Norwich's residents from all backgrounds had a duty to preserve the condition of communal spaces. In the following sections of this chapter, we will look first at the legal frameworks, customary obligations and mandates by which residents and governors attempted to enforce observance of this duty from the close of the thirteenth century onwards, before narrowing our focus to examine civic attitudes to waste in the period 1530–70 (that is, in the immediate wake of the publication of the reformed version of Airs, Waters, Places). Over this period of about 250 years, we will observe particular constants: the supposed importance of the purity of water and air to human health; the responsibilities of householders and property owners to the civic environment; the relative importance of particular types of urban space or plots (of central or peripheral tracts, visible or hidden ones). The mechanisms for removing waste (hand tools, human and animal muscle power, transportation by cart and boat) were also common across time periods, scaled up or down according to (perceived) need. The story is, however, also one of change and evolution; from the 1530s if not earlier, the ruling aldermanic class assumed the role of guardians of cleanliness (albeit largely for their own benefit), and they were duly held accountable by the residents for their performance.

Reports and regulations: legislating for cleanliness

The earliest extant records of public health from Norwich comprise a series of documents recording fines imposed upon residents in courts held within each of the city's wards and their sub-wards (or ‘leets’) (map 2). These were assemblies where neighbours were able to present people in their community who committed a range of offences, including actively polluting the local surroundings. In the words of one historian, such courts were ‘the bedrock of civic administration in England and were the lowest and most immediate … units through which a town could be governed’. The first Norwich leet courts for which evidence survives were convened in 1287. A royal prohibition against allowing debris to accumulate in Norwich's waterways had recently come into force, and this led to a series of prosecutions regarding drainage and waste disposal. Complaints ranged from problems relating to the smallest gutters to very serious cases of pollution in the river Wensum.