Town Walls

This is the best preserved section and most substantial remains of the Medieval Town Wall. Of the original wall towers, three can be seen from here. All have their original ground floor flat, paved roofs and battlemented parapets, apart from Morden Tower which has been changed significantly. East of Mordern tower, the remains of Ever…

The Town Wall turned sharply southwards from the originally intended line at a point near here now under the railway viaduct and ran down to the Close Gate and finally the river. This stretch of the Town Wall, the section surviving today was built after 1311 and completed by about 1333 as a response to…

This area outside the West walls of the old town was known as the Wardens Close. According to the 17th Century Newcastle historian, Gray, the Warden’s Close formerly contained the house and gardens of the Warden of Tynemouth Priory. Near here in 1767, the town’s first local public asylum for pauper lunatics was built. It…

The Corner Tower, on the east side of the circuit, was constructed between 1299 and 1307 where the walls make a 90 degree change of direction from north-south to east-west to encompass the suburb of Pandon, which was granted to Newcastle in 1298. The tower had two turrets set at right angles and a buttress…

Sallyport Tower was one of the main defensive fortifications forming part of Newcastle’s city walls, built 1265 – 1307. The tower was named because it was said to be used as a gateway from which the town’s garrisons would ‘sally forth’ to defend the city against Scottish beseigers. The postern gate was often used in…

The tower once called Cutler’s Tower or Carliol Croft Tower, together with the short length of wall on its south side formed part of the eastern side of the Town Wall circuit. The town wall ditch lay to the east. To the east where the central motorway now runs, the ground sloped down into Pandon…