Monument Type(s):

• TENEMENT (Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1901 AD)

Summary

The street block bounded by the High Street, Milk Street, Princess Street, and the Square. May also be defined as a plot series from the consistent character of its internal divisions.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events: None recorded

Description

The street block bounded by the High Street, Milk Street, Princess Street, and the Square. May also be defined as a plot series from the consistent character of its internal divisions. Sub-divided into smaller blocks by three (now two) passages passing through it from north to south (62431-33); these are likely to be secondary features, arising from the translation of intra-plot private entries into public thoroughfares as a response to the need for communication between the parallel frontages and the development of housing in and fragmentation of the interior of the medieval plots, and presumed secondary development on Princess Street/Kiln Lane at the rear of the High Street buildings.
Of the plots themselves, the block is notable for a minority of property boundaries that pass from one frontage through to the other without deviation or interruption ('primary boundaries' in T R Slater 's 1981 definition). These boundaries occur at approx. 75 to 80 foot intervals along the High Street, and survive (boundaries: west side 37 High St/ 2 Princess St; 38-39 High St/ 5-6 Pr.St.; 42-43 High St/ 11-12 Pr St.; east side Golden-X Pass), with a secondary boundary from 8a/9 Milk St through to Golden-X Pass. Two of the larger intervals are identical: from the boundary 42-43 High St west to 36-37 and east to the Milk Street corner is 156 feet in each direction. This suggests that the other primary boundaries may be approximate mediations (divisions into halves) of two larger units. These may therefore indicate a sequence of early medieval divisions of large primary properties, and therefore raises the question of a metrologically-regular scheme and the possibility of town planning activity in this area. Conspicuously, the Square does not respond to this metrology, though a speculative repetition of two 156-foot units coincides with the west boundary of 29 High Street and a possible junction with Mardol Head prior to encroachment represented by Le Stalles; it is possible that the Square represents a clearance of built-up plots in 1261 (see monument 62463), so the scheme mooted here may possibly pre-date that. Archaeological evidence for the antiquity of some of these boundaries is of course a requirement of further investigation <1>

<01> Baker Nigel J, UAD Analysis, 17/03/1997 (SMR comment). SSA20432.

Sources

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