A presentation given on the 9th of January 2014 as a part of the SF/JS Field Trip
As modern day pilgrims to the ancient city of Canterbury can attest, the walls of this epicentre of British history remain quite formidable despite their age and contemporary importance. While many centres around the English southeast were constructed with large circuit defences, such as Rochester and Winchester, the extent to which Canterbury’s defensive circuits have survived and adapted is remarkable. My presentation on the medieval walls and gates of the city hopefully charts the complicated and storied development of these magnificent shields of masonry from their origin to the modern period. The simplistic attribution of “Medieval” to Canterbury’s walls is, in many ways, a misnomer. The Walls we see today not only integrate but develop upon a millenia of structures and thus to accredit them as merely medieval is to do them an injustice. And so to begin we must first examine these structures right from the Roman period in order to understand their form and significance today.
The extent to which the influence of Roman settlement on the southeast of England shaped the region as we see it today, is difficult to exaggerate. The first Roman settlers to the area arrived around the first century AD and with them they brought the masonry and organisation necessary to define a landscape and cement a settlement. The archaeological evidence shows that initially the Roman city of Durovernum Cantiacorum was probably only defended by a small fort, now entirely lost, which was all that was required for the defence of the territory. For the majority of the period under Roman control this fort appeared adequate. However, as the security of the stability of...
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...till remains a key entrance into the City, a position it has held since it’s earliest Roman incarnations. Unusually for a city gate, Henry Yevele, a freeman of London and perhaps the most prominent mason in England at the time designed the reconstruction, such was the importance of this formidable fortification. The westgate was also the site of considerable innovation in town defences wherein it was the location of the first recorded use of gunports in defensive masonry in the country. The Westgate stands as monumental testament to the significance of Canterbury’s walls and gates despite the fact that successive centuries allowed the walls to ebb and flow with progress to the state we find them in today. What remains are primarily the14th Century and Roman constructions with a little over 53 hectares of land covered, 17 towers standing tall and one gate surviving.
- - - The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History. London, England, Penguin Books, no publication
decided it was a good idea and kept it in place. This would show that
Another inspirational architect in this time was William Kent. His designs using ogee pointed arches with a classical cornice inspired Batty Langley to produce a study in which he analyzed Gothic in terms of classical orders. A comparison with true mediaeval and Gothic architecture at this time shows that at this time all Gothic architecture was a decorative style to be applied as ornament to regular structures and s...
5. Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. From the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. N.p.: Longman, 1992. Print.
The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, has gone through many adaptations. Some authors decided to translate the story into verse, while others chose to write the as a narrative in prose. Although all adaptations are based off the same story, they are vastly different and can be the result of opposing interpretations of the original work. After reading a text translated by Nevill Coghill (referred to as Version I) and a text translated into a narrative by a different author (referred to as Version II), it is obvious that for each similarity they share, there are many more differences in language, syntax, and imagery as well.
Wales, like England in the Dark Ages, was a land of multiple kingships. The rugged terrain, with impenetrable mountain massifs and inhospitable upland ranges, broken by river valleys, did not make for a unified control or a unified development. The boundary with England was not marked by natural defences, and productive lowland areas as well as profitable upland pastures were open to frequent attacks. Not until Offa of Mercia built his dyke in the second half of the 8th century was there a definable frontier, and that was designed mainly to deter Welsh attacks and control trade across the new border. It was much the longest as well as the most striking man-made boundary in the whole of western medieval Europe, and clearly came to play an important role in shaping the perception of the extent and identity of Wales. Small local communities acknowledged a ruler whose principal function might seem at times to wage war on his neighbors and to plunder their lands. In general, war made them defensive.
In 1834, when a fire nearly completely demolished the old Palace of Westminster, Britain had a chance to redefine what British architecture was (Richardson p. 111-112). Although throughout Europe Classicism and the Greek and Roman Revival had had a stronghold on secular buildings, by the early 1800 Neo-Gothic was starting to be seen as a nationalistic style of architecture, something that should, together with language, be national (Barry, p.114). While in France the Gothic Revival was mainly used for secular buildings, in Britain it was mainly used for ecclesiastical buildings (Barry, p. 110). It was into this world that August Welby Nothmore Pugin (1812-52) was born.
White, John B. Afterword. Stonehenge Decoded. By Gerald S. Hawkins. New York: Doubleday, 1965. 191-197.
Late Helladic fortification walls on the Greek mainland are found surrounding citadels, not the entire city or site. The citadels seem to have housed central administration and housing for an elite class of citizens. They were built on hills, presumably as another layer of fortification. I will examine the sites of Gla, Midea, Tiryns, and Mycenae to look for similarities and differences in the design and architecture of their fortifications, as well as, arguments about the purpose of the fortifications at these sites. I will also explore how some sites were hindered or helped defensively and economically by their location and their use of fortifications.
Article focuses on the archeological discovery of a medieval palace at Old Sarum. The archeological team at the University of Southampton located the palace “using geophysical ground-penetrating ‘xray’ technology”(citation), which scanned the area under the grass of the Iron Age hill fort at Old Sarum. The reason for it being under so much grass is due to the fact that “by the early 13th century, the political and diocesan centre at Old Sarum was proving too cramped and exposed to the elements – and was therefore moved, lock, stock and barrel, to a totally new location, Salisbury, two and a half miles to the south.” [and the]” city was largely abandoned up to 140 years after most of it had been built, and because it has remained a green field site ever since,”(citation). The scan also found plans of urban area within the city as well as a cathedral, which is logical due to that being a tendency in the
...er is still an economic boost to the city of London as a must see. Because the structure was so impressive, it brought quite a bit of tourism to the city. The designs were extremely important to the people because it showed the greatness of their country and still held the conservative belief that was once lost in the past. It just goes to show just how important it was to the church, the people, and to the commonwealth of the cities and towns that had such amazing structures erected.
On the north bank of the Thames, he commenced the building of this fortress with a large stone tower that would become known as the White Tower. This site, in the southeastern corner of London, was optimal for numerous reasons. The Romans had already built over five kilometers of fortified stone walls in their ancient city of Londinium.1 One of the stronger parts of the wall came to that area of the Thames. Therefore, William the Conqueror needed only to dig two ditches and fill them with water for the other two sides of his fortress-the Thames and the Roman wall already served as two of the sides. In addition, this hill overlooked London, thus making it a perfect place from which to repel enemies. The Tower was completed approximately twenty ...
The strength of a gothic building is made to reside in a finely organized framework rather than in its walls. This framework, which consists of perfectly placed piers, arches and buttresses, frees up any unessential impediment of walls and presents a light feeling. The stability of the building depends only on inert massiveness in its outermost parts, whose opposing forces counteract each other in a perfect stability of thrust and counterthrust. Gothic architecture is an artistic, strategic system of engineering, schemes for building were followed for elevations, termed quadratum (four sided) and triangulorum (three sided). 2 This system allowed them to raise their ideal structures according to symbolic measure and numbers reflecting the geometry of the New Jerusalem and its prototype, the Temple of Solomon. (Figure 1.1)
For centuries, Stonehenge has been a structure of wonder for all those who see or hear about it; many people wonder how it was built and why. Over the years, Stonehenge and the similar surrounding structures have been heavily studied, with new discoveries found yearly. Construction of Stonehenge itself started around 2600 BC on the Salisbury Plain in England (Grimston, 2007). It is constructed of large stones brought from the Welsh mountains positioned into several circular patterns (Grimston, 2007). Not too long ago, a discovery was made near Stonehenge called Durrington Walls. This lesser known site is believed to be the home of the builders of Stonehenge and is very significant to the monument’s purpose. 200 feet away from there lies the most famous of the timber henges, Woodhenge (Rattini, 2008). After examining each site’s solstitial alignments and relation to each other structure, it is deducted that each would have played a pivotal part in a ritual that would have taken place thousands of years ago.
The Tower of London is a 900-year-old castle and fortress (Jarus). William the Conqueror created the first fortifications after the conquest of London in A.D. 1066 (Jarus). The Tower of London is not just one large tower; it is made up of 13 structures on the inside of the fortress, and 6 structures on the outside (McGillick). The entire fortress stretches across 12 acres of land (Jarus). On the outside of the Tower of London there is a large ditch and palisade on the north and west sides of the fortress (McGillick). There are four large turrets at the corners of the fortress. The dome shape of the turrets made it a great place to have first royal observatory in one of them (McGillick).