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The Town Wall, Chepstow, Monmouthshire (Picture Index)
The Town Gate at Chepstow, known locally as the Town Arch, was historically the only landward entrance to the town through the Port Wall, and a point where tolls for those resorting to the town and its market were collected. It was originally built, with the wall, in the late thirteenth century. The current archway mainly dates from the sixteenth century, but has been restored and partly rebuilt on several occasions. It is located at the western end of the town's High Street
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Turning south from the Town Gate will bring you to this part of the Town Wall. Following this part of the wall and crossing a main road (A48) brings you to a more interesting part of the town wall but just before reaching the road you may notice one of the semi-circular towers which occur at intervals along the town wall.
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Built between 1272 and 1278, at the same time as the castle improvements were made, Chepstow’s walls remain an impressive feature of the town. Standing up to 16ft high and over 6 feet thick, they originally stretched for almost three quarters of a mile from the west end of the castle all the way to the River Wye in the south, enclosing the medieval town, port and large open area of orchards and meadows.
Extensive sections of the wall still stand, along with the town gate and remains of several of the 10 semi-circular towers that stood at regular intervals.
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This shows one of the semi-circular towers which are built into the wall at intervals possibly as a form of re-inforcement.
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