That the new bank was Henry II.'s work we may conjecture from the passages in the Pipe Rolls, which show that between the years 1166 and 1173 he spent about £30 in enclosing the city of Canterbury and making a gate. We are therefore not without grounds for concluding that Henry II. was the first to enlarge the city by taking in the Dane John, cutting through the ancient bailey, and at the same time enclosing a piece of land for a new stone castle.
The passages from the Pipe Roll bearing on this subject (which have not been noticed by any previous historian of Canterbury) are as follows :
1166-7. In operatione civitatis Cantuar. claudendae … £5 19 6
Ad claudendam civitatem Cantuar. … 20 0 0
1167-8. Pro claudenda civitate Cantuar. … 5 1 1
1168-9. In terris datis Adelizae filie Simonis 15 solidos de tribus annis
pro escambio terrae suae quae est in Castello de Cantuar. … 0 15 0
1172-3. In operatione turris ejusdem civitatis … 10 0 0
In operatione predicte turris … 53 6 8
Summa denariorum quos vicecomes misit in operatione turris … 73 1 4
1173-4. In operatione turris et Castelli Chant. … 24 6 0
In operatione turris Cantuar. … 5 11 7
1174-5. Et in warnisione ejusdem turris … 5 8 0
The latter extract, which refers to the provisioning of the keep, seems to show that it was then finished. The sums put down to the castle, amounting to about £4000 of our money, are not sufficient to defray the cost of so fine a keep. But the entries in the Pipe Rolls relate only to the Sheriffs accounts, and it is probable that the cost of the keep was largely paid out of the revenues of the archbishopric, which Henry seized into his own hands during the Becket quarrel.
The very small sum paid for the city gate (11s., equal to about £11 of our money) suggests that the gate put up by Henry II. was a wooden gateway in the new stockaded bank. The stone walls and towers which were afterwards placed on the bank are of much later date than his reign. (Armitage)
CANTERBURY 6150 1575. Borough and civitas 1086. Mint before 924-1154. Roman city. Seat of kings of Kent. Significant urban centre and an archbishopric from 597 (BF, p. 128; Darby, p. 365). See also Fordwich, Kent (q..v). Market town c.1600 (Everitt, p. 474). Fair 1587, Tues in Whit week; 27 Jul; 29 Sept; 29 Dec (Harrison, pp. 394-7). (Letters, S., 2003, Gazetter of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (Centre for Metropolitan History) online copy)