The coat of arms of Chesterfield shows as its crest a ram, the traditional symbol of Derbyshire, standing atop a mural crown, or circlet made of stone or brick. This was traditionally given only to towns with defensive walls.
From the point of view of the king, one of the key advantages of making a town a borough was that he thereby gained a fortified place, the inhabitants of which were loyal to him instead of to some local noble. If there were any civil unrest, and King John had suffered more than his fair share of that, the king could send troops to garrison a town knowing that it had defences and that it could serve as a base for operations in the area.
Boroughs were usually assessed for the militia, and some kept a town guard composed of a small number of men permanently on duty. In the event of invasion or disturbance, the inhabitants of local villages could pour into the borough to shelter behind its walls until the danger had passed.
The nature of the town walls at Chesterfield has long been a matter of controversy. Not only are there no town walls today, but there is no trace of them in Tudor or Stuart times when most towns were dismantling their medieval fortifications. However, the town’s coat of arms feature a mural crown, a crown around the helmet on top of the coat of arms that is composed of stones. This device was traditionally restricted to towns with walls, though there were exceptions.
Archeological digs in Chesterfield have shown that the hill crowned by the Church of St Mary and All Saints was formerly occupied by an iron age village and a Roman army fort. The site was naturally easy to defend, with rivers on two sides and fairly steep slopes leading up to the summit. The southern edge of the Roman fort was south of Church Lane and its eastern edge along what is now Station Road. The northern and western sides of the fort are unclear, but it probably covered about 7 acres.
The medieval town occupied much the same area as the Roman fort. What appears to have been the medieval ditch outside the walls has been found in Station Road. This was a wide, V-shaped ditch about 15 feet deep. Broken pottery shows that it was filled in during the later 15th century. If this ditch is what remains of the medieval town walls then nothing of any actual wall has survived. However, comparison with similar structures elsewhere shows what the town walls would have been like in 1266.
The earth excavated from the ditch would have been piled up behind the ditch to form a mound of earth. This served to increase the vertical distance from the bottom of the ditch back up to the ground surface. The mound would have been constrained within wooden revetments to keep it in place. On top of the mound would have been placed a wooden palisade around four feet tall. The actual top of the mound may have been left as bare earth, or may have had a wooden walkway laid on top of it. The defenders of the town would have stood on the walkway and sheltered behind the palisade when fighting any attackers. The ground immediately outside the ditch would have been cleared of trees, bushes and buildings to a distance of around 300 feet or so. This was so that no attackers could creep up to the walls unobserved.
By the standards of the mid-13th century, these walls were obsolete and next to useless. Techniques to overcome earth and timber defences were well known, so even a mediocre commander of a small army could expect to be inside Chesterfield within a day or two. Given that the town guard was likely to be as poorly put together as the town walls it may not have taken even that long. Most towns of any size had stone walls by this date, usually with towers and sophisticated gatehouses. Presumably the town walls of Chesterfield were more for monitoring those attending the market than for any real attempt at defence.
Coat of Arms: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21364900
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