Beverley town walls

Beverley’s town walls once ringed the whole town in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The earliest defences were a ditch called Bar Dike, dug by 1169 on the west side, and two gateways, North Bar and South Bar, built in the 13th century. In 1322 Beverley asked Parliament for permission to build a full stone wall after a Scottish raid, but nothing happened. A royal commission looked at the problem again in 1371, yet still no wall was raised. At the start of the 15th century the town council rebuilt North Bar in brick, adding a portcullis and parapets for £97 11d. By 1540 North Bar, Keldgate and the new Newbegin gate all stood in brick, yet rebels still entered the town in 1537. During the 1640s civil war the defences were strengthened with fresh ditches, repaired gatehouses and a garrison of 900 men. Royalist raiders broke through once more, and after the war the ditches were filled in as the town grew. Today only fragments of the original ditches survive, together with North Bar gatehouse, which archaeologists Oliver Creighton and Robert Higham call the best surviving brick-built town gate in England. Visitors can walk to North Bar gatehouse, the only intact medieval gateway left. The brick structure still shows its portcullis and parapets from the early 15th century. Nearby traces of Bar Dike can be seen along the west side of the town. The gatehouse is protected as a grade I listed building, standing as a quiet reminder of Beverley’s medieval past.