Lincoln City Wall

Has been described as a Certain Urban Defence

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameLincoln City Wall
Alternative Names
Historic CountryLincolnshire
Modern AuthorityLincolnshire
1974 AuthorityLincolnshire
Civil ParishLincoln

Romen wall remained in commission, with extensions, throughout the Middle Ages, few fragments remain but include the Roman Newport Arch in Bailgate and Stonebow, a medieval gatehouse housing a guildhall on its upper floor, over the High Street. First murage grant in 1225 and frequent others in C13/C14.

Gatehouse Comments

The circuit of the walls never enclosed all the residences of the city even when original built by the Roman's. The medieval city markets and many residences were mainly outside the walls but were defined by ditched embankments and toll bars. Little remains of the walls (except where they form the circuit of the castle or cathedral close). Although murage was collected in the C13/C14 the grants were not as extensive as other cities (notably York) and seem to be often misapplied. However, there was some extension of the Roman Wall in the medieval period when two short sections of walling extended the lower city wall to the river and gates were built at the southern end of Wigford suburb (which was otherwise delineated by the River Witham on the north and west and the Sincil Dyke - a water filled ditch - on the east). Descriptions of the town walls tend to concentrate on the Roman walls and, outside of specialists publications, little attention is given to the medieval adaptations of these Roman walls and gates and the new medieval defences. The city wall is legally protected as numerous scheduled monuments (Old county monument numbers li4; 17, 18, 19, 35, 37,68, 114, 165, 187, 253, 281 – none of these records were reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and currently (July 2013) no online copy of the description is available) and listed building reports. The archaeological databases also reflect this with numerous entries for the defences. It is difficult to find any resource that gives an overall description of all the medieval defences of Lincoln

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSK977715
Latitude53.2292213439941
Longitude-0.540480017662048
Eastings497700
Northings371500
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

Castlefacts3