View
10
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
The surviving section of the medieval townwall, including the Sandwell Gate, is protectedas a Scheduled Monument and as a Grade IListed Building.
The wall served several functions, primarily as adefence against the Scots during the ScottishWars of the 14th century, but also to highlight theimportance of the town and to act as a coastaldefence, allowing settlement closer to the seafront.
The medieval settlement occupied the western scarpof the Headland, overlooking the future site of theharbour, shifting away from the top ridge occupiedby the Anglo-Saxon monastery of St. Hilda. The townof Hartlepool was founded in the first half of the12th century by the Brus family.
Medieval Hartlepool
Post-Medieval & Present DayThe defence and fortification of the Headlandcontinued after the medieval period. During theEnglish Civil War, earthwork defences wereconstructed to be used in conjunction with cannon.Gun batteries were established to protect fromseaborne attack from at least the 19th century. TheHeugh Battery, a substantial defence and theHeadland’s only other Scheduled Monument, wasbuilt in the early 20th century.
Why was the town wall built?
How was its construction paid for?
The wall was built during the 14th century to defendagainst Robert de Brus and his Scottish army and notby Brus himself as is traditionally assumed. Once ownedby Brus, Hartlepool was in serious danger of attack asthe Scots raided northern England. Following a muragegrant in 1315, a petition from Hartlepool to the King in1319 stated, “...Sir Robert de Brus had granted a truceto... Durham except Hartlepool, which he intended toburn and destroy... the mayor and commons... arebuilding a wall to the best of their power...”
As hostilities with the Scots flared up, so murage grantswere made to Hartlepool by the King and the Bishop ofDurham. These allowed taxes on the sale of goods inHartlepool to be spent on building the wall.
Photo taken of the Sandwell Gate, c.1900
www.teesarchaeology.com
Tees Archaeology, Sir William Gray House,Clarence Road, Hartlepool, TS24 8BT
Tel: 01429 523455Email: teesarchaeology@hartlepool.gov.uk
MedievalHartlepool’s
Town Wall
The History of the Headland’s oldestScheduled Monument
The Headland, HartlepoolThis map shows the position of the town walloverlying a modern map of the Headland.Only the south-facing part of the wall and theSandwell Gate have survived into the modern age,now functioning as a sea defence.
North Gate
Water Gate
Sandwell Gate
FranciscanFriary
Heugh Battery
St. Hilda’s Church
DitchBank
Town Wall
The figure below shows a section through the towndefences, with the earlier bank and ditch in front ofthe town wall. The section (below) has been piecedtogether from excavations along the west-facinglength of the town wall in the grounds of St. Helen’sJunior School in 1982 and on Graham Streetin 1978. Towers of varying shapes and sizes were built
into the wall. Large round towers guarded theharbour entrance, whilst the rest of the wallcontained a mixture of square, circular andsemi-circular towers or bastions, none ofwhich survive today.
Only short historicalaccounts are available,including those bylocal antiquarians.There is no plan of thefortifications of Hartlepoolthat can be fully reliedupon for accuracy.
There were two main phases of defenceof the town, with an initial bank and ditchfollowed by the wall and its towers.
The Headland
Hartlepool
North Sea
N
0 500m
In 1816 Sir Cuthbert Sharp made an engraving ofthe town wall, including the North Gate (above). TheNorth Gate was the main access into Hartlepool andwas demolished along with the rest of the west-facing wall in the mid-19th century. The gate wouldhave been heavily fortified, complete with a portcullis.
The North Gate
Entrance tothe MedievalHarbour
Recommended