Denbigh (NPRN 33082) is made up of two distinct parts, the walled upper town and the much larger lower town (NPRN 33083). The upper town was founded with the castle (NPRN 95209) after 1282 and recieved its charter between 1283 & 1290. This lists 47 burgage or house plots. The town walls, with its great towers and gates (NPRN 94723), enclose the 4.7ha hilltop from where the ground falls away precipitously except on the north. Here the Burgess Gate (NPRN 309175) gives access to the market place of the lower or 'merchants' town'. A chapel was built in about 1300 (NPRN 94724) and its tower still remains. The upper town was largely deserted by the later sixteenth century, when a new church, St David's (NPRN 93307) was begun within its walls.

Sources: Butler 'Denbigh Castle, Town Walls & Friary' DoE Guide (1976)
Beresford 'New Towns of the Middle Ages' revised edition (1988), 547-8

John Wiles 07.03.08