Talk:Newcastle town wall

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Good article GA This article has been rated as GA-Class on the assessment scale
Mid This article has been rated as mid-Importance on the importance scale.
Good article Newcastle town wall has been listed as one of the Geography and places good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
March 1, 2008 Good article nominee Listed

[edit] GA review

I've reviewed this article according to the good article criteria and I've decided to put it on hold while a few things I think need some attention are addressed.

  • This article could really do with a graphic showing the layout of the walls, but I won't refuse to list it if one can't be found or produced during the hold period. Y Done
  • "The town wall was constructed during the 13th century to repel Scottish invaders". The lead says that it waas constructed in the 13th and 14th centuries.Y Done I think a little bit of context would be useful here as well. Why were the Scottish invading? Had there been many invasions? What did the Scots do when they invaded? Did they ever actually occupy the town, or was it small-scale cross border raids? How far is Newcastle from the Scottish border? Was the wall effective in controlling the invasions? Y Done
  • "In the original plan, the castle was to be included in the wall ...". What castle? Y Done
  • "One or two were to be left open to allow seamen to return to their ships, but these were to be watched all night." The tense isn't right here. What about something like "One or two were left open ... but they were watched all night"? Y Done
  • "The towers projected out from the walls and were within bowshot of each other, so that attackers trying to scale the walls were exposed to fire from the towers." I'm not sure what this is trying to say. Attackers would be within bowshot range whether or not the towers were within bowshot range of each other. Is this suggesting that attackers would be subjected to the crossfire from two towers? Y Done
  • "The town wall was kept in good repair whilst there was a threat of invasion from the Scots, but with the decline of the border wars between England and Scotland, the walls were allowed to deteriorate." When did this begin to happen? Y Done
  • How did the Scottish armies manage to breach the wall during the English Civil War? Artillery? Y Done
  • "Today, only a few sections of the wall remain." Today is a word that needs a context. As at 2008, for instance? Y Done
  • "The ditch was over eleven metres wide and four and a half metres deep in front of the Herber and Morden Towers." Needs a metric to imperial conversion. Y Done
  • I think the lead is a little on the short side, and could do a better job of summarising the article. Y Done


The article is close to GA, well-referenced, and I don't think any of the issues I've listed above are major, so I'm looking forward to being able to pass this article as soon as they're satisfactorily addressed. Nice work so far. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 19:26, 28 February 2008 (UTC)


  • "A special tax, or "murage", was levied by the borough to pay for the construction ...". By this point in the article, Newcastle has been called a town, a city and a borough. What was it in 1265? --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 00:54, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

According to the article "History of Newcastle upon Tyne", Newcastle was not granted city status until 1882, so I think that town or borough would be appropriate. Dposte46 (talk) 10:16, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I've changed that then. I still think that the lead is a little on the short side. Would anyone like to have a bash at expanding it just a little, say to something like double its present size? --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 14:28, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
I'm working on that now. Dbam Talk/Contributions 15:32, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
It's done. Dbam Talk/Contributions 15:59, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GA passed

Thanks for the great work that's been done on this article; it's a pleasure to be able to list it as a GA now. well done to all the editors who've contributed. --Malleus Fatuorum (talk) 19:39, 1 March 2008 (UTC)