Oxford city walls

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Oxford city walls
Oxfordshire

Wall and bastion in the garden of New College
Type: City walls
Location
Grid reference: SP510063
Location: 51°45’11"N, 1°15’41"W
City: Oxford
History
Built 1226-1240
Information
Owned by: Privately owned

Oxford city walls are the remains of a defensive wall which encircled the mediæval town of Oxford, Oxfordshire. Built from 1226 the walls enclose an area of some 120 acres with a circumference of approximately two miles. Built in stone, the curtain walls were castellated and pierced with over twenty-five bastions.

The walls were a development of an earlier defensive system begun under the Saxons in response to Viking incursions in the 9th and 10th centuries. They featured a relatively rare example of concentric walling which may derive from examples in the near East or North Wales examples. During the Civil War the walls were supplemented by an array of earthen field defences. The remnants of the walls are a scheduled monument[1] and incorporate some twenty-seven Grade I listed structures.

History

Anglo-Saxon Oxford would likely have derived protection from a ditch-earth-timber defensive structure.[2] The Anglo-Saxon defensive system is referenced in the Domesday Book,[3] where the town is described as a 'civitas', with dwellings "within as well as without the wall".[4] Some archaeological research suggests that the Saxon wall may have been topped with a stone revetment.[5] In addition to uncertainty around the structure and composition of the Saxon defences, there is wider debate around the development and extent of the burh that was established at Oxford. Jeremy Haslam, of Leicester University, in a paper published in 2010, has argued that the development of the burh took place somewhat earlier than was accepted for most of the 20th century, as part of a Saxon strategic response to Viking incursions.[6] Excavations at Oriel College in 2024 appear to support the view that the Saxon town was also built to a square plan, "following the model of walled Roman towns such as Winchester".[7] In a later paper, published in 2021 following excavations at Oxford Castle, Haslam contends that the "rampart core" of the defences, comprising gravel, soil and turf, was strengthened by a stone wall.[8] In the same paper, Haslam considers the argument that the St George's Tower of Oxford Castle, previously considered to be Norman, has its origins in the Saxon defences, perhaps as the gatehouse for the West Gate into the city.[9]

In the early 13th century, the Saxon wall was replaced with an encircling curtain wall wholly in stone, enclosing the core of the mediæval city.[10] Defensive bastions were placed at multiple points on the wall to enable defenders to direct flanking fire at attackers. The wall incorporated four main, and a number of minor, gates. The major four, aligned to the cardinal points had toll-roads which met at Carfax in the centre of the city.[11] The walls, when fully extant, formed a roughly rectangular shape, reflecting the greater size of the mediæval town when compared with the Saxon settlement. The walls ran along the southern line of George Street, Holywell Street and Broad Street in the north; by New College and the Botanic Garden in the east; along the boundaries of Merton College and the great quadrangle of Christ Church to the south; and Castle Street and the castle to the west.[12]

Funding for the construction and maintenance of the walls was through a system of taxation known as murage. In the 11th century, this saw some 210 householders in the town, owners of what were termed "mural mansions", carry responsibility for raising funds for the wall. In return, the owners were granted exemption from all other taxes and obligations, with the exception of feudal military service.[5] In a paper of 1990 Hilary Turner sought to identify the "mural mansions" within the city, dated to a writ of 1227 issued by the Sheriff of Oxford demanding support for the maintenance of the wall.[13] This source of funding proved inadequate to support the major rebuilding of the walls carried out between 1226 and 1240, and was supplemented, and eventually superseded, by a system of tolls (taxes) levied on goods being brought into the city.}}[5]

The town's seal, dating from 1191 and the oldest in England, depicts the burgh as a "triple-towered walled city with an ox superimposed".[14] In a review of Oliver Creighton and Richard Higham's Mediæval Town Walls, published in the archaeology journal Antiquity in 2006, Jane Grenville of the University of York considers the authors' argument on the importance of symbolism to a town's mediæval governors, and that a desire to construct, in stone on earth, their vision of a multi-towered, walled, Jerusalem in heaven, was often an important motivation in the construction of a town's defences.[15] In 1542 the town was granted city status.[16] Its expansion, and the declining need for defence, saw the deterioration of the walls, and their demolition in some places, and the destruction of the city gates. South Gate had already been pulled down by Cardinal Wolsey as part of his development of Cardinal College (now Christ Church) in 1525. West Gate followed in 1600.[10] In 1642, when Charles I relocated his capital to Oxford, the inadequate state of the city walls made it necessary to undertake construction of additional field defences, on the ditch-and-rampart model, to provide security.[17] In an echo of the earlier fundraising approaches, the king ordered that all men of the city aged between 16 and 60 devote one day a week to unpaid labour on the works, or pay a fine of one shilling. Defaulters were to be expelled from the city.[5] The extent of the Civil War earthworks is shown in a plan of the fortifications drawn up by Bernard de Gomme, the king's military engineer who likely also designed them.[18] The 18th century saw further decline in the condition of the walls; the North and East Gates were demolished in 1772, much of the walling was converted into garden features for the university's colleges, and the bastions were inhabited as tenements.[3][10]

Following a tradition established at the foundation of New College in 1379, the college, which owns the best-preserved sections of wall in the city, must submit to a triennial inspection of the walls by the Lord Mayor of Oxford and a delegation of councillors. [19]

Architecture and description

The walls are constructed in local rubble stone with some ashlar dressings. The bastions are hollow - having no inner walls.[20] Many have traditional merlons with loopholes to allow for the discharge of crossbows.[18] A notable feature of the north-northeast section of the mediæval wall, the position requiring the greatest additional defence as it lacks the natural riverine protection enjoyed by the southern and western sections, was the construction of a secondary wall, outside of the main enceinte. This is thought to date from around the 1280s.[21] Pevsner's Oxfordshire draws comparison with the concentric walling at the Tower of London and at Dover Castle, and suggest that the development reflected the most up-to-date military thinking of the time, drawn from the experience of Constantinople and Arabic castles of the Near East gained by Western European soldiery during the Crusades.[10] Another Western European example is the Cité de Carcassonne, given such defensive double walling some ninety years before the construction of the Oxford mediæval walls.[18] Nicholas Palmer, in a paper on excavations carried out at Hertford College in 1975, suggests an alternative inspiration for the innovation. Noting that the sequence of the earliest concentric castles in North Wales, Rhuddlan, Harlech and Beaumaris, begun in the late 1270s, and that Edward I pressed into service masons and carpenters from across England, including from Oxford, Palmer suggests that the knowledge gained in North Wales may then have been fed back to inspire the burghers of Oxford in their building programme of the 1280s.[21] In his revised Oxfordshire Pevsner, published in 2023, Simon Bradley describes the northern outer wall as "unique among English mediæval town defences".[20]

The wall and bastions are collectively a scheduled monument[22] and include some 27 Grade I listed structures.[23]

Pictures

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Oxford city walls)
  • The wall and bastions depicted in a 1588 illustration
    The wall and bastions depicted in a 1588 illustration
  • Bastion No.12 - an exterior view
    Bastion No.12 - an exterior view
  • Bastion No.14 - an interior view, showing the hollow construction and the rampart walkway
    Bastion No.14 - an interior view, showing the hollow construction and the rampart walkway
  • The wall at New College, perhaps the best preserved section
    The wall at New College, perhaps the best preserved section

References

  1. ↑ National Heritage List 1003648: Oxford city walls (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
  2. ↑ "Oxford Town Wall". Gatehouse Gazetteer. https://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/2962.html. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England 1939, pp. 156–188.
  4. ↑ Sherwood & Pevsner 2002, p. 19.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Chance et al. 1979, pp. 300–304.
  6. ↑ Haslam 2010, pp. 15,33.
  7. ↑ "Historic city's original boundary excavated". BBC News. 10 October 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4q0l3e5x6o. 
  8. ↑ Haslam 2021, p. 253.
  9. ↑ Poore, Norton & Dodd 2009, p. 8.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Sherwood & Pevsner 2002, pp. 300–301.
  11. ↑ "City wall". Oxford History. https://oxfordhistory.org.uk/city_wall/index.html. 
  12. ↑ "Oxford City Walls Walk". Oxford Archaeology. https://www.oxfordarchaeology.com/sites/default/files/2023-09/Oxford%20City%20Walls%20Walk.pdf. 
  13. ↑ Turner 1990, p. 73.
  14. ↑ Chance et al. 1979, pp. 340–342.
  15. ↑ Grenville 2006, Review.
  16. ↑ Chance et al. 1979, pp. 74–180.
  17. ↑ Kemp 1977, pp. 237–249.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England 1939, epub.
  19. ↑ "Mediæval City Walls undergo traditional inspection by Oxford City Council". New College. https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/news/mediæval-city-walls-undergo-traditional-inspection-oxford-city-council. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Bradley, Pevsner & Sherwood 2023, p. 7.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Palmer 1976, pp. 158–159.
  22. ↑ National Heritage List 1003648: Oxford city walls (Scheduled ancient monument entry)
  23. ↑ *Bastion 1, Oxford city walls: National Heritage List 1184380: Bastion 1, Oxford city walls (Grade I listing) National Heritage List 1300145: Wall on south side of St Helens Passage, Oxford city walls (Grade I listing)
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