its juncture with the Shrigley Brook, which perhaps, originally might be called the Bollin, giving name to Bollington and afterwards styled "The Dean," but certainly so called before 1470, as the name of Dean Row then occurs. The second gate was so called from being the principal entrance from the Chester side of the Borough. Wallgate seems to be a corruption, and the name derived from the Town Wall, or, as others assert, from a very ancient well, which formerly supplied water to the inmates of the Castle which stood here in the Fifteenth Century. (Finney)
Not scheduled
Not Listed
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SJ920740 |
| Latitude | 53.2607383728027 |
| Longitude | -2.12702989578247 |
| Eastings | 392000 |
| Northings | 374000 |
