Canterbury city walls

Canterbury’s city walls stretch for more than half a mile around the old heart of the city. Built first by the Romans in the late 3rd century, they enclosed 130 acres and stood up to 20 feet high on an earth bank 30 feet wide. A deep ditch ran outside, and at least five gates linked the city to major Roman roads. The Anglo-Saxons kept the walls and added chapels over the gates to watch over the streets. Augustine chose the walled site for his mission in 597, making the defences part of Canterbury’s early Christian story. The walls were rebuilt in stone during the 14th century when war with France threatened. Twenty-four towers were added and some gatehouses fitted with England’s first gun batteries. In the English Civil War Parliament’s forces damaged parts of the circuit and burned the gates. Later, 18th- and 19th-century roads sliced through the walls, leaving only West Gate standing. German bombs in the Second World War caused more breaks, yet over half the original line survives today. A walk along the remaining stretches shows flint and mortar walls rising beside quiet lanes. West Gate still guards the western approach, its chapel above the arch. Sections near the cathedral reveal the full height and thickness of the Roman work. Archaeologists Creighton and Higham call the surviving circuit one of the most impressive in Britain. The walls mark where Roman builders, Saxon defenders and medieval townsfolk all left their mark on Canterbury.