Lincoln City Wall

Has been described as a Certain Urban Defence

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameLincoln City Wall
Alternative Names
Historic CountryLincolnshire
Modern AuthorityLincolnshire
1974 AuthorityLincolnshire
Civil ParishLincoln

Romen wall remained in commission, with extensions, throughout the Middle Ages, few fragments remain but include the Roman Newport Arch in Bailgate and Stonebow, a medieval gatehouse housing a guildhall on its upper floor, over the High Street. First murage grant in 1225 and frequent others in C13/C14.

Gatehouse Comments

The circuit of the walls never enclosed all the residences of the city even when original built by the Roman's. The medieval city markets and many residences were mainly outside the walls but were defined by ditched embankments and toll bars. Little remains of the walls (except where they form the circuit of the castle or cathedral close). Although murage was collected in the C13/C14 the grants were not as extensive as other cities (notably York) and seem to be often misapplied. However, there was some extension of the Roman Wall in the medieval period when two short sections of walling extended the lower city wall to the river and gates were built at the southern end of Wigford suburb (which was otherwise delineated by the River Witham on the north and west and the Sincil Dyke - a water filled ditch - on the east). Descriptions of the town walls tend to concentrate on the Roman walls and, outside of specialists publications, little attention is given to the medieval adaptations of these Roman walls and gates and the new medieval defences. The city wall is legally protected as numerous scheduled monuments (Old county monument numbers li4; 17, 18, 19, 35, 37,68, 114, 165, 187, 253, 281 – none of these records were reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and currently (July 2013) no online copy of the description is available) and listed building reports. The archaeological databases also reflect this with numerous entries for the defences. It is difficult to find any resource that gives an overall description of all the medieval defences of Lincoln

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSK977715
Latitude53.2292213439941
Longitude-0.540480017662048
Eastings497700
Northings371500
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink
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Latitude 53° 14' 1.31" Longitude 0° 32' 0.42"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 13' 59.7" Longitude 0° 31' 58.54"

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Latitude 53° 14' 1.31" Longitude 0° 32' 0.42"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 14' 7.54" Longitude 0° 32' 7.67"

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Latitude 53° 13' 44.98" Longitude 0° 32' 26.02"

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Latitude 53° 13' 44.98" Longitude 0° 32' 26.02"

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Latitude 53° 13' 44.98" Longitude 0° 32' 26.02"

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Latitude 53° 14' 13.83" Longitude 0° 32' 17.48"

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Books

  • Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 88-91
  • Osborne, Mike, 2010, Defending Lincolnshire: A Military History from Conquest to Cold War (The History Press) p. 30, 50
  • Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) passim
  • Stocker, D. (ed), 2003, The City by the Pool (Oxford: Oxbow Books)
  • Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 57
  • Colyer, C., Gilmour, B.J.J. and Jones, M.J., 1999, The Archaeology of Lincoln Vol VII–2: the defences of the Lower City (CBA Research Report 114)
  • Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 143-4
  • Jones, Michael J., 1993, 'Medieval Lincoln' in Bennett, S. and Bennett, N. (eds), An Historical Atlas of Lincolnshire (University of Hull Press) p. 32-3, 139
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus and John Harris; revised by Nicholas Antram, 1989, Buildings of England: Lincolnshire (Harmondsworth) p. 440
  • 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. 266
  • 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 plan p. 64 download/view online
  • Colyer, C., 1975, Lincoln: The Archaeology of an Historic City (Lincoln: Lincolnshire Archaeological Trust)
  • Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 119-20
  • Hill, F., 1948, Medieval Lincoln (Cambridge Univesity Press) p. 3-9, 120
  • Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co) p. 230-1
  • King, Edward, 1804, Munimenta antiqua or Observations on antient castles (W.Bulmer and Co) Vol. 3 p. 137-9 online copy
  • Grose, Francis, 1785 (new edn orig 1756), Antiquities of England and Wales (London) Vol. 3 p. 128-9 online copy

Antiquarian

  • Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England  (Sutton Publishing) p. 292-4
  • Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 29-31 online copy

Journals

  • Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
  • Jones, M.J., 1980, 'The defences of the upper Roman enclosure' Archaeology of Lincoln Vol. 7
  • Reynolds, N.M., 1979, 'Saltergate' in C Colyer and M J Jones (eds), 'Excavations at Lincoln: second interim report: excavations in the lower town 1972-8' Antiquaries Journal Vol. 59 p. 84-9
  • Colyer, C., 1975, 'Excavations at Lincoln, 1970-72: the western defences of the lower town: an interim report' Antiquaries Journal Vol. 55 p. 227-66
  • Thompson, F.H. and Whitwell, J.B., 1973, 'The gates of Roman Lincoln' Archaeologia Vol. 104 p. 129-207
  • 1973, Medieval Archaeology Vol. 17 p. 169 download copy
  • Petch, D.F., 1962, 'Excavations at Lincoln, 1955-58' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 117 p. 40-70
  • 1959, The Journal of Roman studies Vol. 49 p. 109-11
  • Richmond, I.A., 1946, 'The Roman City of Lincoln' The Archaeological Journal Vol. 103 p. 25-6 online copy

Primary Sources

  • Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1891-1916, Calendar of Patent Rolls (1216-1225) p. 518-9; (1247-1258) p. 203; p. 652; (1266-1272) p. 188; p. 510; (1281-1291) p. 243; (1321-1324) p. 50; (1334-1338) p. 529; (1343-1345) p. 553 (murage grants)
  • CPR (1266-72) p. 270; Rotuli Hundredorum (Record Commission) Vol. 1 p. 314-15, 322, 345-6, 398-9; CPR (1324-27 p. 236 (misuse of murage) online copies of CPR
  • - < >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

  • Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk East Midlands Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 31, 32 online copy
  • Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk East Midlands Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 32, 33 online copy
  • English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 32 online copy
  • English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 32 online copy
  • Stocker, David, 2013 Feb 9, Defending the City (Paper give Lincolnshire Castles and Towers Day Conference at Horncastle for the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology)
  • English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 44 online copy
  • English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 35 online copy
  • English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 East Midlands (London: English Heritage) p. 43 online copy
  • Ambrose, T.M., 1978, The Stonebow and the Guildhall (LCC Museums Info Sheet 2) (unpublished)