North Walls and Northgate

by A. E. Wilson, F.S.A.

 

Fig. 1          Fig. 2          Fig. 3

 

The stretch of wall from the northwest corner of Priory Park to Northgate and the Northgate itself had been levelled to the ground or incorporated in later buildings many years ago. Twenty feet west of the west wall of Priory Park a cut four feet wide (Fig. 1 plan), revealed at a depth of 3ft. 6in. below modern ground level the remains of the lower part of the Roman wall for almost its full breadth.

 

A disused cellar of a house built outside the wall, had come right up to the previously robbed outer face of the wall foundations and so made it impossible to establish the full width of the foundations at this point.

 

The " top " of the few remaining courses of the Roman wall showed that the core of the wall (1 in section Fig. 1) consisted of large flints set in a cream mortar. The south (or inner) face showed that there still remained four or five courses of these flints with 1 course of roughly dressed sandstone.

 

The subsoil here was loose and moist because of the proximity of the Lavant watercourse. To secure a good foundation for the wall the Romans deserted the practice they used in other parts of the wall. Instead of laying its foundation directly on the subsoil they dug a trench into the subsoil slightly wider than the width which they intended for the wall and filled it with layers of closly packed but unmorlared flints (3). On top of these they spread a good layer of mortar (2) and then began to build the wall proper.

 

Just in front of the wall there were slight remains of the flints in gravel of the bottom of the bank which did not quite reach the face of the wall proper. Among these unmortared flints was a single sherd of pottery of a type in common use in the 2nd century A.D. in Chichester.

 

Plate 1: Stones of Northgate Tower. c.f. Fig. 2

 

At the Northgate itself, a contractor excavating a large hole to insert petrol storage tanks between the forecourt of the Page's Garage and Priory Lane adjacent to the pavement on the east side of North St. exposed the remains of an eighteenth century cellar which had cut away the foundations of the southeast corner of a gate tower adjoining the Roman wall (Fig. 2). When the walls of this cellar were removed there were serious collapses which prevented anything more than a hurried examination, some measurements and photographs.

 

These, however, were sufficient lo show the original layout. Part of the original Roman wall, reduced here by robbing to about 2 feet wide showed almost to modern ground level. To the south of it, between it and the cellar foundation, remained some of the flinty earth Roman bank, which started the collapse when the cellar wall was demolished.

 

With this collapse went the large dressed stone blocks, but before their final collapse a series of photographs were taken (Plates I and 2). These blocks stood on a heavy layer flint which continued under the remains of the flinty earth bank against the inner face of the Roman wall. [these stones were taken to the museum in Priory Park and re-erected with the help of the photographs]. (See Fig. 3, Section AB).

 

Plate 2: Relationship of Northgate Tower to Roman wall

 

Along the side of North St. showing underneath the pavement behind the cellar wall was a single line of similar dressed stone blocks, obviously broken when the cellar had been built (Fig. 2). It was easy to reconstruct the lines which the walls of this " tower " had taken, especially as in both the sections AB and CA and in the photographs it was easy to see a " cement " floor starting on the level of the base of the single row alongside North St. and ending on level with the base of the middle row along the north face adjacent to the wall.

 

At this stage it was impossible to do any further investigation owing to the hurried building of retaining walls to prevent the subsidence of both North St. and Priory Lane. Finally the section along Priory Lane (Fig. 3 DC) showed there the beginning of a ditch alongside the Roman road coming in from the north before the gate was built.

 

Moreover the stony black earth layer sliding in to the ditch looks as if it might well have been part of the " camber " along side the road. This ditch would have had to be filled in when the gate and bank inside the wall were constructed. No stratified dating evidence was obtainable here as the collapse during the night made any investigation in the hole impossible.

 

Very special thanks are due to Mrs. Guy Daynes and the late Mr. A. Langdale Tootill for the help given in these two difficult excavations and to Miss V. Smith for making the final drawings from some rapidly sketched originals.

 

 

 

Fig. 1          Fig. 2          Fig. 3

 

 

 

 

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