Southampton City Walls

During March I have been conducting a little research project of medieval walls. I wanted to see how walls actually look and feel, what colours there are, and what shapes and sizes come in a standard castle wall. So when the first sunny day of the year arrived I went for a little walk around Sounthampton.

Quay Side Wall - Merchants Bays

Now while the castle itself is not still standing, much of the linking city walls do! In the bright crisp spring sunlight it was perfect conditions to get the information I needed. While I know this weeks blog is not miniture painiting in iteself, I thought why lose such great research, so here are some of the best pictures I could take.

One of four still standing Towers

Southampton's town walls are a sequence of defensive structures built around the town in southern England. Although earlier Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlements around Southampton had been fortified with walls or ditches, the later walls originate with the move of the town to the current site in the 10th century.

Machicolations

Harbour Side Wall Sections

Little History

1338 Southampton was raided by French forces; the town's defences proved inadequate, particularly along the quays on the west and south of the city. Edward III ordered some immediate improvements to Southampton's town walls but it was not until the 1360s that substantial work began. Over the coming decades the town was entirely enclosed by a 2 km (1.25-mile) long stone wall, with 29 towers and eight gates. With the advent of gunpowder weapons in the 1360s and 1370s, Southampton was one of the first towns in England to install the new technology to existing fortifications and to build new towers specifically to house cannon.