Roman Wall - St Leonard's Place, York, UK
N 53° 57.730 W 001° 05.145
30U E 625584 N 5981009
York is famous for its city wall some of which can be walked on. This is just a small section or original Roman Wall. Other parts have been built on by various defenders of the City post the Roman era.
Waymark Code: WMGJD1
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/12/2013
Views: 4
The plaque reads:
Roman Wall
This
ancient wall, a portion of the defences of the
Legionary Fortress of
Eboracum, was built circa
300AD by the Roman Emperor
Constantius
Chlorus, who died in this City in the year
306. He was the
father of Constantine the Great.
The History of York website [visit
link] tells us:
"The city or ‘bar’ walls of York
are the most complete example of medieval city walls still standing in England
today. Beneath the medieval stonework lie the remains of earlier walls
dating as far back as the Roman period.
The Roman walls survived into the
9th century when, in AD 866, York was invaded by the Danish Vikings. The
Vikings buried the existing Roman wall under an earth bank and topped with a
palisade – a tall fence of pointed wooden stakes.
The wooden palisade was replaced in
the 13th and 14th centuries with the stone wall we see today.
The medieval city walls originally
included 4 main gates or ‘bars’ (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and
Micklegate Bar), 6 postern or secondary gates and 44 intermediate towers.
The defensive perimeter stretched over 2 miles encompassing the medieval city
and castle.
By the late 18th century, however,
the walls were no longer required as defences for the city and had fallen into
disrepair. In 1800, the Corporation of York applied for an Act of
Parliament to demolish them. In addition to the poor condition of the
walls at the time, the narrow gateways of the bars were inconvenient and the
walls themselves hindered the city’s expansion.
Many other cities, including
London, were removing their outdated, medieval city walls at this time. In
York, however, the city officials met with fierce and influential opposition and
by the mid-nineteenth century the Corporation had been forced to back
down.
Unfortunately, the call for
preservation came too late for some parts of the walls – the barbicans at all
but one of the gateways (Walmgate Bar) had been torn down along with 3 postern
gates, 5 towers and 300 yards of the wall itself.
Since the mid-nineteenth century
the walls have been restored and maintained for public access, including the
planting of spring flowers on the old Viking embankment. Today the walls are a
Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 listed
building."