Introduction



In comparison with conditions in medieval London, the burgesses of the much smaller town of Cardiff were more fortunate, even though they also kept pigs, cows, goats, fowl and the associated dung heaps within their town. The streets were unpaved and the population suffered from polluted water and problems with refuse. However, unlike London, Cardiff had little or no industry. This saved it from a host of unimaginable horrors brought about by the pollution of medieval industry (1). Nevertheless, historians frequently hold the town’s apparent backwardness against it. Actually, none of Britain’s medieval towns were ‘beds of roses’ and Cardiff was no exception, even as late as the turn of the 18th -19th centuries. Despite these facts, writers of the Middle Ages, most of whom had traveled widely, were favorably disposed towards the Cardiff of their time. Its town defenses were one of the features they all commented upon. Even today, one can experience a little of the awe country folk must have felt when entering the town through the West Gate and approaching the mighty Castle walls behind it. The imposing structure of the East Gate must also have left a deep impression on people’s minds, situated as it was in amongst the comparatively small houses of this closely built-up part of town.

Fig.1 (for key to numbers see list at bottom of the page)


The numbered records below refer to known prints or published articles on which the plan is based.

It is an undeniable fact that one cannot speak about medieval Cardiff without bringing John Speed’s plan of 1610 into the discussion. It is the only illustration which provides an overall view of the town in the 17th century, but it has to be admitted that it has its limitations. It is unfortunate that a similar plan was not drawn sixty or seventy years earlier, when the full extent of Cardiff’s town defenses could still have been shown. Then, the town was fully encircled by a continuous wall which had five gates and at least five watchtowers. Whereas the Castle Keep towered over the northern end of town, the steeple of St. Johns’ Church, as well as some roofs and chimneys, just appeared over the wall’s parapet. By the mid-16th century, Cardiff’s town defenses had seen troubled times and destruction. Yet, such destruction was repairable and the walls arose again with renewed and improved strength. This was to change irreversibly when the river Taff ‘s eroding powers began to lap at the town’s walls. The river followed the laws of nature and these demanded that it shift its meandering course down stream. The Taff either had not reached its ‘bank-full’ channel by the end of the 16th century, or it was in the process of moving it eastward.

It is difficult to imagine today that the whole stretch of land between Cathedral Road and the Castle was once a river-scape. It was nearly four hundred meters wide, a space in which the Taff reigned supreme, shifting its position at will from west to east and vice versa. A print by the brothers Samuel & Nathanial Buck of 1748 gives a very good impression of the situation. Consequently, Cardiff’s western flank was affected by both the river’s movement and the aftermath of flooding, tidal as well as riverine. The Borough Court of Augmentation already predicted in 1552 what was to follow. The first effects of the development are noticeable on Speed's plan of Cardiff which suggests that changes to the town defenses on its western periphery had already taken place in the past six decades. For four hundred years, prior to these changes, the river probably did not threaten the town, as its course was further west than in 1610. From then on, however, the slow but certain destruction of Cardiff’s western town wall proceeded unceasingly. Only when the City Council took matters in hand in the 19th/20th century, by straightening the river, was this process halted.

In figure 1, Speed’s plan of Cardiff in 1610 and Stewart’s much later plan of 1824 were superimposed on one another in order to illustrate how much of the city’s medieval extent was lost to the river’s erosive action (dark area). However, the city fathers themselves added their part to the disappearance of their town’s medieval defenses by ordering that in the course of time all vestiges thereof be taken down one by one (see various ‘Minutes of the Council’, e.g. 28/1/1785; 5/5/1786; 20/9/1791; 1802 (2)).


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  1. WEST GATE: late 18th century print by Paul Sandby, 1774 (Cardiff Central Library); David Stewart’s Bute Estate survey of 1824, map 1 (Glamorgan Record Office); Rowlandson’s aquatint of 1799 (Cardiff Central Library); oil painting by an unknown artist (Cardiff Castle).

  2. WEST WALL, northern section: ‘The North-West View of Cardiff, in the County of Glamorganshire’, print by Samuel & Nathanial Buck, 1741 (Glamorgan Records Office); ‘Old North Gate and Town Wall’, several prints by Paul Sandby, 1775-1776 (Cardiff Central Library).

  3. RIVERSIDE TOWER: ‘The Old Town Quay from across the river Taff’, a sketch by Francis Place, 1678, in I.N.Soulsby, Cardiff: a Pictorial History, Chichester, 1989, p.18; traces of tower foundations found in 1849-53, see William Rees, Cardiff: a History of the City, Cardiff, 1962, p.20; tile marks in the multi-storey car park off Quay Street, sources for which have not been published.

  4. WEST WALL, Golate section: Traces of wall foundations found in 1855, see William Rees, p.22; tile marks on the floor of the park house off Quay Street, source not published.

  5. WEST WALL, full length: ‘The North-West View of Cardiff, in the County of Glamorganshire’, print by S&N.Buck, 1748 (Cardiff Central Library).

  6. SOUTH TOWERS & WALL: Speed’s plan of 1610.

  7. SOUTH GATE: Speed’s plan of 1610.

  8. COCK's TOWER, east wall: Photograph of the Cock’s Tower and adjoining walls, early 19th century (Cardiff Central Library); William Rees, plate X & p.256; Matthews, Vol.5, p.354.

  9. SOUTH EASTERN WALL SECTION: Photograph of a town wall section behind on old infants school in the Hayes, 1890, in Soulsby, op.cit., p.23; 25" Ordnance Survey Map, 1:2500 GLAM XLIII:15, 1st ed., 1883.

  10. EAST WALL SECTION: A broad band of black tiles in the floor paving of the St. David’s Shopping Center marks the position of the former town wall. Excavation reports on which the tile marks are based have not yet been published. In Matthews’ Cardiff Records, Vol.II, p.136-37 are two photographs, one taken in 1890 from the city side by G.H.Wills which shows a few yards of the town wall. It may well be of the tile-marked section or a nearby one. The other photo is the same view but from the canal side taken in 1888 (bushes hid the actual wall).

  11. EAST GATE: Tiled outlines of this gate and the adjoining wall in the pedestrian precinct of Queen Street. The source on which the outlines are based are unknown.

  12. NORTH WALL WATCH TOWER/GARRET: 25" Ordnance Survey Map, 1:2500 GLAM XLIII:15, 1st ed., 1883 (Cardiff Central Library).

  13. NORTH GATE: Several prints of the North Gate by Paul Sandby, 1776 (Cardiff Central Library).

  14. CARDIFF CASTLE: Numerous Publications.

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