Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of plates and figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Urban rebuildings, urban transitions
- 2 Norwich, 1350–1660: continuity and change in an English provincial city
- 3 Medieval merchants’ houses, c.1350–1540
- 4 Early modern merchants’ houses, c.1540–1660
- 5 The urban elite: domestic space, social identity and civic authority
- 6 Medieval houses and the urban ‘great rebuilding’
- 7 Houses of the ‘middling sort’: buildings and the use of space
- 8 Housing the urban poor and immigrant communities
- Conclusions
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
3 - Medieval merchants’ houses, c.1350–1540
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of plates and figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Urban rebuildings, urban transitions
- 2 Norwich, 1350–1660: continuity and change in an English provincial city
- 3 Medieval merchants’ houses, c.1350–1540
- 4 Early modern merchants’ houses, c.1540–1660
- 5 The urban elite: domestic space, social identity and civic authority
- 6 Medieval houses and the urban ‘great rebuilding’
- 7 Houses of the ‘middling sort’: buildings and the use of space
- 8 Housing the urban poor and immigrant communities
- Conclusions
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
DOCUMENTARY sources, most importantly the descriptions of properties found in the sequence of deeds enrolled before the city court between 1284 and 1311 (Kelly et al. 1983), provide some information about the character of houses in the period before and after the Black Death. These documents are concerned with property transfers between Norwich's more substantial residents; the most important properties, called capital messuages, typically list a series of buildings and spaces such as ‘a hall, chamber and kitchen’. Property owners were also engaged in the sale of many other types of urban property, including shops, shops and solars, stalls in the marketplace, gardens, closes and kilns. The primary sequence of deeds comes to an end in the early fourteenth century, largely because of changes in recording procedures; however, individual deeds continue to be enrolled in the city's court books throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the wills of Norwich citizens also provide evidence for property ownership and transfer of a similar range of urban property types. Depositions before the city's leet court also provide more intimate glimpses of urban dwellings and spaces. For instance, in a shocking case in November 1263, eight men were charged with breaking into the gates and then the hall of Katherine, widow of Stephen Justice, while her husband's body was laid on a bier within, which they proceeded to burn; they also entered the more private chamber and stole goods including weapons and armour. The following year William le Alblaster and other men were accused of setting fire to the gate of the house of John de Belaya, suggesting another large courtyard property (Hudson and Tingey 1906, 204–6).
Archaeological excavations across the city have given us a great deal of information about building types and construction methods in the medieval city, and these are discussed in much greater length in Chapter 6. The majority of buildings, as we might expect, were built of timber posts or using a variety of clay-walling techniques. From the twelfth century onwards, however, some wealthier townspeople lived in stone houses. Two of these survive as standing structures in different states of preservation. The first of these is the north range of Wensum Lodge on King Street, a two-storeyed range at right angles to the street with a vaulted ground-floor undercroft and living accommodation above (this building is described in full below).
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- Houses and Society in Norwich, 1350–1660Urban Buildings in an Age of Transition, pp. 59 - 104Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2020