Ending Speculation on Town Defences

For the first time since the March 2020 virus-related hiatus, the History Club reconvened this evening. Tonight's meeting was via Zoom and, as you might expect, there was a little comedy while people less used to video calls managed to feel their way. Many forgot to mute themselves and this resulted alternately in sounds like a flushing lavatory and echos akin to someone shouting down a tunnel after a lost dog. One couple busied themselves in their kitchen. Another were acting out an ordinary evening in their living room without realising we all could hear them. There was an early interruption by telephone, as a guest couldn't connect. Still, there were 50 connections logged on and the organiser suggested this represented about 70 people. Quite reasonably, the organisers deemed the first virtual meeting a success.  

Town Defences—an introduction

Presenter Gareth Evans explained that over several hundred years the town's defences were portrayed in a somewhat negative light, as no one could actually prove their existence. It was one of Rhuthun/Ruthin's Wardens, the Ven. Richard Newcombe, who apparently in the 19th century postulated that the de Greys built a castle, then a town and it made absolute sense that this would have been fortified. de Gey would need to house his followers and those who provided services for the castle, all in a safe environment, while surrounded by people who, basically, were hostile. It was a given that they would need defending. 

In more modern times, Prof Ian Jack began to piece the story together but it actually took till Evans himself considered the evidence that it seemed so compelling. He had been fascinated by the shallow & steep street levels on each approach to the Square which, he said, were unexplained by highway works. He demonstrated that these changes in levels were related to the defences. Or, they showed where they once were.

First Town Defences

Evans suggested that the blue line on his plan represented the original defences. Starting at Clwyd Street, there was a 4′ difference in height at the Boar's Head beer garden. Such a jump had a reason. The defences ran to the church gates, a line of power separating the lordship from the church. It then ran around the rear of the plots on Castle Street and the height difference again became visible at the Wine Vaults, where the buildings are visibly much higher than the land beneath (the car parks). Thereafter, the evidence for the defences ran on to Well Street where, again, the land was at different heights, visible at the backs of Capel Pendref and Siop Nain. Across the road, opposite, there is a gap between buildings, denoting the passage of the defences, according to Evans. 

Differences in floor height along the passage to the Boar's beer garden

The defences then moved to the rear of Costa, where it took an unexpected detour. This Evans explained away by suggesting that the de Greys made a deal with his Welsh neighbours to include some of the old town in the new defended borough (perhaps they were able to contribute taxes to help with construction).Thence, the line moved straight to the post office. Evidence here was the height difference between the Castle Hotel and Market Street car park and also through the gap next to Gayla House. It continued to the castle. There had been later changes when the de Greys but the large fortified Lord's Garden as a kitchen garden. It ran to Upper Clwyd Street where there was again evidence of a height change. Some of these changes in height were accompanied by high walls. These tracked where the initial earth mound & ditch defences once were.  

Or, cynics might argue, perhaps it was just a change in the topography of the town. Or, maybe, the town defences simply followed a natural line.

Castellene

According to one document, Evans stated that the area of castle Street nearest the castle was known as Castellene. Perhaps this was because of the old name for Record Street, which was Castle Lane. Evans, however, felt that Castellene was a word that described a fortified gateway or fortified place (as one would expect leading to the castle). This area was at the end of the defences. The Castellene was accompanied by curves and impressive stonework consistent with a gateway.

With the establishment of St Peter's in 1310, de Grey would not have spent a fortune on the area without defending it. There is evidence of the defences in the height changes on Prior Street, between the church land and Prior Street. 

Differences in floor height along Castellene

A feature throughout of the changes in height was the development either side of it. The 'outside' was developed much later than the packed development inside. 

The Fossus

Evans suggested that there was a second line of defence built in 1407, shown in blue, above, as a deterrent to the latter skirmishes at the time of Owain Glyndŵr. The original defences would at this stage have suffered erosion. The third generation of the de Greys exacted a tax to shore up and build anew. The town had also grown.

What resulted was a 'fossus', no doubt derived from the Latin fosaa. There was, for example, a bank on the castle side of Clwyd Street and further differences in both height & development differences either side of where the fossus had originally been. The hypothesis was supported during utility works in Clwyd Street exposing an area that appeared to have been trampled above what was believed to be underpinning medieval stonework, again suggesting a fossus. Over a 16 yard length, the height difference was a 16′ difference and this increased to 20′ in parts. 

The fossus did not go around St Peter's but to the former tithe barn and the gardens of The Cloisters (the Warden's garden). The fossus probably also ran along the cut to Market Street car park street, known as Mound Street (sic) after, well, a mound. It may have ran along the car park to Crown House, again with the evidence of height variations and differences in development. It crossed Well Street at the Manor House, where the road is between a flat and steep section. It then turned at the rear of the former council offices (the former Cross Keys, now an arcade) where, again, there is that difference in height. up to the Castellene where it would have joined the castle.