Roman York: a Recent Discovery

Abstract

IN the course of carrying out a municipal scheme of improvement, further remains of the fortifications of Roman York have been brought to light, which, it would appear, are part of the curtain wall erected by the emperor Constantinus Chlorus in the fourth century to strengthen the fortifications of the city against the attacks of pirates coming up the river (The Times, July 11). In driving an arcade through Coney Street, the remains of an internal tower were discovered which was built astride the wall, and was not external as towers previously revealed had proved to be. Its walls are of dressed stone, and on the south side stand to a height of nearly four feet. On the north side are the remains of what would appear to be a pier of dressed stone, three feet high and connected with the main wall by layers of stone slabs. This is believed to have been either the support of a platform of the tower, or the pier of a bridge, carrying the rampart walk over the interval formed by the tower. Remains of the cobbled rampart walk, with the foundations of another building on the east side, have been found. The position of the tower corresponds with what has hitherto been believed to be the character of the curtain wall, where it ran from the Multangular Tower to the angle tower at the south-east corner of the junction of Coney Street and Market Street. It is the fourth interval tower that has been found.