Derek Keene

Survey of medieval Winchester

By the fourteenth century Winchester had lost its former eminence, but in trades, manufactures, and population, as well as by virtue of its administrative and ecclesiastical role, the city was still one of the major provincial centres in England. This Survey is based on a reconstruction of the histories of the houses, plots, gardens, and fields in the city and suburbs between c. 1300 and c. 1540, although in many instances both earlier and later periods are also covered. The reconstruction takes the form of a gazetteer (Part ii) of 1,128 histories of properties, together with accounts of 56 parish churches and the international fair of St. Giles, all illustrated by detailed maps. There is also a biographical register (Part iii) concerning more than 8,000 property-holders, most of whom lived in Winchester. This is the first time that it has been possible to piece together such a precise and detailed picture of both the topgraphy and the inhabitants of a medieval town. Part i of the book contains a full discussion of the significance of this material and, in a manner relevant to an understanding of life in medieval towns in general, describes and defines such matters as the evolution of the physical environment, housing, land-tenure, property values, the parochial structure, the practice and organization of trades, and the ways in which the citizens of Winchester adapted to the declining status of their city.

A new study of London before the Great Fire

London is one of the best recorded of medieval cities. Yet the very bulk of the sources has in the past inhibited systematic enquiry, so that for many periods and aspects of its history the capital remains the unknown element in English urban affairs. The greatest quantity of records concerns property-holding, and one way of making sense of this forbidding mass of information is to reconstitute it in the form of histories of the properties to which it refers. Since the early eighteenth century this way of using urban records has been adopted from time to time in antiquarian studies which have thrown valuable light on conditions in English medieval towns. In particular H. E. Salters work on medieval Oxford inspired the present author to apply similar methods in a study of Winchester, which is now complete. Winchester pointed the way to London and to a means of remedying our great ignorance of that city.

Work in towns, 850-1850

Continuity and development in urban trades - problems of concepts and the evidence, Derek Keene craft and industry in Anglo-Scandinavian York, Dominic Tweddle artisans in the urban economy - the documentary evidence from York, Heather Swanson town and country in late medieval England - the hide and leather trade, Maryanne Kowaleski ceramic consumption and supply in early modern Amsterdam - local production and long-distance trade, Jan M.Baart women and work in sixteenth-century English towns, Michael Roberts the East London working community in the seventeenth century, Michael J.Power work, violence and community in early industrial Merthyr Tydfil, Chris Evans urbanization, social structure and population circulation in pre-industrial times - flows of people through Vadstena (Sweden) in the mid-nineteenth century, John Langton and Goran Hoppe the taxonomy of occupations in late eighteenth-century Westminster, Edmund M.Green working and moving in early nineteenth-century provincial towns, John A.Phillips defining urban work, Penelope J.Corfield.

Issues of water in medieval London to c. 1300

Water was essential to the commerce, sustenance and cleansing of medieval London and its inhabitants. The paper reviews technologies of supply, access and control, and the uses and risks associated with water during the citys formative period. It surveys the pleasures of water around the city, the paradoxes they involved, and the public supply as an expression of a growing civic culture. It emphasizes the interaction between natural environment, technology and institutions as a fruitful theme for medieval urban history.

Medieval London and its supply hinterlands

The essay reviews the impact of London’s demands for food, drink and fuel on the farming systems and specialisation in the regions from which it drew supplies. Focusing on the well-recorded period around 1,300, when London was a major but second-ranking European city, it makes comparisons with other European cities in the same period and with London in later centuries, as the city developed a world role. Despite its small size by modern standards, medieval London’s impact on its hinterland was distinct, dynamic, highly commercialised and extensive. It shaped rural landscapes and agrarian practices in ways which in key respects conform to modern theories of spatial specialisation. London’s environmental influence operated within an international context, where the opening up of distant resources could affect choices concerning specialisation in and close to the city. Demographic change and shifts in consumption arising from changing standards of living were also influential. This left a marked ‘urban footprint’ in production, marketing and the generation of waste. Moreover, its distinctive political context influenced London’s attitude towards managing its supply chains, differentiating it from many of its European counterparts. Medieval observers recognised those landscapes and their connection with the city, but did not theorise them in present-day terms.

Cities and Empires

This article reflects on the ways in which cities—from the ancient world to the present and in four continents—have expressed and transmitted imperial ideas. Different types of empires are considered: territorial, commercial, nomadic, dispositional, and reactive. The cities themselves might be central sites of rule, often incorporating symbols of power imported from earlier empires; outposts of commerce or rule; military encampments; or some mixture of these. Strategies of imperial rule and the forms of the cities themselves are often shaped by the traditions of the ruling group or by reference to the political and cosmological systems of other empires deemed worthy of emulation. At the same time, the city forms and governmental structures of lands taken into an empire often are absorbed and used by the empire itself, sometimes even after the empire has been dissolved.

Tall Buildings in Medieval London: Precipitation, Aspiration and Thrills

Abstract This paper reviews the heights of buildings in London between c.1090 and 1666. Religious, military, aristocratic and civic buildings were often conspicuously taller than other structures, reflecting aspirations to reach towards heaven (as in the case of the Tower of Babel) and the assertion of individual or collective pride, identity, power and authority. Tall buildings, especially towers and spires, featured prominently in depictions of the city and informed wider perceptions of its identity. On the river frontage, on London Bridge and elsewhere, they were exploited as the backdrop to ceremonial occasions. In contrast, the heights of domestic and commercial structures were determined largely by land values, themselves reflecting demand for commercial sites. By 1300, three-storey houses were common and by 1650, houses of six storeys were a feature of central districts, a pattern evident in other cities of similar size and not significantly altered until after 1860. Throughout the period, people took pleasure in the use of tall buildings for recreation: to enjoy the air, to view the prospect across the city and surrounding countryside and as affording elevated private places in which to entertain family and friends. The height of buildings and its association with the rise and fall of reputations were among the continuing excitements of metropolitan life.

Roots and Branches of Power, 1000–1300

Abstract London owes its identity as a city to the Romans, but little to them in its form of government. With the renewed growth of London from A.D. 600 onwards, the importance of royal authority and officials in the management of its affairs emerges as a central and continuing theme. The city was not the seat of powerful early kings, but its commercial wealth and large population increasingly attracted their attention and shaped the realm. By A.D. 1000, the other source of authority in London, the complex customs and practices of its inhabitants, was already apparent. The tension between these two expressions of power, and their interdependence, quickly emerged as central themes in the history of Londons government and remain so to this day. By 1300 a powerful system of collective governance had emerged in London which nevertheless owed much to the state of which it was now the capital. Notable features of that system were its complexity, especially in the local articulation of government; the significance of informal and non-secular modes of association in mobilising power; the difficulty of identifying London in straightforward administrative structures; and the attribution of responsibility for particular services ad hoc bodies.

Hors D'Oeuvres: Archaeology and the History of English Towns

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