The Tower Hill Postern was a small fortified entrance (postern) at the eastern terminal point to the London Wall, at the junction of the Wall and the Tower of London moat. The size of the gateway indicates that it was suitable for pedestrians and horsemen but not wide enough to accommodate wagons, carts or carriages.
There is no evidence for a gateway on the site earlier than the building erected by Edward I around 1297-1308, and no reason for there to have been a gateway there before the expansion of the Tower of London. There are a number of circumstantial arguments [1] including arguments based on road alignments, records of parochial disputes and indirect references by William Fitzstephen to indicate that there may have been a gateway further south that was replaced when much of the wall was demolished as part of the expansion of the Tower. [2]
The Tower of London moat was dug in around 1270 as part of a scheme to extend the Tower, [3] and part of the London Wall was demolished to make room for the expanded Tower and Moat. The postern at the edge of the moat, at the wall's new terminal point was probably built soon after, [4] most likely in the period 1297-1308. [5] The southern tower, which was built from Caen stone, partially collapsed in either 1431 or 1440, [6] [7] sliding vertically down three metres into the Tower Moat. The tower remained standing and though functionally impaired remained in use. There was a subsequent degree of re-building.
The southern tower included a ground floor and a cellar, thought to have been reached by a ladder. The cellar had a window overlooking the moat. The remains of a stairwell and a portcullis chase indicate that there was an upper floor and perhaps also a parapet on the roof. [8] Nothing is known for certain about the tower north of the gateway except the information that can be gleaned from cartographic sources, all of which postdate the collapse of the southern tower. Some believe that the northern and surviving southern towers existed at the same time, while others think the northern tower was erected subsequently, to compensate for the loss of the southern tower. [9]
The postern was situated in the Tower Liberty, an area outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, which included the Tower itself and the surrounding areas. The area was under the control of the Tower in order that the defensibility of the Tower was not compromised by development leading up to the edge of the castle and its moat. [10] The Tower Liberty is still outside the authority of the City, now forming part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
The foundations of the southern tower, which sunk into the moat, were excavated in 1979 and can be seen in the Tower Hill underpass.
Bodiam Castle is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War. Of quadrangular plan, Bodiam Castle has no keep, having its various chambers built around the outer defensive walls and inner courts. Its corners and entrance are marked by towers, and topped by crenellations. Its structure, details and situation in an artificial watery landscape indicate that display was an important aspect of the castle's design as well as defence. It was the home of the Dalyngrigge family and the centre of the manor of Bodiam.
The London Wall is a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in c. AD 200, as well as the name of a modern street in the City of London, England.
The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built.
Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined medieval castle on the western side of central Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. Most of the original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced in stone in the late 12th or early 13th century and the castle played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy. In the 14th century the military value of the castle diminished and the site became used primarily for county administration and as a prison. The surviving rectangular St George's Tower is now believed to pre-date the remainder of the castle and be a watch tower associated with the original Saxon west gate of the city.
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher ground north-west of the Tower of London moat is now occupied by Trinity Square Gardens.
A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing defenders to make a sortie on the besiegers. Placed in a less exposed, less visible location, they were usually relatively small, and therefore easily defensible.
Manorbier Castle is a Norman castle in Manorbier, 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Tenby, Wales. It was founded in the late 11th century by the Anglo-Norman de Barry family. The castle was part of a mesne lordship under the control of the medieval Earls of Pembroke.
York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. They are known variously as York City Walls, the Bar Walls and the Roman walls. The walls are generally 13 feet (4m) high and 6 feet (1.8m) wide. They are the longest town walls in England.
Jaffa Gate is one of the seven main open gates of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Newcastle town wall is a medieval defensive wall, and Scheduled Ancient Monument, in Newcastle upon Tyne, northern England. It was built during the 13th and 14th centuries, and helped protect the town from attack and occupation during times of conflict. It was approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) long, at least 2 metres (6.5 ft) thick, up to 7.6 metres (25 ft) high, and had six main gates: Close Gate, West Gate, New Gate, Pilgrim Gate, Pandon Gate and Sand Gate. It also had seventeen towers, as well as several smaller turrets and postern gates. The town wall was kept in good repair whilst there was a threat of invasion from Scottish armies, and the town was successfully defended on at least two occasions; but with the decline of the border wars between England and Scotland, the wall was allowed to deteriorate.
Holt Castle was a medieval castle in the village of Holt, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. Work began in the 13th century during the Welsh Wars, the castle was sited on the Welsh–English border by the banks of the River Dee.
Kings Langley Palace was a 13th-century Royal Palace which was located to the west of the Hertfordshire village of Kings Langley in England. During the Middle Ages, the palace served as a residence of the Plantagenet kings of England. It fell into disuse sometime during the 16th century and became a ruin. Today, nothing remains of the building except for some archaeological remains. The site is a scheduled ancient monument.
The city Milan, Italy, has had three different systems of defending walls. The oldest, Roman walls were developed in two stages, the first in the Republican and the second in the Imperial era. The second wall system was realized in the Middle Ages, after the destruction of the city by Frederick I Barbarossa. Finally, the latest wall system was built by the Spanish rulers. While very little remains of these walls, their structure is clearly reflected in the urbanistic layout of the city. In particular, modern Milan has two roughly circular rings of streets, namely the "Cerchia dei Navigli" and the "Cerchia dei Bastioni", which essentially correspond to the Medieval and Spanish walls, respectively. Note that a third ring of roads just beyond the Inner Ring Road, called the External Ring Road, does not owe itself to any old city walls; but was part of the 1884 Beruto Plan for the city of Milan, created and named after a municipal engineer and public servant to the local city government.
God's House Tower is a late 13th century gatehouse into the old town of Southampton, England. It stands at the south-east corner of the town walls and permitted access to the town from the Platform and Town Quay. It is now an arts and heritage venue, and has previously served as the town gaol and housed the Museum of Archaeology. The building is Grade I listed and a scheduled ancient monument.
The Monmouth town walls and defences comprise the defensive system of town walls and gates built in Monmouth, Wales between 1297 and the early part of the following century. Wye Bridge Gate, East Gate, Monk's Gate, and Monnow Bridge Gate were access points to the town. West Gate, across Monnow Street, also provided access. Only the Monnow Bridge Gatehouse survives intact, albeit in a substantially modified version from the original.
The Pusterla di Sant’Ambrogio is a minor or secondary gate in the Medieval walls of Milan; the rebuilt Romanesque-style tower and pedestrian arches is located on Via Carducci #41, near the Castello Cova and some 50 meters west of the entrance of the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio in the center of Milan, region of Lombardy, Italy.
The Rosary was a moated house built by King Edward II of England in Southwark, to the east of the southern end of London Bridge, opposite the Tower of London.
A Zwinger is an open kill zone area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. Zwingers were built in the post-classical and early modern periods to improve the defence of castles and town walls. The term is usually left untranslated, but is sometimes rendered as "outer courtyard", presumably referring to the subsequent role of a Zwinger as a castle's defences became redundant and it was converted into a palace or schloss; however, this belies its original purpose as a form of killing ground for the defence. The word is linked with zwingen, "to force", perhaps because the Zwinger forced an enemy to negotiate it before assaulting the main defensive line. Essenwein states that the "main purpose of this feature was so that the besieging force could not reach the actual castle wall very easily with battering rams or belfries, but had to stop at the lower, outer wall; also that two ranks of archers, behind and above one another, could fire upon the approaching enemy".
Tancred's Tower, known in Arabic as Qasr (al-)Jalud, was a large tower at the northwest corner of the Old City of Jerusalem, of which only meager remains were unearthed by archaeologists.