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Ilfracombe Town Wall

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Ilfracombe.
In the historic county of Devon.
Modern Authority of Devon.
1974 county of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS525478
Latitude 51.21112° Longitude -4.11289°

Ilfracombe Town Wall has been described as a Urban Defence although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

C15 Stone walls planned but probably never built or never completed. Single grant of murage in 1418.

Grant to the good men of the town of Ilfredecombe, co. Devon, who have begun to build a new stone tower on either side of the port there and to enclose the town with stone walls and high towers, of murage for one year. (CPR dated 15 July 1418)

Although murage was not the only way to fund defences one years grant in a small port would not have raised much money. The much larger and more important town of Barnstaple was, at this time, allowing its defences, which dated back to Saxon times, to fall into decay. Although the Devon coast was subject to some pirate raids defense is not the real issue here. The planned walls have the feel of a, ill considered, local initiative to, superfically, gain trade and more likely gain some prestige for a few local men. However, a pier, with a lighthouse tower would have been a positive asset for the port and this may all that was really intended. St Nicholas Chapel, on Lantern Hill (SS 52514788), is a C15 building which is documented as being used as a lighthouse since C16 - was this chapel/lighthouse the real result of this initiative?
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Sources of information, references and further reading

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.
This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013
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