town, medieval

During the Middle Ages, towns in England developed as centres of trade, and as administrative centres. In 1066 there were only about six English towns with more than 4,000 inhabitants; even London's population only numbered about 20,000. Many towns grew up as market towns, selling the produce of the local countryside. Others developed as ports, exporting wool and importing goods such as wine, spices, and silk. By 1500 Norwich, Bristol, and Newcastle had more than 10,000 inhabitants, and London probably had a population of 150,000.

Organization Many growing towns were controlled by the local lord, but the townspeople could appeal to the king to grant them a charter. This released them from their duties to the lord of the manor, and gave the townspeople the right to choose a mayor and council to govern themselves. They also gained the right to collect their own taxes, to hold a regular market, and to hold courts and try criminals. In return the towns had to pay an annual tallage to the crown; Lincoln's tallage in 1206 was £400. Craftspeople could set up workshops in the towns. At first their activities were controlled by merchant guilds, whose main purpose was to further the interests of their members, and exclude strangers from the benefits of their membership. Later the crafts organized themselves into separate guilds, such as the weavers guild and the goldsmiths. It soon became impossible to prosper, or sometimes even to practice a trade, without being a member of the appropriate guild. The chief officers of the guilds were often members of the town council. Villeins (serfs) who ran away to a town for a year and a day could gain their freedom.

Conditions Towns were places of safety; a town wall kept out attackers, and their gates controlled entry. Inside the walls, the centre of most towns was the church and the market place, and houses were often packed together down narrow streets, which radiated outwards from the market place. Streets were sometimes cobbled, but were often little more than mud alleys. To gain more space, householders built the upper storeys of their half-timbered houses projecting out over the lower storeys, a practice known as oversailing, which made the streets even darker. The inhabitants thought nothing about tossing a bucket of water - or worse - onto the heads of passers-by. Towns were noisy places. Carts, pack-horses, and herds of animals passed through the streets, shops advertised their trade with large shop signs that would swing and creak, street traders and shopkeepers shouted out their wares, and the town crier would shout out local news. There were frequent fights and quarrels, and a person who had been robbed might raise a hue and cry to chase the thief.

Public health was a problem; although most towns had rules about leaving rubbish and litter in the street, these were not always enforced. Many medieval towns had bath houses, but they were places of ill-repute. At 8 p.m. a bell rang for curfew, and people were supposed to return home. Anyone found walking about at night might be locked up on suspicion of being involved in a criminal activity.