North wall: New College
One-twelfth of the whole town wall was incorporated into New College (founded 1379), and it has survived virtually intact. It includes five bastions (Nos. 11–15).
Above: The city wall viewed from outside at the west side of New College. Unlike the other older buildings of the college, the bell tower (right) stands outside the wall. One bastion was cut through to give access to the Slype (where the moat formerly ran)
The north wall, viewed from inside
Detail of the rampart walk, with surviving stone steps, inside the wall
The Warden and Scholars of New College bound themselves and their successors:
to keep in reparation so much of the north and east wall of the said town that should include the said College, and that also they make a gate or postern on each side of the said wall at the extent of the College limits, to the end that the Mayor and Bailiffs of Oxford may, once every three years, enter and pass through them, to see whether the said wall be kept in a competent manner of reparation, and also that the commonalty of the said town might have free passage in times of war through the said posterns for the defence of the said town.
One of the hollow bastions: above, from outside the wall; below, from the inside
The north town wall in New College reaches the further eastern point of the medieval town, and then turns the corner and runs south.
Next: East Wall in New College