Melcombe Regis Town Wall

Has been described as a Questionable Urban Defence

There are no visible remains

NameMelcombe Regis Town Wall
Alternative NamesMelcoumbe; Miltoun
Historic CountryDorset
Modern AuthorityDorset
1974 AuthorityDorset
Civil ParishWeymouth

No remains of C14 stone walls and earth banks. (Bond)

A single grant of murage was received in 1338. A petition to parliament in 1379 was unsuccessful. (Turner)

Gatehouse Comments

Leland wrote the town was undefended and razed by the French, so whatever defences there were must have been slight. Three years of murage in a small port is unlikely to have produce sufficient revenue for significant building work. Topographically giving land defences to this penisular of land would not be difficult and there does seem to have been a boundary ditch along the line of Bond Lane called Cunigar or Coneygar Ditch. It seems entirely probably that no defences were ever constructed and the murage grant and petition may have had more to do with rivalry between Melcombe and Weymouth. This feuding was resolved in 1571 when the towns were combined as a single borough. Medieval Melcombe was on the north side of Weymouth harbour in what is now the centre of Weymouth, which originally just lay on the south side of the harbour.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSY678787
Latitude50.6078605651855
Longitude-2.45534992218018
Eastings367800
Northings78700
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

No photos available. If you can provide pictures please contact Castlefacts

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.

Calculate Print

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. 183, 221, 257
  • 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
  • Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 198

Antiquarian

  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England  (Sutton Publishing) p. 134
  • Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 250, 304 online copy

Journals

  • Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86

Primary Sources

  • Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1898, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1338-40) Vol. 4 p. 63 (murage grant) online copy
  • Strachey, J. (ed), 1767-83, Rotuli Parliamentorum; ut et petitiones, et placita in Parliamento (London: Record Commission) Vol. 3 p. 70 (Petition to parliament) (superseded by Given-Wilson, C. (ed), 2005, The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England Access via PROME (subscription required))
  • - < >Also see the Gatehouse murage pages for full details of murage [grants > http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/murage/murindex.html], [petitions > http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/murage/mupindex.html ] and [other such > http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/murage/muaindex.html]. < >

Other

  • Dorset County Council, 2011, Dorset Historic Towns Survey: Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Download copy