Poole Town Wall
Has been described as a Certain Urban Defence
There are masonry ruins/remnants remains
| Name | Poole Town Wall |
| Alternative Names | |
| Historic Country | Dorset |
| Modern Authority | Poole |
| 1974 Authority | Dorset |
| Civil Parish | Poole |
An embattled gate and wall were erected at the landward approach to the town after a licence was granted in 1433. These defences were considerably strengthened during the Civil War, and were demolished by order of Charles II. The gate stood at the north end of Towngate Street (Smith).
The site of the Town Gate is now built over, but in view of the line of the Town Dyke, it was probably in the area SZ 01249093 (Field Investigators Comments-F1 FDC 03-DEC-51). (PastScape)
The Towngate may date from 1433 when a license for the island's defensive wall was granted from Henry VI who made the town a Port of the Staple. The Towngate was never excavated to any depth to discover its character though the ditch that flanked it was revealed when the station hotel site was excavated.…
Archaeological excavations in the 1970s and 1980s around the church precinct have revealed the origins of settlement and the medieval shoreline. The crenellated 16th century stone wall at the rear of the Mansion House Hotel marks the former shoreline which came up to the rear of buildings on Thames Street until the land was reclaimed in Tudor times.…
All that remains visible, aside from the Town Cellars, of the 16th century waterside structures is the crenulated stone wall up to 1 metre thick, partly in place at the rear of 5 Thames Street on St. Clements Lane. The wall gives an indication of where the shoreline met the land. The wall is identified as “Watergate and Remains of Town Wall” on the 1887 OS Map.…
The town gate area was developed from the 15th century when a license for a wall came with the 1433 grant from King Henry VI, which made it Dorset's Port of Staple and one of only six towns in England to which such permissions were given. As such, a drawing of the castellated Towngate appears at the top of the peninsula where it meets the land, on the first map of the town (probably 1617-1625)
A section of the ditch dug alongside the gate, across the peninsula, which practically made it an island, was found in the 1976 excavation of the Station Hotel site by IP Horsey. A massive stone structure was identified during the construction of the Towngate Bridge in 1970/71 when the engineers uncovered a stone boundary marker and other stone debris. The 1976 excavation of the ditch revealed Victorian building debris evidence of the levelling of the towngate site. (Poole Town Centre Heritage Character Statement)
Not scheduled
This is a Grade 2 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 Reference | SZ012909 |
| Latitude | 50.7302703857422 |
| Longitude | -2.00586009025574 |
| Eastings | 401240 |
| Northings | 90940 |
