THERE is a period in Southampton’s history which is never described at great length because it was one of dark days, impoverishment and dwindling importance.

Yet this is a time when it has its own peculiar interest and unusual features.

Southampton’s town walls, when they reached the completeness of their extent and strength, were such that any town might have been proud and they could compare with almost any similar defences in the country.

With the passing of the centuries, however, the increasing use of gunpowder in warfare, a feeling of great security caused by naval changes, which lessened the danger of raids up Southampton Water, the old walls decreased in importance.

The town itself declined in nearly every aspect of its life.

This was after a period of prosperity and power represented by the flourishing wine trade, during which many fine vaults were constructed, and after the success of the wool trade, which saw the building of the Wool Hall at the corner of Bugle Street and Porter’s Lane, when both commerce and architecture fell into decay.

This period added to the causes combining to bring Southampton low; when it was said that the life of the fine old town had never been at so low an ebb nor its walls, its streets and ancient buildings so pitifully neglected.

There was much poverty, too, among the locals; and so it came about that in order that these unfortunate ones might find some accommodation, they were in many cases housed in old chambers in the walls and in towers which had once echoed to the tramp of soldiers, while others entered houses which, with their great wooden beams, their handsome panelling, their vaulted ceilings, had once been occupied by men of wealth and influence.

Such places were left more or less to their fate, owners not feeling responsible for repairs when the receipts from them were so small, and so the condition of the town sank lower and lower still.

The streets and lanes themselves reflected the general neglect.

In the Middle Ages and also in Tudor times there had been more or less systematic paving of the streets.

The use of different types of material, and the fact that the new was merely superimposed on the old, had raised the level of the streets in some places many feet above the level of the earlier ground floors, so making access difficult.

It had also left the roadways rough and uneven and so those became even worse, while on top of this it was no longer the duty of inhabitants to keep the walls in good repair and so the walls began to crumble.

However a curious transformation began to take place, as one historian described: “Lichen, moss and other vegetation began to do its kindly work of softening jagged outlines and giving a touch of romantic charm to decay.

“Trees grew up, topping the ramparts and even in the midst of ruined towers originating from seeds dropped by birds in their flight across the town, while bushes and charming wild flowers made their appearance, sometime in the most unexpected places.”

In those days Southampton was much more plentifully provided with trees than in more modern times and there were many places, even within the walls, which presented an almost rural appearance.

There were orchards and gardens where trees and shrubs and flowers grew in profusion and in springtime the flowering trees were “glorious in the heavenly beauty of blossom and in the summer the air was heavy with garden scents”.

So during Southampton’s dark days a strange transformation “mysterious and lovely” took place.

Another historian wrote: “By the time the Georgian period had dawned, Southampton with its crumbling walls, its medieval gateways, in which portcullises still hung, its decaying ancient houses, its uneven streets, its partially ruined by-ways, yet all embowered in vegetation, presented a spectacle of picturesque decay, which, when taken in conjunction with its beautiful surroundings of hill, dale, woodland, common and stream, probably had scarcely an equal.”