Did Newport Ever Have a Town Wall?

This intriguing issue was discussed by Bob Trett in Edition No. 11 (Summer 2007) of the Friends of the Newport Ship Newsletter and now gives rise to the following expansion of the subject:

“Did Newport have a Town Wall?” sounds like the type of question put to a school debating society and Bob Trett has dealt with it in a positive and unambiguous way. May I therefore offer my humble opinion on the subject?

My feeling is that if through ancient eyes Newport was seen to have walls, it was merely the extended walls of the fairly new and unsullied castle that were being described. This illusion might even have been enhanced when the weary traveller took his first step through the mighty stone gate that protected the western end of the bridge. Once through this portal the first impression of the visitor might have been that of a tower and a long stone wall on his right and to his left virtually nothing but the river and the emptiness of the castle baileys and fields as far as the Austin Friary. Remember that we are still talking 12th or 13th Centuries and most of Newport’s tiny serf population lived off the beaten track in rude shacks, hidden from the view of passers-by behind the castle in Mill Street, accessible only through the unobtrusive, narrow lane that was to become Thomas Street. Is it any wonder then that, not seeing any semblance of a town outside, our ancient friend might easily have assumed that the castle was a walled town?

The curtilage of the castle in those days probably extended farther westwards because in 1907, when the Savoy Hotel was being built on the corner of Station Approach, excavation exposed stonework of great antiquity which was presumed to be part of the castle.

This discovery caused the architect of the project, Mr Gardiner, to exercise his over-ripe imagination by producing a plan of Newport as a town completely enclosed by a great wall complete with several watchtowers and a wide patrol way along the top!So much for the theories – now to the realities!In the 1,000 years of Newport’s existence nobody has ever admitted to actually seeing a town wall, either complete or ruined.

A murage tax has never been mentioned in connection with any wall other than those of the castle.

The 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries saw great swathes of excavation carved all round the castle and town centre areas for the construction of the canal, the railway and the Old Green improvements. None revealed the slightest trace of the type of masonry associated with large walls!

The subject is one of local history’s many imponderables but “did Newport really have a town wall?” Rightly or wrongly, for the reasons and my (fanciful?) conjecture given above, I am convinced that it did not!

PS. Has anyone thought of sending for the Time Team?

Haydn Davis