Devizes Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Vyes

In the civil parish of Devizes.
In the historic county of Wiltshire.
Modern Authority of Wiltshire.
1974 county of Wiltshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU00096151
Latitude 51.3521° Longitude -2°

Devizes Town Defences has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Site of Devizes town ditch, which consisted originally of a rampart with outer ditch, the latter having been filled in 1538. Three gates are known to have existed. None of these features are extant. The defences formed two circuits, the position of which is still clear in town layout.

Two records of sections through the town defences survive. Cunnington in 1945-7 measured the ditch at the gasworks on the northern side at 25feet wide by 7 ft deep (7.6m x 2.1m). In 1974 the Wiltshire Archaeological Society recorded an excavated section south of Hare and Hounds Street (Haslam 1980). Here the ditch had a wide V-shaped profile with a rounded base, was at least 3.1m deep and over 7m wide at the top. Only slight traces of the inner rampart remained beneath the gardens inside the ditch. Neither the construction nor the infilling of the ditch is dated, although it had clearly occurred by the early 18th century, and whilst Haslam postulates a 16th or 17th century date, with a Civil War recut, there is little positive evidence for this. (Urban Survey Devizes)

Sources of information, references and further reading

English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 216242.
County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) SU06SW450.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 60
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 24, 30, 39, 67, 158, 214, 257
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Wessex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 90
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 503
  Barley, M.W., 1975, 'Town Defences in England and Wales after 1066' in Barley (ed) The plans and topography of medieval towns in England and Wales (CBA Research Report 14) p. 57-71 download/view online
  Stone, E.H., 1920, Devizes Castle: its History and Romance (Devizes) esp p. 32-4, 158-60
Periodical Articles
- Hughes, Quentin, 1987, 'English Civil War fortifications' Fort Vol. 15 p. 59
  Haslam, J., 1980, 'The excavation of the defences of Devizes, Wilts, 1974' Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine Vol. 72-3 p. 59-65 online copy
  Cunnington, B.H., 1945-7, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 51 p. 39-40
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- 2004, The Archaeology of Wiltshire's Towns An Extensive Urban Survey Devizes (Wiltshire County Archaeology Service) online copy

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