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Property rents in medieval English towns: Hull in the fourteenth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2018

CATHERINE CASSON Open the ORCID record for CATHERINE CASSON [Opens in a new window]  and
MARK CASSON
CATHERINE CASSON
Affiliation:
Manchester Enterprise Centre and the Innovation Management and Policy Division, Alliance Manchester Business School, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
MARK CASSON
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Reading, PO Box 217, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6AH, UK
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Abstract:

Property rents in medieval towns were an important source of income for property-owners including the king, local lords and civic authorities, and a significant expense for local residents. This article examines the causes of variation in property rents in fourteenth-century Hull, an important international port with unique records on plot dimensions. It illuminates the topography and growth of the port, identifying locations where rents were highest, and particular streets which attracted premium rents. Civic and mercantile property-owners are examined through reconstruction of their biographies and the impact of the identity of owners on rent levels is assessed.

Type
Dyos prize winner 2018
Information
Urban History , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , August 2019 , pp. 374 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

We would like to thank the referees for their suggestions. Support was also provided by staff at Archaeology Data Services, University of York, staff at the Bodleian Library Map Room, participants in the European Association for Urban History Conference 2016, staff at Hull History Centre, participants in the Port, City and Lives Conference, University of Liverpool, members of Manchester Medieval Society, participants in the Department of History Research Seminar at the University of Manchester, members of the University of Reading Centre for Institutions and Economic History, Michael Charno, Heidi Deneweth, Richard Holt, Rosemary Horrox, Maryanne Kowaleski, Joseph Lampel, Steve Rigby, Elisabeth Salter and Bruce Tether.

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50 It is very probable that many of these properties were sublet at higher rents on short- or medium-term leases. These rents could fluctuate in response to short-run changes as distinct from the rents analysed here, which basically reflect rents paid to the king set in c. 1299, as explained above. Some of these rents may have remained unchanged over the period 1299–1347, but others may have altered as the properties of tenants who defaulted on their rents may have reverted to the king, who had the option to re-let the property at a different rent.

51 A further 18 properties are recorded but the information on them is insufficient for the purposes of this article.

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54 Estimates of depth have been derived by analysing the configurations of blocks of abutting properties. The ‘grid’ layout of the town means that a typical block of properties is approximately rectangular, and is bounded by four streets, usually two main streets and two side streets that intersect them. This facilitates an algebraic method of depth estimation. The length of a main street along one side of a block can be calculated by summing the recorded widths of the frontages of adjacent properties along the street between one corner and the next. Comparing the lengths of the opposite sides of the block provides an indication of whether the block is truly rectangular or not; it is truly rectangular only if the two are equal. If a block is truly rectangular then the sum of the depths of a pair of rear-abutting properties along the main streets will equal the lengths of the side streets to either side. Furthermore, if there is a common boundary line for all rear-abutting properties in a block then the rear-abutting properties along each main street will be of equal depth. If the properties along each of two parallel streets are of equal depth then this depth will be equal to half the length of an intersecting side street. Corner properties need to be treated somewhat differently. Side streets often included the blank side walls of corner properties. Since the length of side walls is not recorded, it must be inferred from another source. For example, if the other side of the side street contained a row of frontages of properties belonging to an adjacent block, then its length could be estimated by summing frontage widths for these properties. In most cases, however, an independent source is required. Archaeological evidence from rescue digs carried out in the 1970s suggested that the configuration of streets in the Old Town had remained basically unchanged from the medieval period, and it has not changed significantly in the 40 years since then. The most reliable source for the Old Town today is Ordnance Survey MasterMap, available online through Digimap, and this can be complemented by visual images and plans from Google Maps. Both MasterMap and Google Maps have straight-line distance measurement tools. Using information on the recorded widths of frontages, it can readily be confirmed that for Hull Old Town, the lengths of the sides of blocks along the main streets that are estimated from the medieval rental agree with the corresponding measurements from MasterMap to within a margin of 5%. The same result is obtained using Google Maps, although MasterMap and Google Maps do not always agree exactly. This information can also be verified directly using a walking tour of the Old Town. Using MasterMap and first-hand investigation, it is therefore possible to derive estimates of the lengths of medieval side streets. The archaeological evidence referred to above suggests that some rear-abuttals are irregular. Such irregularity complicates algebraic calculations, but it does not make them impossible. By combining rental information from historical deeds, archaeological evidence and contemporary mappings, academic experts, assisted by the city planning office, were able to reconstruct a map of property boundaries in medieval Hull, which was reproduced by Horrox and is reproduced again with permission here. This mapping reflects the best estimates of expert opinion. By using the map as a basis for calculation it is possible, in many cases, to generate estimates of unknown property depths from other known measurements conditional on the configuration of abuttals being correct. The use of algebraic methods also ensures that different depth estimates are consistent with each other, in the sense that they match each other and the street-level data referred to above. Where the algebraic method cannot be applied, depth estimates have not been provided and the corresponding plots have been omitted from the statistical analysis. Discussion of plots can also be found in Slater, T.R., ‘Planning English medieval “street towns”: the Hertfordshire evidence’, Landscape History, 26 (2004), 19–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bilson, John, ‘Wyke-upon-Hull in 1293’, Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, 26 (1920), 37–105Google Scholar, was consulted but unfortunately does not give sufficient detail for our purposes.

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61 Each street is represented in the regression by a dummy variable that takes a value of one if the property fronts onto the street in question, and is zero otherwise. As there are only a small number of properties fronting onto certain streets, these streets are combined with others when constructing dummy variables. Because every property fronts onto one of the listed streets, one of the streets needs to be taken as a control and dropped from the regression analysis; the coefficients on the other dummy variables are then interpreted as measuring impacts relative to the impact of the control. The southern section of Marketgate is taken as the control, together with a small number of properties on side streets nearby. It is chosen because there are a good number of properties on this street and rents there are representative of the town as a whole; this provides an opportunity for other streets to show either positive or negative deviation. Streets are identified throughout by their names as recorded in the rental.

62 For full discussion of the use of regression see Wooldridge, Econometrics, 24–47.

63 Lack of information on precise location means that properties outside the ditch have to be omitted from this analysis.

64 The rental premium is reflected in the value of the estimated coefficient shown in the table opposite the name of the street.

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74 Clarke, Pearson, Mate and Parfitt, Sandwich, 226–7.

75 Platt, Southampton, 43.

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