Educate. Inspire. Preserve.
Medieval and post Medieval town defences including Old Gannock Gate, Tums Aquilamis, West Bretask, Purfleet to Kettle Hill, The Lake, South Gate, The White Tower, Doucehill Gate, East Gate (St.Catherines Gate), St. Anne’s Gate, East Bretask and North Bretask.
Part of the south eastern defences were referred to as Clay Walls, and my suggest the use of cob or clay walling.
Building work began at Newland with a stone gate.
The earliest defences were called Bishop’s Bretask and consisted of wooden towers situated at the main roads leading into Lynn. They included an earthen rampart and ditch. There was possibly a palisade on the rampart.
Civil War defences were constructed over the earlier Medieval defences..
Parts of a moat survive.
1266 A murage, or special tax, was taken from the people of Lynn for building/repairs to the stone wall.
1271-1350 The town was laid out in a grid plan.
1294 A murage, or special tax, was taken from the people of Lynn for building/repairs to the stone wall.
13th C Medieval defences built, including a stone wall.
1300 A murage, or special tax, was taken from the people of Lynn for building/repairs to the stone wall.
1319 Before: A stone gate was built to the south.
1339 A murage, or special tax, was taken from the people of Lynn for building/repairs to the stone wall.
1360’s c: South Gate and East Gate existed with gate keepers.
1587 Boundaries built.
1642-1651 Civil War: Bastions were added to the walls.
1643 The town was besieged by Parliament for three weeks, and then it surrendered.
1978 Field Investigation.
1998 Desk Top Assessment.
2001 Trial Trenching.
2005 Scheduling updated.
2009 Scheduling updated.
2012 Watching Brief.
2015 Excavated.
The whole town on the land side is encompassed by a deep, wet foss, formally defended by nine bastions, and flanked by a strong, embattled wall, of which latter, extensive ruins still remain, together with the South Gate, a fine Gothic tower with a lofty pointed archway for carriages, and a smaller one for foot passengers.
Near the foss, on the east side of the town, is an octagonal tower, called The Lady’s Chapel, and standing on a conical mound called the Red Mount – perhaps a corruption of Rood Mount, and no doubt formally used for military as well as ecclesiastical purposes…. White 1836
See also,
White. W. 1836. History Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk, and the City and County of the City of Norwich. William White.