Plymouth Town Wall

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Sutton Pryour

In the civil parish of Plymouth.
In the historic county of Devon (Modern Authority of Plymouth; City of, 1974 county of Devon).

C14 stone walls vanished. Single grant of murage in 1378 may not have resulted in much work, but town given large grants of money in 1463 and 1485. PastScape says documentary evidence for town defences built in the 1530's. Main stone rampart and ditch was built in 1643 with six town gates. The wall had been demolished by 1765. A licence to crenellate was granted to 'the King's lieges lately dwelling at Plymouth' in 1404. Nominally to make building fortifications easier a borough charter, with licence to crenellate, was granted by Parliament in 1439. Leland report that the then Bishop of Exeter had started to build a high strong wall next to the castle but is seems unlikely that this work was ever finished.

This site has been described as a;
Urban Defence.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Certain.
Nothing visible remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SX482547

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 437637

Books

Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p48, 71, 118, 203, 222, 228, 230, 256
Higham, Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p136-43
Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report) p92-116
King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p122
Barley, M.W., 1975, 'Town Defences in England and Wales after 1066' in Barley (ed) Medieval Towns in England and Wales (CBA research reports) pp57-71
Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p198
Bracken, 1931, History of Plymouth (Plymouth) p47-8

Journal Articles

Pye, Andrew and Woodward, Freddy, 1996, The historic defences of Plymouth (Exeter Archaeology) p4, 130
Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol46 p142-9
Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' Archaeological Journal Vol138 p215, 218

Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)

Calendar of Patent Rolls (1402-5) p346, 353
The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, Vol11 Henry VI 1432-1445 p278

Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)

Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p109-10

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

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations.

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.

Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get with this site.

¤¤¤¤¤