text: worcester city walls worcester 's city walls are a sequence of defensive structures built around the city of worcester in england between the 1st and 17th centuries . the first walls to be built around worcester were constructed by the romans . these early walls lasted beyond the fall of the empire , and the defences encouraged several early christian foundations to establish themselves in worcester during the troubled 6th and 7th centuries . the anglo - saxons expanded worcester in the 890s , forming a new walled , planned city , called a burh . the burh utilised the southern stretches of the old roman walls , but pushed further north to enclose a much larger area . the anglo - saxon city walls were maintained by a share of taxes on a local market and streets , in an agreement reinforced by a royal charter . after the norman conquest of england in the 11th century a motte and bailey castle was constructed on the south side of the city , but the norman rulers continued to use the older burh walls , despite the city having expanded beyond these defences in the north and south - east . during the years of the anarchy in the 1140s , worcester was successfully attacked several times ; after the war a new city wall was built to improve the city 's defences . the new walls , completed by the early 13th century , were constructed of stone and had three main gates . they were maintained in good condition into the 17th century . during the english civil war in the 1640s the old medieval walls were reinforced with modern earthwork bastions and an outlying fort , called a sconce . worcester changed hands several times during the conflict , and after the war ended the newer fortifications were dismantled . during the 18th century the older medieval stone walls and gatehouses were sold and mostly destroyed : by the 20th century , few parts survived . post - war archaeology in the 1950s and 1960s and construction work in the 1970s revealed previously hidden stretches of the wall , and in the 21st century plans have been drawn up to improve the conservation and maintenance of this historic monument . history 1st – 7th centuries the first defensive walls at worcester were built after the roman conquest of britain in ad 43 . although a settlement existed on the site during the iron age , there is no evidence that walls were ever built around it . the roman town was probably preceded by the construction a roman fort , both located on the south side of the modern city and protected by the river severn to the west . there are relatively few historical details or archaeological evidence from this period , but archaeological investigations of the roman town walls suggest that it had wooden ramparts and was protected by an 89 - foot ( 27 m ) wide ditch . as with other roman towns , the walls would have enclosed a rectangular town , protecting a settlement with a grid - like network of streets . the decline of the roman empire brought an end to roman rule in britain by the start of the 5th century . the town within the old roman walls at worcester continued to be occupied however , remaining a prominent military feature . new christian religious foundations were established at worcester during this period , attracted there in large part by the security the roman defences offered during a troubled period . in the 7th century , worcester cathedral was built , once again within the old roman walls . 8th – 11th centuries during the anglo - saxon period , worcester first became the capital of the hwicce kingdom , and later formed part of the wider kingdom of mercia . worcester and its defences were reorganised by ealdorman æthelred and æthelflæd and bishop werferth in the 890s . this involved creating a burh , a fortified anglo - saxon town ; in worcester this took the form of a planned settlement , extending out from the old roman defences , with the shambles forming a street running along the wall on the east . archaeological evidence suggests that the burh had 4 , 650 feet ( 1 , 417 m ) of walls in total ; documentary evidence from the burghal hidage document , written shortly after the creation of the walls , suggests they were 4 , 960 feet ( 1 , 512 m ) long , a discrepancy that may be accounted for by changes in the course of the river since the 10th century . the walls incorporated the old roman fortifications on the south and south - east side of the city and appear to have included a defensive ditch , with a revetment supporting a wooden palisade . the creation of the burh walls is recorded in a charter witnessed by king alfred , which lays out the responsibilities of the various churchmen and nobles involved , and notes that the upkeep of the walls would be paid for out of a share of taxes on a new market and on the new streets . the local lords took responsibility for building the burh wall , which unusually for the period was not built on royal lands . during the 10th century , the documents on the burh suggest that the aristocratic thegns living around worcester also owned and maintained buildings within the walls ; creighton and higham suggest that these may have been linked to their responsibilities for defending the settlement . during the 10th and 11th centuries worcester spread north beyond the original burh walls , and south - east to form sidbury . in 1041 worcester was attacked by the royal army of harthacnut over a tax - dispute that had led to the death of two of the king 's men ; despite the defensive walls , the city was successfully taken and burnt . 11th – 16th centuries in 1066 william the conqueror defeated the english army at the battle of hastings and norman forces advanced west into worcestershire . to reinforce their occupation , the normans built a motte and bailey castle on the south side of the city , taking advantage of the shape of the existing burh walls . the remaining burh walls continued to be used into the norman period , but the city had already spread beyond them , reducing their effectiveness . in the late 1130s a period of civil war broke out in england , called the anarchy , in which the rival factions of king stephen and the empress matilda contested the kingdom – worcestershire proved to be a key battleground in the war . the first attack on worcester itself occurred in late 1139 when an angevin army from gloucestershire assaulted the city . after an attempt to take the castle on the south side of the city , the gloucester forces entered from the north , looting and burning . worcester became a base for stephen 's forces for a period , before joining the empress 's faction . in response , stephen first stormed and burnt the city in 1148 , and then attacked it again in 1150 , shortly before the end of the conflict . from the accounts of these sieges , it appears that worcester still lacked substantial walls during this period . during the second half of the 12th century a new city wall began to be built around worcester , with work probably continuing until early the next century . about 85 acres ( 34 . 4 hectares ) , its design tracked the flow of natural streams to the north and east , and made use of the castle in the south as part of the defences . the walls were constructed of sandstone , and appear to have been surrounded by a flat bottomed , water - filled ditch , more than 30 feet ( 9 m ) wide . the new walls cut across existing parts of the city and would have required the demolition of numerous existing buildings that lay in their way ; the new defences also cut off the outlying districts of sidbury , , foregate street and the from the inside of the walled city . three main gates were built in the walls – north gate , st martin 's gate and sidbury gate – protected by gatehouses of paired circular towers and arrowslits for use by crossbowmen . smaller gates were built between them , such as friar 's gate . civil war broke out again in england in 1215 between forces loyal to king john and rebel barons , supported in due course by prince louis of france , in what gas become known as the first barons ' war . worcester sided with the rebels , and in july 1216 the city was attacked by forces under the command of ranulf , the earl of chester . ranulf attempted to storm the castle , rather than the north side of the city , and after he eventually gained access a £ 100 fine was imposed on the city with the threat that their walls would be destroyed if the money was not paid . although worcester 's walls clearly played a military role during this period , they would also have been symbolically important to the city and have played a part in controlling civic access and enforcing the city 's laws . one method of paying for the construction and maintenance of city walls was a tax called murage , usually levied by permission of the king on particular goods being imported into a city . in worcester , murage was raised to support work on the walls during three main phases , 1224 to 1239 , 1252 to 1310 and 1364 to 1411 . worcester was attacked again during the second barons ' war in the 1260s , and the records suggest that some of the murage payments were used to repair damage caused by that attack . in the late 14th century a watergate was built in the western walls of the city , close to a slipway for launching boats . worcester 's last murage grant occurred in 1439 , although in 1459 henry vi allowed the city to use stones from the castle to repair the walls to defend the city in anticipation of a yorkist attack during the wars of the roses . as in many other english towns and cities , as the medieval period progressed , housing began to encroach on the city walls in worcester . 17th – 19th centuries at the start of the 17th century , worcester 's city walls were still intact , and were recorded in john speed 's famous 1610 map of the city . in 1642 the english civil war broke out between followers of king charles i and parliament . worcester began the war under royalist control , before rapidly being taken by parliament and then changing hands again in 1643 following the battle of edgehill . worcester remained royalist for the rest of the war until it was once again besieged and finally surrendered in 1646 . the war was the first prolonged conflict in britain to involve the use of artillery and gunpowder . sieges became a prominent part of the war with over 300 occurring during the period . worcester was once again a strategically important region in the war , and walled towns and cities like worcester that could be defended against passing armies were particularly significant from a military perspective . by the 1640s the design of military fortifications had progressed significantly on the continent , owing largely to the thirty years war ; while older medieval stone walls still had military utility , they typically needed reinforcement with more modern earthworks to be truly effective . these new ideas were applied to city defences in england . in some cases a circuit of forts was built around a city ; in other cases , an entirely new city wall comprising modern bastions would be built . at worcester , the unimproved walls were considered to be indefensible at the start of the war in 1642 , and the chosen solution was to directly reinforce the existing medieval wall with new earthworks . to form these new defences , the buildings outside the old city walls were cleared and six large bastions were attached to them along the north and east sides of the city , while a sconce , fort royal hill was built outside sidbury gate in the south , linked to the walls by a walkway . the ditch protecting the new earthworks was relatively shallow at about eight feet ( 2 . 4 m ) deep , but when combined with the high ramparts of the bastions , which were probably protected by sharpened stakes and a firing platform , the bastions would have been well defended . the reinforced walls were manned in 1642 by soldiers employed by the robert devereux , the earl of essex . prince maurice subsequently conscripted the adult men and women of worcester to work on the walls , threatening the death penalty if they did not attend . during the 1643 and 1646 sieges the reinforced defences were able to withstand the artillery bombardments – the surrender in 1646 was mainly the result of a shortage of food and the collapse of the wider royalist position across the south - west of england . following further fighting between 1648 and 1649 , the third english civil war broke out in 1651 . royalist forces under the command of charles ii advanced as far as worcester , where the army paused to reinforce the walls further and await reinforcements in relative safety . the parliamentary forces under oliver cromwell attacked in early september ; the ensuing battle of worcester saw the royalist forces pushed steadily back into the city . fort royal was successfully stormed and its guns turned on the city itself . cromwell 's men began forcing their way into the city from west , south and east and by the evening the city had fallen . the collapse marked the end of the third civil war . in the aftermath the bastions and other fortifications were mostly destroyed by parliament , although the medieval walls and gates were spared . by the 18th century local residents had built summer houses on top of the walls , which were still largely intact . during the next hundred years city and town walls across england began to be demolished to make way for new developments , and worcester proved no exception . by the end of the century the walls and gates were being sold off and destroyed ; friar 's gate was probably the last to be demolished , early in the 19th century . only a few tracts of wall survived , often concealed behind other buildings and new constructions . today the remains of worcester 's city walls were largely ignored until after the second world war ; limited archaeological excavations first began in 1957 . work continued in the 1960s and picked up pace in the 1970s , when the creation of the city walls road in worcester uncovered more parts of the wall , formerly hidden from view . the civil war earthworks of fort royal hill are still visible overlooking the city . as a result of their mixed history , the remains of the walls are owned by various different organisations and subject to different legal protection . some parts of the walls are protected as grade ii listed buildings and scheduled monuments , although most of the walls lack this legal recognition . the multiple ownership of the different parts of the city walls contributed to what english heritage considered an " uncoordinated " approach to their conservation . in response , a conservation plan has been created by worcester city council , proposing that the walls , despite their mixed ownership , should be managed as a single historic monument , and advising that some sections be repaired urgently ; as of 2010 this plan was awaiting approval by english heritage .