Rochester’s city walls originated in the Roman city of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. They remained in use throughout the Anglo-Saxon and medieval period, being substantially rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries. They fell into decline after 1400, and only fragments now survive, including the north-east tower.
History
2nd-10th centuries
Rochester’s walls originated in the Roman period. The settlement of Durobrivae was established on an older Celtic site in the 1st century AD, and in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, a defensive earthwork bank and ditch was built around it. In the late 3rd century, a stone wall was added, made from ragstone and tile. There were four gates, North, West, South and East Gate. After the end of the Roman occupation, Rochester’s walls remained in use during the Anglo-Saxon period.
11th-14th centuries
The Normans occupied Rochester after their invasion in 1066. They established a motte-and-bailey castle, probably just to the south-west of the city walls. After 1087, the Normans established a second castle in Rochester, this time positioning inside the south-west corner of the walled circuit. The old Roman wall along this stretch was demolished to make way for the new castle’s defences.
Work may have been carried out in 1192 and 1193 to strengthen the defences – this a turbulent period, with Richard I imprisoned overseas. In 1215, civil war broke out between King John and many of his barons. The King attacked Rochester. Although the castle held out for almost two months, the city fell almost immediately. Prince Louis of France took charge of the baronial revolt the next year, and Rochester fell quickly to the baronial forces.
By the early 13th century, Rochester Cathedral had been expanding for several decades. The monks’ buildings stretched up to the inside of the southern city walls, and a refectory had to be built on the outside of the walled circuit. In 1225, as the Crown renewed the city’s defences, a deep ditch was constructed all the way around the city – the Exchequer granted £300 for this work.1It is difficult to accurately compare early modern financial figures with modern equivalents. See our article on medieval money for more details. This mostly followed the existing defences, but may have extended further south, enclosing the cathedral’s lands there. 2The archaeologists A. Harrison and Colin Flight, who excavated the area in the 1960s, concluded that the evidence was uncertain as to whether the 1225 ditch enclosed the south side of the monastery or not. A new gate, which became known as Prior’s Gate, was built in the wall, west of the refectory.
After 1300, East Gate was rebuilt, with two circular towers on each side of the gate, and a drawbridge. It would have resembled West Gate in Canterbury. Circular towers were built in the north-east and south-east corners of the circuit.
Further work on the walls was authorised in 1344, when the monks applied for permission to extend them further south; the old ditch there was filled in, and the monks were instructed to dig a new defensive ditch along the new walls. A licence to crenellate was issued the following year, permitting the cathedral to build a fortified wall.
It is uncertain how fast this work was concluded – indeed, the advent of the Black Death in England may have disrupted it considerably. By 1350, the prior was said to have enclosed the entire of the monastery with a strong wall, and a new gatehouse was constructed, but the archaeological evidence suggests that the work may not have been fully completed until the 1360s.
In the 1390s, there appears to have been a plan to substantially improve the city’s defences, probably linked to the construction of the new Rochester Bridge in stone. Work was carried out to repair the fortifications, but the scheme appears to have petered out by 1400.
15th – 21st centuries
Rochester’s city walls quickly fell into disuse. By the time that the antiquarian John Leland visited the city in the 1530s, only East Gate still survived – the other main gates had gone, and the walls in a state of disrepair, although “six or seven” towers still remained along them. Further depredation followed, and East Gate had been demolished by 1700.
Archaeological investigations took place on the walls between 1960 and 1966, the surviving remains are protected under UK law as a Scheduled Monument.
Architecture
Today, four parts of Rochester’s city walls still survive. The most prominent is a section of the north-east walls, where a two-story tower remains standing; the remains of the tower in the south-east corner can also be seen.
Bibliography
- Renn, Derek, (2004) “Refortification at Rochester in the 1220s: A Public/Private Partnership?” Archaeologia Cantiana Volumer 124 pp. 343-363.
- Bacchus, D., (1986) “Excavations at the south-east bastion, Rochester city wall” Archaeologia Cantiana Volume 110 pp. 129-138.
- Flight, C. and Harrison, A.C., (1986), “The southern defences of medieval Rochester” Archaeologia Cantiana Volume 103 pp. 1-26.
- Harrison, A.C. and Williams, D., (1979), “Excavations at Prior’s Gate House, Rochester, 1967-77” Archaeologia Cantiana Volume 95 pp. 19-36.
- Harrison, A.C., (1972), “Rochester East Gate, 1969” Archaeologia Cantiana Volume 87 pp. 121-158.
- Harrison. A.C. and Flight, C., (1968), “The Roman and Medieval Defences of Rochester in the Light of Recent Excavations” Archaeologia Cantiana Volume 83 pp. 55-104.
- Kent County Council, (2004), Kent Historic Towns Survey. Kent County Council and English Heritage: Maidstone, UK.
Attribution
The text of this page is licensed under under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Images on this page include those drawn from the Geograph and Wikimedia websites, as of 27 May 2020, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Rochester city wall“, author Martin Coull, released under CC BY-SA 2.0; “Westgate Canterbury“, author Rafa Esteve, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.
The plan of the Rochester city defences is based on an underlying map copyright OpenStreetMap contributors, and released under CC BY-SA 2.0.