Express & Echo (City & East Devon Edition)
New plan to repair part of Roman wall
A NEW application to rebuild a section of Exeter’s historic Roman city wall has been submitted after it collapsed more than five years ago.
Repair plans have been delayed by concerns that the proposed method could cause further damage to the wall.
February marked five years since the section of the wall on Bartholomew Street East crumbled into the City Gate Hotel’s pub garden.
In July 2023, a planning application for a programme of repairs was submitted on behalf of Exeter City Council, which is responsible for maintaining the wall. The original application explained it was thought a nearby tree may have caused the collapse by cracking the masonry. The tree has since been removed and any dangerous brickwork taken down.
It was proposed that a concrete pile retaining wall and capping beam be installed below ground and behind the line of the existing wall. Tie rods were also to be installed between the Roman wall and the new retaining wall.
It was hoped that works would start in January 2024 and be completed by June 2024.
However Devon Archaeological Society and Devon Buildings Group questioned the council’s assertion that the section of the wall was not a listed structure or a scheduled monument.
The groups said a concrete pile retaining wall could cause “considerable” damage to below-ground parts of the city wall. They also said that the plans needed to include detailed recordings of masonry prior to the works beginning in order to prevent “important archaeological evidence” being “destroyed or obliterated”.
The original planning application was withdrawn and a revised one has now been submitted. It maintains the section of the wall is not a scheduled monument, but has proposed a new method of repair. Instead of a concrete pile retaining wall, it would reinforce the structure with a masonry retaining wall and install ground anchors.
In response to concerns over a lack of archaeological recording, the new application says there are plans for excavation works “under the supervision/guidance of the client-appointed archaeologists.”