text: canterbury city walls canterbury city walls are a sequence of defensive walls built around the city of canterbury in kent , england . the first city walls were built by the romans , probably between 270 and 280 ad . these walls were constructed from stone on top of an earth bank , and protected by a ditch and wall towers . at least five gates were placed into the walls , linked to the network of roman roads across the region . with the collapse of roman britain , canterbury went into decline but the walls remained , and may have influenced the decision of augustine to settle in the city at the end of the 6th century . the anglo - saxons retained the defensive walls , building chapels over most of the gates and using them to defend canterbury against viking incursions . the norman invaders of the 11th century took the city without resistance , and by the 12th century the walls were ill - maintained and of little military value . fears of a french invasion during the hundred years ' war led to an enquiry into canterbury 's defences in 1363 . the decision was taken to restore the city walls and for around the next thirty years the old roman defences were freshly rebuilt in stone , incorporating the older walls where they still remained . 24 towers were constructed around the circuit , and over the coming years many of the gatehouses were rebuilt in stone and brick , defended by some of the first batteries of guns in england . parts of the wall were deliberately damaged by parliament during the english civil war of the 17th century and the doors to the city 's gates burnt ; with the restoration of charles ii in 1660 , new doors were reinstalled . during the 18th and 19th centuries , canterbury 's city walls came under extensive pressure from urban development . all the gates but one , west gate , were destroyed and extensive parts of the walled circuit were knocked down to make way for new roads and buildings . german bombing during the second world war caused further damage . despite this , the remaining walls and gatehouse survived post - war redevelopment intact and some portions were rebuilt entirely . over half the original circuit survives , enclosing an area of 130 acres ( 53 ha ) , and historians oliver creighton and robert higham consider the city wall to be " one of the most magnificent in britain " . history 3rd – 4th centuries the first city walls in canterbury were built by the romans . canterbury , then called cantiacorum , was initially probably defended by a small fort but had not required any other civic defences . the security situation in britain deteriorated in the late 3rd century ad and a circuit of defensive walls were built around the city , probably between 270 and 290 . they enclosed an area of 130 acres ( 53 ha ) , cutting off the old industrial parts of the western side of the city , but incorporating a cemetery area to the south - east that had formerly been outside the city boundary . new coastal forts were also built across the region at around the same time , and a headquarters for them may have been established in canterbury . the walls were typically 7 . 5 feet ( 2 . 3 m ) inches thick and built of flint and mortar , with some limited use of larger sandstone blocks . the height of these walls is uncertain , but sections have survived that are up to 20 feet ( 6 . 1 m ) high . the walls stood on a bank of earth between 20 feet ( 6 . 1 m ) and 30 feet ( 9 . 1 m ) wide and at least 7 feet ( 2 . 1 m ) high , protected by a ditch , typically 59 feet ( 18 m ) wide and 16 . 5 feet ( 5 . 0 m ) deep , but in places up to 82 feet ( 25 m ) wide . a 10 feet ( 3 . 0 m ) wide cobbled berm ran between the ditch and the wall . the walls had at least five gates , typically positioned near angles in the city wall , although , judging from the location of roman roads , it is possible that another two roman gates may also have existed . the gates linked to the network of major roads that ran across kent . the riding gate , which took its name from the red bricks with which it was built , had two protective towers and a pair of entrance arches for pedestrians and carriages , as probably did burgate . the worth gate , the london gate and the queningate had simpler entrance arches . a sequence of square towers protected the walls , and at least one additional wall tower was constructed following the saxon invasion of britain in 367 . 5th – 11th centuries during the 5th century , canterbury went into decline and its roman institutions and buildings crumbled , although the city walls survived . in 597 , augustine was sent to kent by pope gregory i to convert the local population to christianity . augustine established canterbury cathedral within the city , possibly because the walled site gave them additional protection or because it was symbolically important as a former roman city . canterbury , now called , prospered and its population and trade increased . much of the land within the walls had become water meadows and farmland , and an palisade may have built around the cathedral and its precinct to form a secure inner stronghold . in the late anglo - saxon period , the internal street layout of canterbury was remodelled , but the line of the outer walls remained the same . a cattle market was created outside the city to the south - east , and newingate , later renamed st george 's gate , was inserted into the walls to allow easy access to it . during this the period the main axis of the city shifted from the older line of streets running from london gate and riding gate , to the new route between west gate and newingate . a lane was built running around the inside of the walls , in a similar way to the intramural streets built around the same time at exeter and winchester . churches and chapels were built over the gates , including st mary 's above the north gate ; the holy cross over west gate ; st michael 's over bargate ; st edmund 's within riding gate ; and , potentially , st george 's chapel over newingate . canterbury 's walls were mentioned by the early chronicler , bede , in his history of england . despite canterbury 's walls , a viking army successfully attacked the city in 835 , killing many of the inhabitants . scandinavian raids recommenced from 991 onwards and in 1011 a danish army demanded fresh tribute from the city . the city walls were used to defend the city during an 11 - day siege , and the chronicler roger of hoveden recounts how the attacking danes were thrown off the tops of the walls to their deaths by the citizens . roger 's account may be an exaggeration , but the story shows that the city walls were in sufficiently good condition for such a story to be considered plausible at the time . after a fire broke out in the city , however , the danes entered and pillaged canterbury . 11th – 13th centuries the inhabitants of canterbury put up no resistance to the normans during their conquest of england in 1066 . william the conqueror instructed that a castle was to be built in the city ; canterbury castle was built on the south side of the city and formed part of the circuit of defence , with property being destroyed to make room for it . despite its location along the walls , historians oliver creighton and robert higham have observed that the castle was not an " addition " to the defences , but more an " imposition " on the town within it . the first timber motte and bailey castle was later abandoned and a second , with a square , stone keep , built in 1123 . the worth gate became the south entrance to the castle site , and a new gate was put into the walls to the east for general use . in 1086 , the domesday book recorded that 11 houses had been built in the ditches around the city walls , which by then appear to have been in a poor condition . the encroachment was possibly the result of population pressures on the inner , walled city , as canterbury had spread out well beyond the walls by the mid - 11th century . it is unclear how the walls were maintained during this period , and by the 12th century they were in ruins and of little practical defensive value . in the late - 12th century , the walls were assigned some limited royal funding through the local sheriff , probably for the maintenance of existing structures , and just over £ 5 was spent in 1166 – 67 on these repairs . wooden " bars " had been placed outside many of the city gates to regulate the flow of traffic by the 12th century , including riding gate , worth gate and north gate . one area of the city beyond the wall , called the , may also have been protected by its own earthworks during the middle of the 12th century . canterbury was divided into wards by the 12th century , although these may potentially have been created as early as the anglo - saxon period . these administrative districts , named after the city gates , were termed and were linked to maintenance and manning of the city walls . the wards took the form of segments , spreading out from the centre of the city , incorporating the relevant gate and sometimes the suburbs beyond that had spread outside the walls . by the 1160s canterbury 's wards included burgate , northgate and newingate , with the wards of riding gate , and west gate being formed by the end of the century . after the 12th century , work on the walls appears to have stopped until the second half of the 14th century . the city walls fell further into disrepair as a result . in some places , over 1 foot ( 0 . 30 m ) of debris came to cover the remaining stonework of the old roman walls , while in another case a building was constructed directly over the top of the former defences . 14th century in the early 1360s , during the hundred years war , there was an increased level of concern about potential french raids or invasion along the south of england . canterbury was particularly important for the defence of the south - east , as it formed a potential barrier to any invaders marching on london . an enquiry was carried out in 1363 into the state of canterbury 's defences , which concluded that the city was in a parlous position , as " the walls of canterbury are for the most part fallen because of age , and the stones thereof carried away , and the ditches under the walls are obstructed " . canterbury 's bailiffs were ordered to repair the walls , with similar instructions being issued to the authorities in vulnerable cities such as colchester , bath and rochester . the result was what historian hilary turner has described as a " well - planned operation " , designed to build the walls rapidly , but which still took around 30 years to complete . the city and the cathedral authorities worked closely together on the project , an unusual situation , given the local political tensions that existed between them . money was needed to pay for this work . during the previous century , a method of taxation had been introduced to support the creation or maintenance of city walls , called murage , which was authorised by the king and applied to trade entering a city . in total , canterbury was assigned 31 years of murage grants for its walls , starting in 1378 , when five years of murage was granted by richard ii , along with a writ allowing them to use stonemasons from across the county . in 1379 , a new 10 - year murage grant was issued . in 1385 , £ 100 from the issues of kent was given to canterbury , and the murage tax extended for a further five years . in the financial year of 1385 – 86 , approximately £ 619 was spent on the walls . despite the walls , during the peasants revolt of 1381 , wat tyler and his army were able to enter canterbury unopposed . 1399 saw another five years of murage granted , followed in 1402 by a final grant of three years . despite this , progress was not fast enough to suit the royal authorities . richard ii ordered the city to force workmen to repair the defences , and intervened in canterbury 's local elections in 1387 to ensure that two trusted bailiffs – henry lincoln and john – were returned to office , in order for the king to have confidence in the walls being maintained . in 1403 , henry iv sent messages to the city complaining that the defences were not being adequately maintained , and that the city was still insecure . 15th – 16th centuries a survey in 1402 suggested that most of the city was walled , except for part of the stretch between the west gate and north gate . in 1409 , the city 's bailiffs were allowed to acquire lands worth £ 20 a year to support the maintenance of the walls , and canterbury was permitted to draw funding from the royal customs duties for the walls . taxes in canterbury gave way to the introduction of support through a system of rates , with each ward being tasked to raise money through local taxes on its citizens . the walls became an important symbol of the city , and 15th - century art from canterbury presents the cathedral and the city wall as having equal status as key features of the city . the resulting circuit of walls followed the line of the former roman and anglo - saxon defences , incorporating them where they survived in good condition . parts of the 14th century walls , for example along burgate lane , have been shown to 4 feet ( 1 . 2 m ) thick at the base and built of kentish ragstone ; other sections incorporated the original roman wall , which was still up to 8 feet ( 2 . 4 m ) high in places . the new walls had a continuous wall walk and were crenellated . most of the circuit was protected by an external ditch . the city walls retained the older system of roman and anglo - saxon gates . west gate was rebuilt around 1380 by the prominent mason , henry yevele , an unusually prominent architect for a city wall programme . as part of this work , holy cross church was moved from over the gate to a nearby site . the old roman riding gate was cut through by a new archway . defensive towers were built around the city walls , and archaeological and historical evidence suggests that there were 24 of these . the towers had a generally uniform appearance , with 16 half - circular , or " horse - shoe " , hollow - backed towers and eight square towers . the horse - shoe towers followed a fashion that had been popular from around 1260 to 1390 , making canterbury 's towers a late example of the trend . the square towers were a newer design , and were built around the turn of the 14th and 15th century by thomas chillenden of christchurch priory . the reconstructed walls also saw the introduction of gunports . west gate was an innovative piece of defensive design in this regard , forming a powerful battery , carefully designed to have a wide angle of covering fire . positioning of the gunloops is similar to those at cooling castle , built around the same time , and gave particular focus to the left flank along north gate , the most likely route for any attackers . gunports in south - west corner of the city walls are put at alternate heights , for overlapping fire . the first documentary record of canterbury 's guns appears in 1403 , when it is clear that there were several kept in the west gate . a second wave of work took place on the city walls in the late 15th century . backed by substantial communal effort and financial contributions , newingate was rebuilt between 1450 and 1470 , and probably closely resembled the west gate in style . burgate was rebuilt in brick from 1475 onwards , again thanks to public contributions , but it was not completed until 1525 , furnished with gunports and anachronistic battlements . queningate was closed up at shortly after the 15th century , probably following the construction of a new postern gate nearby . west gate was appointed the city gaol in 1453 by henry vi , with canterbury castle serving as the county gaol . in contrast to wat tyler 's entrance in 1381 , in 1450 , jack cade and 4 , 000 rebels were barred entry from the city at west gate . in 1533 , canterbury reacted with concern to the news of thomas wyatt 's rebellion in kent ; repairs were made to the walls , guns and ammunition mobilised , and the riding gate was blocked up . queen mary later thanked the city for their efforts . 17th – 19th centuries by 1614 , the ditch outside the walls appears to have been partially filled in and the reclaimed land rented out . during the english civil war , canterbury was initially held by parliamentary forces . in 1647 , however , riots broke out in protest over the actions of the city 's puritan mayor and canterbury declared its loyalty for charles i. parliamentary forces intervened and reoccupied the city , burning the wooden city gates and deliberately damaging , or slighting , the walls near canterbury castle . with the restoration of charles ii to the throne in 1660 , new wooden doors were installed at the west gate . towards the end of the 18th century , horse - drawn coaches became much more common in canterbury , which lay at the centre of a new turnpike road system . this required extensive changes to the city streets and gateways , which were typically too narrow to be easily navigated by these vehicles . by 1779 , northgate and burgate had been destroyed to allow wider entrances for the city . riding gate was demolished in 1782 , but in 1791 the local citizen james simmons built a new , brick archway on the old foundations , which was rapidly occupied by a new house , blocking most of the gateway . an iron bridge was later built over the site of riding gate . the worth gate was demolished in 1791 and reused in a local garden , a new entrance being built in its place . newingate 's drum towers were used as a water reservoir for the city , and the gatehouse was not demolished until 1801 . sections of the wall were cut away to allow new roads to be built ; the walls near st 's public baths were demolished in 1794 and the city wall around london gate was demolished around 1800 . in other parts of canterbury , the city walls became used for promenades by the more fashionable citizens . the dane john gardens were built between 1790 and 1803 by simmons in the south - east corner of the walls , remodelling the old castle motte , and incorporating the roman bank and the medieval wall - walk into the design . the ownership of the land was disputed , and the park was taken into the control of the city shortly after its construction . west gate continued to be used as the city gaol , resulting in it surviving the destruction of the other city gates . when the reformer john howard visited the gaol in the mid - 1770s , he noted that it contained a large day room for male and female prisoners and two small night rooms , but no courtyard for exercise . prison reform became an important issue during the early 19th century , and the west gate gaol was considered unsatisfactory , being condemned as dirty , cramped and insecure , resulting in the extension of the gaol into pound lane and the consequent dismantling of the adjacent city wall . there was a legal attempt to demolish the west gate altogether in 1859 , in order to allow the wombwell circus to march a parade of elephants into the city ; the gatehouse was only saved by the casting vote of canterbury 's mayor . in 1865 the prison was closed and the west gate became used first for the storage of archives and then as a museum . 20th – 21st centuries during the second world war , part of the city walls near the dane john gardens were turned into an ammunition depot , dug into the bank of the wall . german bombing campaigns in 1942 caused extensive damage to canterbury , including the city walls around riding gate . the bomb damage provided fresh opportunities for archaeological investigation , however , and work by the canterbury excavation committee began in 1944 . this research disproved older theories about the shape of the roman city walls , demonstrating that the roman and medieval defences formed an identical circuit . in the post - war years , the city walls shaped the route of canterbury 's modern ring road system , protecting the inner core of the ancient city , despite proposals under the holden plan of 1945 for a radical reshaping of the city 's road network . during the 1950s , a stretch of canterbury 's walls were reconstructed , including two circular towers , as part of the redevelopment of the st george district . in the early 1980s , the volume of traffic around the west gate was causing damage to the structure of the building . the remaining walls and west gate are protected under uk law as scheduled monuments and as a grade i listed building . architecture canterbury 's city walls in the 21st century are a mixture of survivals from the multiple periods of building , from roman to the 20th century , but the majority of the visible walls are medieval in origin . over half the original circuit survives , and historians oliver creighton and robert higham consider it " one of the most magnificent in britain " . of the original 24 medieval towers along the walls , 17 remain intact , and one entranceway into the city , the west gate , also survives . north gate was destroyed in the 19th century , but its former location is marked by a " stone " , a marker laid down by amateur archaeologist walter cozens in the interwar years . moving clockwise around the circuit from northgate , st mary 's church incorporates parts of the walls into its structure , and the original medieval crenellations can be seen in the stonework . four square towers survive around the walls here , mostly somewhat reduced in height from their original medieval form , and with their gunports converted to windows . the outline of queningate is marked out on the local road , and parts of the roman wall discovered in archaeological investigations are presented in a local display . a further two towers beyond queningate survive , complete with their original gunports . the former site of burgate is marked by another stone , and on the next stretch of wall , one tower survives , used for a period as a water cistern and now incorporated into the 19th century zoar chapel . the south - east stretch of the walls beyond the former site of riding gate , marked by a 19th - century plaque , are particularly well preserved , including the dane john gardens , used as a public park and decorated with sculptures . the two towers near this stretch of wall are reconstructions from the 1950s on the original medieval foundations . another four towers survive between the former sites of riding gate and wincheap gate , one of which remains near its original height and retains its defensive crenellations . beyond the former site of wincheap gate the wall has mostly been destroyed , although one tower survives , converted into a private house ; the former site of worth gate is marked by a memorial stone . the west gate has survived in excellent condition , and creighton and higham describe it as " one of the most monumental of all examples of town gate architecture " . constructed from ragstone and flint , it has two large circular towers at the front , but has a square - facing interior ; although fireplaces were built into each tower in the 14th century , their flues were designed to be hidden from sight so as not to spoil its military appearance . the west gate hosts a local museum and cafe . a final three towers survive on the stretch of the walls between west gate and the former north gate .