The Anglo-Saxon city walls were maintained by a share of taxes on a local market and streets, in an agreement reinforced by a royal charter.

During the English Civil War in the 1640s the old medieval walls were reinforced with modern earthwork bastions and an outlying fort, called a sconce.

Post-war archaeology in the 1950s and 1960s and construction work in the 1970s revealed previously hidden stretches of the wall, and in the 21st century plans have been drawn up to improve the conservation and maintenance of this historic monument.

[9] The walls incorporated the old Roman fortifications on the south and south-east side of the city and appear to have included a defensive ditch, with a revetment supporting a wooden palisade.

[11] The local lords took responsibility for building the burh wall, which unusually for the period was not built on royal lands.

[14] In 1041 Worcester was attacked by the royal army of Harthacnut over a tax-dispute that had led to the death of two of the king's men; despite the defensive walls, the city was successfully taken and burnt.

[15] In 1066 William the Conqueror defeated the English army at the battle of Hastings and Norman forces advanced west into Worcestershire.

To reinforce their occupation, the Normans built a motte and bailey castle on the south side of the city, taking advantage of the shape of the existing burh walls.

[16] During the Anarchy (1135–1153) rival factions of King Stephen and the Empress Matilda contested the kingdom and Worcestershire proved to be a key battleground.

After an attempt to take the castle on the south side of the city, the Gloucester forces entered from the north, looting and burning.

[21] Enclosing about 85 acres (34.4 hectares), its design tracked the flow of natural streams to the north and east, and made use of the castle in the south as part of the defences.

Worcester sided with the rebels, and in July 1216 the city was attacked by forces under the command of Ranulf, the Earl of Chester.

[24] In the late 14th century a watergate was built in the western walls of the city, close to a slipway for launching boats.

[29] Worcester was occupied by Sir John Byron on 16 September 1642,[29] who was on his way to deliver wagons of silver plate from Oxford to the Charles I at Shrewsbury.

Byron realising that he could not hold Worcester with a Parliamentary army under the command of Earl of Essex already approaching city, he had sent a request to the King for additional forces to aid him.

The Parliamentarians were aware of Byron's mission and an advanced force under the command of Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes arrived at the Sidbury Gate early on 22 September.

Essex and his army treated Worcester as a hostile city, officially for letting the Royalists in without a fight, but also due to their frustration at losing the convoy of silver and the Battle of Powick Bridge.

[33] In the first few months of the First English Civil War although Worcester changed hands three times, only one musket shot was fired, so until the start of the short unsuccessful siege of May 1643 the medieval walls were not subjected to bombardment by an early modern artillery train.

[38] The Royalist commander Prince Maurice conscripted the adult men and women of Worcester to work on the walls, threatening the death penalty if they did not attend.

[45] During the next hundred years city and town walls across England began to be demolished to make way for new developments,[46] and Worcester proved no exception.

[45] The remains of Worcester's city walls were largely ignored until after the Second World War; limited archaeological excavations first began in 1957.

[49] The multiple ownership of the different parts of the city walls contributed to what English Heritage considered an "uncoordinated" approach to their conservation.