Introduction

The surviving section of wall is immediately south of the site of St Benedict's Gate. It is just under 37 metres long, stands to a maximum height of 4.6 metres and has a maximum thickness of 1.8 metres. The ground here rises up Grapes Hill and the south end of the wall is nearly 4 metres above the level of the road at the site of the gate. [1] There is no surviving evidence to show that this section had an arcade on the inner side. The top of the wall and the wall walk was presumably ramped or stepped and the slope makes arches on the inner side of the wall on this section unlikely. The top of the wall is now rounded and at no point is there evidence to mark the position and width of the wall walk.

On the west or outer side of the wall at the north end are the remains of two loops 6.4 metres apart and towards the centre of the wall, and at a higher level, a group of bricks that may be a third loop.

The east or inner side of the wall retains evidence of the buildings that were constructed hard against both sides of the wall in the late 18th and 19th centuries. When these houses were demolished a large area of the face of the wall was lost.

At the south end of this section there was an intermediate tower. Collins states that this tower was demolished in 1876 but part of a broad inner arch survived until the 1950s though nothing is visible now above ground.

Between 1951 and 1953 archaeological excavations were carried out on the site of St Benedict's Gate and the wall on either side. A trench was cut across the line of the outer ditch on the west side of this section of wall where the full profile of the ditch was uncovered.