GATEHOUSE
The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.
 
 
Home
The listings
Other Info
Books
Links
Downloads
Contact
 
Print Page 
 
Next Record 
Previous Record 
Back to list 

Caerwent Town Walls

In the community of Caerwent.
In the historic county of Monmouthshire.
Modern authority of Monmouthshire.
Preserved county of Gwent.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST469905
Latitude 51.61073° Longitude -2.76877°

Caerwent Town Walls has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are major building remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The extensive remains of the Roman city of Venta Silurum are found in the village of Caerwent. The surviving city walls, particularly on the south side, are one of the most impressive Roman monuments in Britain.
The city occupies a low ridge or spur, overlooking the meadows alongside the Nedern Brook. This is at the centre of a valley plain surrounded by hills. There was a settlement or centre of some kind in the later first century AD, but the formal capital was not established until the second century when the east-west road running across the plain was built, possibly as late as the principate of Hadrian. This became a grand city crowded with luxurious private mansions and public buildings, including an amphitheatre. These buildings spilled out beyond the tower-studded walls, which enclosed an area of some 16.5ha. (Coflein)

The monument consists of the remains of Venta Silurum, the most important civilian Roman settlement in Wales and the administrative capital, or civitas, of the Silures tribe. The surviving town walls are among the finest examples of Roman masonry in Britain and it was the standing remains that attracted early antiquaries to the town. In the 16th century William Camden noted 'the ruinous walls, the chequer'd pavements (mosaics), and the Roman coyns', while in the 17th and 18th centuries mosaics were uncovered, and most destroyed. Since 1899 over half of the area within the walls has been excavated with the result that much is known about the layout of the town. The settlement at Caerwent was established in the late 1st century AD, soon after the Roman conquest of South Wales, and was located on the line of the road connecting Gloucester with Carmarthen... The first town defences, built around this time, consisted of an earthen bank and outer ditch, and the road ran E/W through the middle of the town, along the line of the modern road. The Roman road was wider than the modern road, and had gateways at each end. There were also gates on the N and S sides of the town... In the second half of the 3rd century or the first half of the 4th century, the town defences were strengthened, with an external wall built onto the earthen bank and the gateways rebuilt in stone. Around AD 350 towers were added to the N and S walls (6 on the S side, 5 on the N side), and about this time the original defensive ditch was filled in and a new outer ditch dug, and the N and S gates were blocked. The town wall can be best appreciated on the S side of the town, where it is accessible for its entire length from the E to W gateways. These gateways would have been the principal entrances to the town and probably comprised double archways and flanking guard chambers. The S wall stands to a maximum height of 5m and retains much of the original facing stone, in places right to the top. Where the facing stone is missing the roughly coursed rubble core of the wall is visible. The original 2nd century earthen bank was retained after the stone wall was built and would have been surmounted by a wall-walk. The towers built along the N and S walls are semi-octagonal in plan. Most are ruinous, but one on the S wall stands to nearly the full height of the wall and has internal joist holes which demonstrate that it would have been 3 storeys high, containing three windowless rooms. (Scheduling Report)
Comments

It is uncertain what condition the walls were in medieval period but must have still been strong, particularly in earlier periods before the site was quarried for stone building. However the circuit must have been too large for small village and possible ecclesiastical site to defend.
Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >
Coflein   County HER   Scheduling        
Maps >
Streetmap   NLS maps   Where's the path   Old-Maps      
Data/Maps > 
Magic   Historic Wales   V. O. B.   Geology   LIDAR  
Air Photos > 
Bing Maps   Google Maps   Getmapping   ZoomEarth      
Photos >
CastleFacts   Geograph   Flickr   Panoramio      

Sources of information, references and further reading
Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), licensed under the Open Government Licence. 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.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely 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.
Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)
Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

This record last updated 07/07/2016 08:16:18


¤¤¤¤¤