Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:26:08.392Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Piped water supplies managed by civic bodies in medieval English towns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2014

JOHN S. LEE
JOHN S. LEE*
Affiliation:
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, King's Manor, York, YO1 7EP, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When John Leland toured England in the 1540s, he observed water conduits in several towns, including a number of smaller urban centres. Subsequent historians and archaeologists, however, have seriously understated the number and importance of piped water systems in English towns. This article uses studies of individual towns, together with civic records and Leland's Itinerary, to examine the sources and technologies of urban water supplies, the origins of civic piped water systems, their relationships to other local systems, finance, management and oversight. It will argue that the growth in piped supplies by civic bodies in the later Middle Ages reflects the importance of charitable provision and the efforts of civic authorities to establish, maintain and regulate them. An appendix lists medieval English towns known to have provided public access to piped water supplies by c. 1550.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , August 2014 , pp. 369 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 An earlier version of this article was presented at Sowing the Seeds and the Centre for Economic History, University of Reading: an early career workshop on medieval urban community and public space in March 2012. My thanks to James Davis, Catherine Casson and Christian Liddy and to the anonymous referees for their comments.

2 Smith, L. Toulmin (ed.), The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the Years 1535–1543, 5 vols. (London, 1964)Google Scholar (hereafter Itinerary). See the appendix to this article for these references.

3 Holt, R., ‘Medieval England's water-related technologies’, in Squatriti, P. (ed.), Working with Water in Medieval Europe. Technology and Resource-use (Leiden, 2000), 97–8Google Scholar.

4 Keene, D., ‘Issues of water in medieval London to c. 1300’, Urban History, 28 (2001), 161–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Magnusson, R.J., Water Technology in the Middle Ages: Cities, Monasteries and Waterworks after the Roman Empire (Baltimore, 2001)Google Scholar; Bond, C.J., ‘Water management in the rural monastery’, in Gilchrist, R. and Mytum, H. (eds.), The Archaeology of Rural Monasteries (British Archaeological Reports British Series, 203, Oxford, 1989), 83–111Google Scholar; Bond, C.J., ‘Water management in the urban monastery’, in Gilchrist, R. and Mytum, H. (eds.), Advances in Monastic Archaeology (British Archaeological Reports, British Series, 227, Oxford, 1993), 43–78Google Scholar; Bond, J., ‘Monastic water management in Great Britain: a review’, in Keevil, G., Aston, M. and Hall, T. (eds.), Monastic Archaeology: Papers on the Study of Medieval Monasteries (Oxford, 2001), 88–136Google Scholar. Studies of continental Europe include Squatriti, P., Water and Society in Early Medieval Italy AD 400–1000 (Cambridge, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gläser, M. (ed.), Lübecker Kolloquium zur Stadtarchäologie im Hanseraum IV: Die Infrastruktur (Lübeck, 2004)Google Scholar; Guillerme, A., The Age of Water: The Urban Environment in the North of France, AD 300–1800 (Texas, 1988)Google Scholar; Kucher, M., ‘The use of water and its regulation in medieval Siena’, Journal of Urban History, 31 (2005), 504–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Squatriti, Water, 2.

6 Davis, J., Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200–1500 (Cambridge, 2012), 189Google Scholar; Duckham, B.F., The Yorkshire Ouse (Newton Abbot, 1967), 34–6Google Scholar.

7 Bond, ‘Urban monastery’; Bond, ‘Rural monastery’; Bond, ‘Monastic water management’.

8 Victoria County History (hereafter VCH) Yorkshire: East Riding, vol. VI, 223.

9 Blair, J. (ed.), Waterways and Canal Building in Medieval England (Oxford, 2007), 4–9, 155–206Google Scholar.

10 Keene, D., Survey of Medieval Winchester (Oxford, 1985), 56Google Scholar.

11 Clarke, Helenet al., Sandwich: The ‘Completest Medieval Town in England’: A Study of the Town and Port from its Origins to 1600 (Oxford, 2010), 36–7Google Scholar.

12 Magnusson, Water Technology, 63–4; Bond, ‘Monastic water management’, 93–4.

13 Blair, I.et al., ‘Wells and bucket-chains: unforeseen elements of water supply in early Roman London’, Britannia, 37 (2006), 1–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Colvin, H.M.et al., The History of the King's Works, 6 vols. (London, 1963–82), vol. I, 520Google Scholar.

15 Owen, D.M. (ed.), The Making of King's Lynn: A Documentary Survey (Oxford, 1984), 196Google Scholar; Parker, V., The Making of King's Lynn (London, 1971), 162–3Google Scholar.

16 Keene, Winchester, 1084.

17 Salzman, L.F., Building in England down to 1540: A Documentary History (Oxford, 1952), 278Google Scholar.

18 Stow, John, A Survey of London, ed. Kingsford, C.L., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1908)Google Scholar (hereafter Survey), vol. I, 138, 164, 192, 292.

19 Magnusson, Water Technology, 167–72.

20 Holt, R., The mills of medieval England (Oxford, 1988), 130–58Google Scholar.

21 Biddle, M., Winchester in the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 1976), 283–4Google Scholar; Keene, Winchester, 57.

22 See appendix.

23 Magnusson, Water Technology, x, 6, 11; Keene, ‘Issues’, 174.

24 See appendix.

25 See appendix.

26 Debenham, L.S., ‘Scarborough's water supply: the influence of water on the expansion and prosperity of Victorian Scarborough and on later events’, Scarborough and District Archaeological Society Transactions, 2 (1972), 4, 19–20Google Scholar.

27 Magnusson, Water Technology, 33; Moorman, J.R.H., The Grey Friars in Cambridge 1225–1538 (Cambridge, 1952), 52–4Google Scholar; Willis, R. and Clark, J.W., The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge and of the Colleges of Cambridge and Eton, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1886, vols. I–III, reprinted 1988), vol. II, 427–9, 678–80Google Scholar.

28 Fullbrook-Leggatt, L.E.W.O., ‘The water supplies of the abbey of St Peter and the priory of the Grey Friars, Gloucester, from Robinswood Hill’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 87 (1968), 113–15Google Scholar.

29 Lewis, D., ‘“For the poor to drink and the rich to dress their meat”: the first London water conduit’, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 55 (2004), 57Google Scholar.

30 Langdon, J., Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540 (Oxford, 2004), 200Google Scholar.

31 Bristol Record Office, P/StJB/D/2/11; Warden, R. Hall, ‘Some additional ecclesiastical seals of Bristol’, Proceedings of the Clifton Antiquarian Club, 3 (1893–6), 195–9Google Scholar; Croane, H.A. (ed.), Bristol Charters 1378–1499, Bristol Record Society 11 (Bristol, 1946), 188–91Google Scholar.

32 Stevenson, W.H. (ed.), Calendar of the Records of the Corporation of Gloucester (Gloucester, 1893), 391–2Google Scholar; Platt, C., Medieval Southampton: The Port and Trading Community, AD 1000–1600 (London, 1973), 144Google Scholar.

33 Clarke et al., Sandwich, 134.

34 Devon Historic Environment Record: Juddery, J.Z. and Stoyle, M.J., ‘The aqueducts of medieval Exeter’, Exeter Archaeology Report, 95.44 (1995)Google Scholar.

35 Parker, Lynn, 163; Magnusson, Water Technology, 165.

36 Stocker, D.A., ‘The archaeology of the Reformation in Lincoln. A case study in the redistribution of building materials in the mid-sixteenth century’, Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, 25 (1990), 18–32Google Scholar.

37 Bond, ‘Urban monastery’, 63; Keene, ‘Issues’, 171–4; Survey, vol. I, 15.

38 Keene, ‘Issues’, 178; Burch, M., Treveil, P. and Keene, D., The Development of Early Medieval and Later Poultry and Cheapside. Excavations at 1 Poultry and Vicinity, City of London, Museum of London Archaeology Monograph Series 38 (London, 2011), 179–82Google Scholar.

39 Bond, ‘Monastic water management’, 113.

40 Magnusson, Water Technology, 14.

41 See appendix; Palliser, D.M. (ed.), The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol. I: 600–1540 (Cambridge, 2000) (hereafter CUHB), 396–7, 761–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Rawcliffe, C. and Wilson, R., Medieval Norwich (London, 2004), 308–9, 411 n. 33Google Scholar; VCH Yorkshire: City of York, 117–20.

43 Jones, E., ‘Historical records of Newport, co. Salop’, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, 8 (1885), 248Google Scholar. Population based on 88 taxpayers assessed in 1525: Sheail, J., The Regional Distribution of Wealth in England as Indicated in the 1524/5 Lay Subsidy Returns, ed. Hoyle, R.W., List and Index Society, special series, 28, 2 vols. (Kew, 1998), vol. II, 273Google Scholar.

44 CUHB, 505–6.

45 Survey, vol. I, 18.

46 Based on known costs for the extension to the conduit in 1442, the cost of constructing the first conduit has been estimated at around £1,900: Lewis, ‘“For the poor”’, 56.

47 CUHB, 280, 470.

48 Dyer, A., Decline and Growth in English Towns 1400–1640, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1995), 39–42Google Scholar.

49 Harrison, D., The Bridges of Medieval England: Transport and Society 400–1800 (Oxford, 2004), 208–13Google Scholar; CUHB, 470; Harvey, E., ‘Pavage grants and urban street paving in medieval England, 1249–1462’, Journal of Transport History, 3rd ser., 31 (2010), 151–63Google Scholar.

50 Survey, vol. I, 128, 173, 283.

51 Jones, P.E., ‘Whittington's longhouse’, London Topographical Record, 23 (1972), 27–34Google Scholar.

52 Survey, vol. I, 18–19, 128, 173, 283.

53 Hirst, H.C.M., ‘Redcliffe conduit, Bristol, and Robert de Berkeley’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 46 (1924), 353–62Google Scholar.

54 Juddery and Stoyle, ‘Aqueducts’, ix; VCH East Riding, vol. I, 371.

55 Platt, Southampton, 144, 233.

56 Itinerary, vol. IV, 92; Brewer, J.S., Gairdner, J. and Brodie, R.H. (eds.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 2nd edn, 23 vols. (London, 1862–1932), vol. IV, part 2, no. 4591Google Scholar.

57 The National Archives, C 1/299/52, C 1/331/88.

58 2 Kings 20: 20; 2 Chronicles 32: 30; Isaiah 12: 3, 44: 3; John 4: 6–15; Revelation 21:6.

59 Harris, M.D. (ed.), The Coventry Leet Book, Early English Text Society, Old Series, 134, 135, 138, 146 (London, 1907 –13), vol. I, 105, 208Google Scholar.

60 Survey, vol. I, 26.

61 Itinerary, vol. I, 145.

62 Kreider, A., English Chantries: The Road to Dissolution (Cambridge, MA, 1979), 69Google Scholar.

63 Riley, H.T. (ed.), Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth and XVth Centuries. AD 1276–1419 (London, 1868), 77, 107Google Scholar.

64 Ibid., 201–2, 264–5; Burch et al., Poultry and Cheapside, 181.

65 Burch et al., Poultry and Cheapside, 182.

66 Sharpe, R.R. (ed.), Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London, 12 vols. (London, 1899–1912), vol. H, 116, 127–8, vol. K, 234, 249, 318Google Scholar; Barron, C.M., London in the Middle Ages: A Government and People, 1200–1500 (Oxford, 2004), 257CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 Harris (ed.), Coventry Leet Book, 516, 586–7.

68 Jones, ‘Newport’, 251; Robins, F.W., The story of water supply (London, 1946), 134Google Scholar.

69 Clarke et al., Sandwich, 134; Rawcliffe, C., ‘Sources for the study of public health in the medieval city’, in Rosenthal, J.T. (ed.) Understanding Medieval Primary Sources (Abingdon, 2012), 183Google Scholar.

70 Lea-Jones, J., ‘The history and development of a thirteenth-century lead water conduit: the Carmelites’ Friary pipe, Bristol, England’, in Bork, R. (ed.), De Re Metallica: The Uses of Metal in the Middle Ages (Aldershot, 2005), 232Google Scholar; VCH Gloucestershire, vol. IV, 262.

71 Clarke et al., Sandwich, 226; Juddery and Stoyle, ‘Aqueducts’, xi; Mayhew, G., Tudor Rye (Brighton, 1987), 29Google Scholar.

72 Davis, Medieval Market Morality, 179–86.

73 Riley (ed.), Memorials, 148.

74 Harris (ed.), Coventry Leet Book, 208, 584.

75 Shaw, D.G., The Creation of a Community: The City of Wells in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1993), 132–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Keene, Winchester, 64, 258; Carr, D.R., ‘Controlling the butchers in late medieval English towns’, The Historian, 70 (2008), 450–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

77 Harris (ed.), Coventry Leet Book, 208, 517, 788, 808–9, 812.

78 Bickley, F.B. (ed.), The Little Red Book of Bristol, 2 vols. (Bristol, 1900), vol. II, 229–30Google Scholar.

79 Riley (ed.), Memorials, 77, 107.

80 Ibid., 200–1, 225, 617.

81 Keene, Winchester, 64.

82 Clarke et al., Sandwich, 141; VCH Essex, vol. IX, 104, 290; Palmer, W.M. (ed.), Cambridge Borough Documents (Cambridge, 1931), 84, 95, 135Google Scholar.

83 ‘Let’ in the sense of ‘to allow the escape of (confined fluid)’: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn 1989, online version www.oed.com/view/Entry/107496, accessed 9 Jun. 2012.

84 Harris (ed.), Coventry Leet Book, 104–5.

85 Ibid., 21, 157.

86 Ibid., 189–90, 585.

87 VCH Gloucestershire, vol. IV, 262; Harris (ed.), Coventry Leet Book, 549.

88 Davis, Medieval Market Morality, 263–70.

89 Sharpe (ed.), Letter-Books, vol. L, 160.

90 Davis, Medieval Market Morality, 221–2.

91 Riley (ed.), Memorials, 205.

92 VCH Oxfordshire, vol. IV, 354; VCH Essex, vol. IX, 290.

93 Rawcliffe, ‘Public health’; Jørgensen, D., ‘Local government responses to urban river pollution in late medieval England’, Water History, 2 (2010), 35–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

94 Davis, Medieval Market Morality, 234, 236, 260, 271; Lee, J.S., ‘Grain shortages in medieval towns’, in Dodds, B. and Liddy, C.D. (eds.), Commercial Activity, Markets and Entrepreneurs in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of Richard Britnell (Woodbridge, 2011), 70–2Google Scholar.

95 Dyer, C., Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England c. 1200–1520 (Cambridge, 1989), 93, 159, 251, 272CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

96 S. Alsford (ed.), Medieval English Towns website http://users.trytel.com/tristan/towns/ly1390b.html accessed 9 Jun. 2012

97 Lewis, ‘“For the poor”’, 57.

98 Lee, J.S., ‘The functions and fortunes of English small towns at the close of the Middle Ages: evidence from John Leland's Itinerary’, Urban History, 37 (2010), 19–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

99 D.R. Carr (ed.), The First General Entry Book of the City of Salisbury 1387–1452, Wiltshire Record Society 45 (1998), 242.

100 Stevenson, W.H. (ed.), Rental of all the Houses of Gloucester by Robert Cole (Gloucester, 1890), facing 1Google Scholar.

101 Survey, vol. II, 41.

102 Wickham, G., Early English Stages 1300 to 1660, 3 vols., 2nd edn (London, 1980), vol. I, 54–8Google Scholar; Manley, L., Literature and Culture in Early Modern London (Cambridge, 1995), 223–33Google Scholar; Barron, London, 19–20.

103 City of Exeter Museums and Art Gallery, Exeter's Underground Passages (Exeter, 1994), 17Google Scholar.

104 Liddy, C.D., ‘Bill casting and political communication: a public sphere in late medieval English towns?’, in Telechea, J.A.S. and Bolumburu, B.A. (eds.), La Gobernanza de la Ciudad Europea en la Edad Media (Logroño, 2011), 447–61Google Scholar.

105 English Heritage, Designation Scheduling Selection Guide: Utilities (2012), 8.

106 Birch et al., Poultry and Cheapside, 152; Jenner, M.S.R., ‘From conduit community to commercial network? Water in London, 1500–1725’, in Griffiths, P. and Jenner, M.S.R. (eds.), Londinopolis: Essays in the Cultural and Social History of Early Modern London (Manchester, 2000), 260–2Google Scholar; Debenham, ‘Scarborough's water supply’; Magnusson, Water Technology, 165–6.

107 Thomas, J.H., Town Government in the Sixteenth Century (London, 1933), 61–2Google Scholar.

108 Jenner, ‘Conduit community’.

109 Dobson, R.B., ‘Urban decline in late medieval England’, in Holt, R. and Rosser, G. (eds.), The Medieval Town. A Reader in English Urban History 1200–1540 (Harlow, 1990), 272–5Google Scholar.

110 Rexroth, F., Deviance and Power in Late Medieval London (Cambridge, 2007), 73, 102–4, 108Google Scholar; Rawcliffe, ‘Public health’, 192; Jørgensen, ‘Local government responses’; Rawcliffe, C., ‘Health and safety at work in late medieval East Anglia’, in Harper-Bill, C. (ed.), Medieval East Anglia (Woodbridge, 2005), 130–51Google Scholar.

111 CUHB, 178.

112 Jenner, ‘Conduit community’.

113 CUHB, 331.

114 Lee, ‘Small towns’, 23.

115 Magnusson, R., ‘Public and private urban hydrology: water management in medieval London’, in Walton, S.A. (ed.), Wind and Water in the Middle Ages. Fluid Technologies from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Tempe, 2006), 184Google Scholar.

116 Lewis, ‘“For the poor”’, 57; Juddery and Stoyle, ‘Aqueducts’, xvi; Statutes of the Realm (1101–1713), Record Commission, 11 vols. (London, 1808–28), vol. III, 873–4, 967–9.

117 Clark, Peter (ed.), Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol. II: 1540–1840 (Cambridge, 2000), 311CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

118 CUHB, 367.