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Some History of our Town Wall.... Introduction - Building of the Wall The 12 Gates of our Town Wall Tour of our Town Wall remains.... Swanswell Gate Lady Herbert's Garden & City Wall Cook Street Gate Bishop Gate Watch Tower near Lamb Street Wall at Well Street Well Street Gate Hill Street Gate Wall at Bond's Hospital Wall at Fleet Street Spon Gate Greyfriars Gate Cheylesmore Gate Little Park Gate New Gate Wall at Gulson Road Gosford Gate Wall near Cox Street Mill Lane Gate Wall around Pool Meadow City Wall overlaid onto present day Coventry

Page 10

Town Wall near Cox Street

On the north side of Gosford gate you will arrive at the longest existing section of wall, around two hundred metres in length.
It stretches from west of the Sky Blue Way / ring road island to just short of the Sports Centre across Cox Street.

The first photograph shows the eastern end of the remains, closest to Sky Blue Way - If I had taken this shot in medieval times, I would have been standing in the river Sherbourne on the outside of the wall looking westward towards the centre of Coventry.

The picture below is further west on the "inside" of the wall looking back towards Sky Blue Way.


It is along this section of wall that the final construction of the partially redesigned circuit was completed in 1534.

It is apparent and rather unfortunate that most of what survives of the wall structure here is only the rough inner part. The town wall's construction consisted of two walls made of properly cut stone, infilled with small stones and rubble, then filled with lime mortar.

Here's the same section as above, viewed from the north side looking to the south-east.
The picture on the left demonstrates that most of the usable outer stones were taken away, put to good use in the construction of other buildings. Just a few 'proper' cut stones can be seen remaining here.
In any building made of stone, the neatly cut outer stones used for facing a wall were known as 'ashlar'.

Mill Lane Gate

This last picture shows the western extent of the wall as it approaches the Coventry Sports Centre. This elephant shaped building, erected in the mid 1970's, sits across the position originally occupied by Mill Lane gate, or Bastille gate as it was first known. (Illustrated by an 1840 lithograph by Miss Eld, pictured above.) From here, the wall continued on and met back up with Swanswell gate where we began our tour.

Finally.... Completing the Circuit - Around Pool Meadow

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Gulson Road to Gosford Gate < - Town Wall near Cox Street - > Completing the Circuit - Around Pool Meadow

Click here to see the exact route of the complete wall overlaid onto a present day map.

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