Newcastle town wall, curtain south of Close Gate

HER Number:
1510

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle town wall, curtain south of Close Gate

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Defence

Site Type: Broad:
Town Defences

Site Type: Specific:
Town Wall

General Period:
Medieval

Specific Period:
C14

Form of Evidence:
Demolished Building

Description:
Some 36.7 metres of the curtain wall were found to survive from a short distance south of Close Gate to the Riverside Tower. This stretch was built in the mid 14th century across reclaimed land and into the river. At its north end it was 2.05 metres wide, towards the south where it had been remodelled at the time of the addition of the Riverside Tower it was 2.8 metres broad. There was a single chamfered plinth on the outer (west) face. While the extreme north end may have been cut back for road widening in or after 1835 the rest survived to some height until demolition in 1867 when Cookson built a warehouse straddling the wall between the Close and the river. Though there is documentary evidence for a ditch outside the town wall it is uncertain whether archaeological evidence was found for it. As far as is known it survives as excavated, beneath the Copthorne Hotel. SCHEDULED ANCIENT MONUMENT

Easting:
2491

Northing:
6359

Grid Reference:
NZ24916359

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 1510 >> R. Fraser, R. Maxwell & J.E. Vaughan, 1994, Excavation Adjacent to Close Gate, Newcastle, 1988-9, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5, XXII, 85-151 Excavation report,R. Fraser, 1989, Closegate 1 - Museum of Antiquities Tyne and Wear Archive Service, T186 ,2243 Calendar of Common Council Book, Newcastle, 1835, Tyne and Wear Archive Service, 589. , f. 459 Northumberland Records Office, 1835, ZCK - 1.6.3