An examination of uses of late medieval urban social space: Coventry and Leicester

ABSTRACT

A multi-disciplinary approach allows us to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge about late medieval urban spaces and how they were used. In particular, the mapping of data onto colour-coded maps permits a view of social zoning hitherto not previously examined. While the vast and disparate data cannot often be used with precision, a sampled approach focusing on core and peripheral areas is sufficient to provide at least a schematic picture of the use of social space in towns, and the results highlight a number of urban developments. The fifteenth century appears to be one of great change in the way that large towns were organised economically and socially, and with more social zoning than has previously been recognized.

Notes

1. Detailed studies of individual provincial towns include Winchester (Keene 1985); Norwich (Rawcliffe and Wilson 2004); Chester (Laughton 2008); York (Palliser 2014). An exception is Gloucester and Worcester (Baker and Holt 2004).

2. Accounts of Coventry’s early development can be found in Coss (1986), Lilley (1995) and Bassett (2001)

3. Trinity Guild Enfeoffment PA B/P/14/15; Partial 1534 Trinity Guild rental, Templeman (1944, 125-139)

4. Muster, 1522, Coventry Archives, PA/96/24/1

5. Coventry Lay Subsidy 1525, National Archives E179/192/120

6. Coventry Lay Subsidy 1524, National Archives E179/192/119

7. Enumeration 1523, Coventry Archives, PA/BA/11/17/1; PA/263/2 (1957/7).

8. Coventry Archive PA/1/2

9. William Brooke album, Herbert Visual Arts Collection 2010.50.VA

10. Conference on the St Mary’s Hall Tapestry, 27 September 2018, St Mary’s Hall, Coventry

11. For the early development of Leicester, see Billson (1920), Courtney (1998) and Morris, Buckley, and Codd (2011).

12. Leicester Records Office BR11/18/1)

13. Jewry Wall Museum, A164.969 archive box 46 A302 box 3

14. E179/133/105 (1524); E179/133/106 (1525)

15. Mellor, J. (1973) ‘A302 1971 and A295 Excavations Medieval and Post-Medieval Levels. Draft site report, A164.969 archive box 46 A302 box 3.