CAMBRIDGE
He was of knightly rank, alderman of the Merchant Guild and the
earliest of the town's elected mayors. 56 He may have been outstanding,
but he was not exceptional: his close neighbours, the B1ancgernons,
were other representatives of this class of landed burgess. They were
patrons of the church of All Saints by the Castle and owners of much
Cambridge property; at least one member of the family had an official
position under the sheriff. Or there were the Absaloms, also rich in
town houses and field acres and patrons of three town churches. 57
The founding of churches was, indeed, a common practice among the
wealthy Cambridge burgesses, though it was not on the same scale
as at Norwich. Out of fourteen parish churches and three chapels,
thirteen seem to have had townsmen as their first patrons, and
among the town's early customs was one that said that a person
might freely leave his church to a relative. But besides the landed
burgesses there were other wealth~- men whose riches seem to
have depended entirely on trade - on tanning, weaving, and so on. 58
The piety and riches of men such as these made it certain that when
the diocese of Ely was formed early in the century the archdeacon would
take his title not from Ely but from Cambridge. These were the men
who belonged, one must suppose, to the Anglo-Saxon thegns' guild
or the later merchant guild, contributed to the taxes which put Cam­
bridge high on the list of twelfth-century tax-paying boroughs and
who produced much of the money to buy various royal privileges
and charters. 59 In I 185 they obtained a temporary farm of their Borough
- an important advance as it freed them from the sheriff's financial
control - and then in 1207 the perpetual farm and the right to appoint
their own reeves. The latter privileges meant the control of the Borough
court and this, it may be noted here, involved the whole field area of
Cambridge and its dependent vilis. The grant was soon followed in
accordance with the prevailing fashion by the election of a new Borough
officer, the mayor. 60 Thus, the town was now well on the way to secur­
ing sufficient administrative independence to live its life as merchants
and craftsmen under rules of its own making, and free of the obligations
of manorialism.
At Cambridge it was exceptionally important, for the nascent munici­
pality had to face two major challenges - the first and greatest being the
appearance of the university of scholars in its midst and the other the
creation of what was eventually to prove a dangerous competitor in
the borough of King's Lynn. The University rapidly became an organ­
ized body after a migration of scholars from Oxford in 12°9, just at the
time that the burgesses were themselves developing their own self­
governing institutions. The Crown's attitude to the developments was
undoubtedly influenced by its experience in dealing with Oxford, as
well as by political exigencies. 61 Other towns, where there were im­
portant cathedrals or abbeys or both, had the problem of living with
religious communities, often with large numbers of lay dependents,
who were outside their jurisdiction, but in these two English towns
only was the size of the community of clerks so large and so undisci­
plined, and in these two only - the 'nurseries' of learning and of learned
men to fill the manifold offices of church and state - was the clerical
community of such paramount importance to the Crown. 62
From 123 I there were recurring and bitter conflicts at Cambridge:
from the burgesses' point of view the main issues were, first, the control
of the market - the right to charge an economic rent for lodgings and
to sell goods which were in short supply at as high a price as they could
get; secondly, the preservation of their judicial privileges - their right
to enforce law and order so that their life as tradesmen and merchants
was not disrupted; their right to recover debts by the processes of
their customary law and so on; and above all the right of all burgesses
to be tried in their own courts for civil offences. On its side the Univer­
sity was bound to protect its members from high or exorbitant prices,
from the medieval traders' propensity for cheating by adulteration of
food, by selling stale, bad or underweight food, and the general use of
false weights and measures, and from being subject to burghal courts,
where the die would be heavily weighted against them. How far the
town's growth was checked by the arrival of the scholars has yet to be
worked out in detail. That the presence of the University created an
enlarged demand for goods cannot be denied, but the essence of urban
life was the interchange of goods and the clerks were consumers only;
its presence also created exceptional problems relating to the preserva­
tion of law and order, as in 126 I when the townsmen became involved
in a conflict between North and South-country scholars and sixteen
of them were subsequently executed. It has been said that spiritually
the University'S presence 'meant an example of organization and a
stimulating battle for right',63 and yet the conflict of interest between
the two communities was a distraction to both and involved an ever­
increasing expenditure of energy and money. It led to the annual public
humiliation of the town's corporate body, to the constant feeling that
'simple men' must inevitably be outwitted by the learned and so to a
consequent restriction of the energy and initiative of the townsmen.
Constitutional development had been rapid under the Angevin kings
and the burgesses obtained further privileges under Henry III, Edward I
and his son. The charter of 125 6 notabl~- advanced the town's status and
responsibilities as well as increasing its revenues, but their freedom of
action was soon to be severely restricted by the community of clerks
in their midst. Already in 123 I on the King's orders the Mayor had had
THE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY TOWN AND THE UNIVERSITY
For English towns in general, the thirteenth century was one of prime
importance. Not only was it a period of expansion in numbers, trade,
and wealth, but it saw the firm establishment of municipal independence.
Rot. Hund. ii, 36o; the form of the name certainly indicates a pre-Conquest origin.
For 12th- and 13th-century deeds about the family see J. 11. Gray, School oj
Pythagoras, 41 sqq. 'Dunning's quay' (possibly on the Cambridge water-course)
was rented to the King for the Castle building operations in 1286: Palmer, CAS
xxvi, 83. For the house (Merton Hall) see map 4.
57 Gray, op. cit. p. 44, nos 20, 23. For the family and its decline in the mid-13th century
see E. Miller, The Eagle liii (1943), no. 234, p. 73; ~Iaitland, 163, 168, 176. For
the Absaloms see ibid. 174-7. Ivo fitz Absalom was among the richest contribu­
tors to a tallage in 1214: Pipe R. 1214 (PRS N.S. xxxv), 75-8. For lists of the
wealthiest burgesses in 1211 and 1219 see Maitland, 167-71.
58 For churches, chapels and patrons see Cam, 123-32; ClIria Regis R. V,39. All
Saints by the Hospital once apparently belonged to St Albans, but Sturmi, a
burgess, later gave it to St Radegund's: Jesus ColI. Bursary, charter D II.
59 CBC 6; C. Stephenson, Borough and Town, 202. Cambridge came 13th in a list of 29 towns placed according to the amount of Danegeld paid under Henry I and 12th out of 3 5 towns placed according to the average aid paid under Henry II: ibid. 225. In 1185 the town's farm was £62, more than double what it had been when
the Earl's third was fixed at £ 10: Cam, 4,35.
eo Pipe R. 1185 (PRS xxxiv), 6o; CBC 6-8. Before the town acquired its chartered
rights the King's reeve and on occasions the Earl's reeve, as at Leicester, controlled
the borough courts. In Stephen's reign, for instance, the town was in the hands of
the Earl of Huntingdon and the fee-farm was paid to him. The various courts of
the chartered borough are listed in an exempliflcation of Ed\\'. VI - a weekly
Tuesday court, a court of Guild ~Ierchant, a Pie Powder court for strange mer­
chants, a five-time-a-year court for pleas of lands and tenements and a leet court:
CBC82-4·
56
Cj. Oxford's constitutional development: H. E. Salter, Medie1!aIOxjord(1936), 40 sqq.; and "-1. D. Lobel, 'Some Aspects of the Cro\\'n's Influence on the Develop­ ment of the Borough of Oxford up to 1307' in Pestscbnftfiir I Iektor Ammann (1965, W'iesbaden), ed. H. Aubin et al. 62 Eg. Hereford, Reading, Bury St Edmunds: Hi.rtorlc TOJl'l1s, i, (Lobel, C. F. Slade,
passim); 1':. ~I. Trenholme, EI1Rlish Afonastic BoroIlRbs(Columbia, 1927); M. D.
Lobel, Bury Sf Edmllnd's (1935).
63 For most able studies of the problems connected with the origin of the University
and its relations with the town sec J. P. C. Roach, 150 sqq. and Cam, 76 sqq; C i,
48 ; Maitland, 43.
61 7
CAMBRIDGE
to agree with the University to appoint 'taxors' who would jointly
fix the rents of all hostels used by scholars; in 1268 the Mayor and bailiffs
were obliged to arrange with the University for the joint supervision
of the assize of bread and ale; in 1270 worse followed: accused of being
not only negligent but incompetent in the suppression of the 'in­
solencies of malefactors' and other things harmful to the masters and
scholars of the University, ten burgesses were to be sworn each year to
keep the 'peace and tranquillity of the University'. The oath, be it
noted, was not to keep the Borough peace or the King's peace, but the
peace of the University. Thus, the clerks oft repeated threat to secede
and the actual departure of many in search of peace at Korthampton,
had proved a powerful weapon and their ascendancy was now firmly
established. The subordination of the burgesses was underlined even
more firmly in 1305 and 13 I 7 when the l' niversit~, obtained the righ t to
cite them and other laymen before the Chancellor in all personal actions
where a scholar was involved. Also, b,- the charter of 1317, the ;'[ayor
and bailiffs were obliged on taking office to s\vear to maintain the
privileges of the Universit~-. So wounding to their pride \vas this
annual ceremony that the Alrz2,na COIZ2,re.2,acio, in C niversit,- parlance,
came to be known to the townsmen as the Black Assembh'.64 This
arrangement, unsatisfacton- from the point of view of the town's officers,
was not reached without many ,-iolent outbreaks and royal inquiries
into the excesses committed. 65
Although the evidence is fragmentan- there is sufficient to show that,
despite the violence and the difficulties arising from the l'niyersin"s
share in the control of prices, the town's economy was still expanding.
Indeed, the vigour of the Borough's opposition to control is in itself
an indication of this. One of the clearest signs ()f rising prosperity is the
evident increase in population: a comparis()n ()f the ligures given in
Domesday Book and in the Ilundred R()lls, incomplete and ditlicult
to interpret though the\' are, presents a stri king pictu re ()f growth.
In 1279, five hundred and thirn'-four freehold h()uses arc enumerated,
forty-nine vacant places (i.e. house plots), sevent\'-live sh()ps and hooths
compared with the total of about four hundred plots recorded in 1086.
The highest numbers are found in the parishes ()f St Bene't, St "'fan'
in the Market and St Clement and from the names of the inhabitants
it is clear that immigrants from the countryside and e\-en from towns
had come to seek their fortunes. 66 From the tallage return of 1312, it
appears that the richest wards coincided with the thickl~' populated
areas: first came Trumpington \'\/ard and the ;'[arket \~'ard, then the
Ward this side of the Bridge (i.e. the south side), followed b,' Milne
Street Ward which included the hythes on the river. The great pre­
ponderance of wealth in the south bank wards as a whole is striking;
the Ward Beyond the Bridge was now even more a suburb of Cambridge
than it had been in the twelfth century.67 True, the Castle end of the
town remained the militarv and administrati,'e centre of the shire and
to some extent an aristocratic quarter, but the centre of municipal
government, of trading activity, and of the nascent l'niversity with
its many student hostels and lodgings was across the river.
Similar economIc growth was experienced by other towns in this
century and owed its impetus primarily to the agricultural boom and
general trade expansion. This was undoubtedly so at Cambridge too,
for its varied hinterland was becoming ever more productive and its
river trade had not yet suffered much from the challenge of Lynn: it
was not until 1236 that the first major conflict occurred when the rising
port vindicated its right to exemption from toll and stallage at Cam­
bridge. 68 But the latter had advantages of a more individual nature
as well. It profited from its scholars and from being the only town of
any substance in the shire, a striking contrast with the wealthier Oxford,
which had many competitors; also by being used to a moderate extent
as a royal agent for purchases in the market or other matters; and by
the increasing legal business in a rich shire. It has been reckoned that
the E~-re of 1260 brought well over 1,500 outsiders into the town,
and at these times no market might be held within ten miles. 69 With
the fuller dc)Cumentary evidence of the thirteenth century, the town's
role as a regional centre begins to stand out more clearly. Rural popu­
lation is believed to have expanded by about one-third between ro86
and 1279 and the great rise in corn prices was bringing wealth to the
count,' as well as to the owners of strips in the town's arable fields,
and so to the local market. 70 ;\lread,' b~' the end of the twelfth century
there are signs that surplus corn was being brought to Cambridge.
Certainly the sheriff \\:as sending it, on the r"':'ing's orders, from Cam­
bridge to Lmn for Ireland and J'\:orway, while out of sixty men fined
in 1177 for illegalh' carn'ing it by water, sixteen seem to have been
Cambridge burgesses. In the next centun- waggons of grain were
heing sent b~' road while along the Cam and its tributaries came barges
l()aded with goods of which some were destined for London. 71
Increased rural wealth and population naturalh' encouraged an increase
in the number and variet\' of the town's craftsmen.
Thus, Camhridge's ec()nom\' was h\' nm\! firmh- based on its capacity
to distribute the natural products ()f the region and of its own fields,
streams, river, and fishponds to London or to other markets, at home
and ahroad, but also to a growing extent on the exchange of its crafts­
men's goods for the products of the countr~'side. 72 Occasionally there
is a glimpse of what was done \\!ith these products: Cambridge men
were accused of bm'ing malt with one measure and selling with another,
and of taking toll of beasts whether sold or not, while its drapers and
vintners were fined for selling cloth and wine against the assize. Its
flax was made up into linen cloth and sold in the market; its reeds and
sedge were used for building and fuel; its hides, meat and fish were
clearly in great demand. Hugh the fisherman and Cailly the tanner were
among the richer burgesses early in the centur~-. Later Caillys, inciden­
tall~', with their manor at Trumpington, were one of the many examples
of the close relationship which had long existed between the town
trader and the producer of raw materials. 73 Others like them were the
Toylets, the Semans and their connexions the Ems, all of whom amassed
68Ci,6I.
J. F. \'\illard in Historical Essays in HOllollroj James Tait(1933), ed. J. G. Edwards et al., 430-3 (taxation boroughs); Rot. Litt. Clalls. i, 606b, 62 I b; Cal. Lib. vi, no. 1532 (bailiffs to make purchases of fish for the king); Assizes 1260, ii. 70 C. T. Smith in Cambrid/?f Re<Rioll (1965), 142; Gras, EnplislJ Corn Market, 12-13, 30.
71 Gras, op. cit. 66; Pipe Roll I 202 (PRS 'C:. s. xv), 131; Rot. Lill. Clalls. ii, 36a; Ramsey Cart. (RS), i, 45,476; iii, 243, 3°2; see also E. \1 iller, Tbe Abbey and Bisbopric oj Ely (1951), 84-5 ; for the many granaries near the river see Rot. HlIl1d. ii, 369, 381, etc. For the importance of fish'ponds see B\ I \IS 5813, f. 251. " There is evidence for cordwainers, glovers, and all branches of the manufacture of
cloth in St John's ColI. Libr. dn\-. 17, nos 8, 9, 63, 74, 80, etc. St RadeJ!Jlnd,passim;
Rot. H undo ii, 365, 373, 375, etc; Lib. <Hem. 282 sqq.; \laitland, 167-71. Cj. list of
leading townsmen in Cal. Pat. 132 1-4, 151-3.
73 Assizes 1260,38,42-3; for a linen shop in the market see Lib. ,\rem. 283,288: there
was a Flaxhythe (see map 4); and see \laitland, 167-170, 177. For rich wool­
mongers and fishermen see also Gild Recs. 3,151 sqq.; Lib. Mon. 167 (burgess
rights of fishing in Cam, etc).
69
For royal charters, etc, see CBC 6-22; Royal Letters (RS), 398-9 (Henry III forbids in 1231 the Cniversity to\\'ns to exact exorbitant rents from scholars); C i, 41 (he orders the Sheriff of Cambridge to assist the Cniversity in maintaining control over and discipline among the 'contumacious and rebellious clerks'); see also C i, 5°,53,7°-1,75-6,347; cf. Cam, 31 sqq. 65 Cal. Pat. 1247-58, 53; ibid. 1253-66, 146, 180-1; C i, 70 for the conflicts in 1249, 12 59,1260,13°4-5. 66 r.faitland, 100-I. For immigrants from Lynn, Huntingdon, Aylsham, etc, see ibid. 134-7; Lib. Afem. 282-9; Rot. HlInd. ii, 356-401, passim. 67 C i, 72-3; cj. 1314-15 subsidy return (Gild Recs. 151 sqq.); if the 'J ury' entry with its 17 contributors (i.e. the old Je\\'ry, for the Je\\'s had long since been banished)
is added on to the Bridge \X'ard there is a strong concentration of wealth in the
area south of the Bridge. For the \X!ard beyond the Bridge, described as a suburb
in 1219, see Maitland, 176; cj. Addyman and Biddle, op. cit.
64 8
CAMBRIDGE
town property as well as field acres and had a clear interest in the river
traffic. Such men were the successors of the Norman Dunnings and
their like, and the forerunners of those fourteenth-century mayors and
bailiffs who invested in land ~ men such as Roger Harleston, who had
an estate at Cottenham, was a burgess and four times :M.P. for the
county.74 But there were other substantial upper-class burgesses ~
merchants, mercers, drapers, or goldsmiths with more purely trading
interests; their activities outside the local market is evidenced by the
charter of 1256 which granted freedom from arrest for another's debts ~
a protection only needed by those trading in towns other than their
own. There were also the poor whose contribution to the town's
prosperity, whether as craftsmen or as labourers in the open fields,
was fully recognized by the Crown when it intervened in 1235 with
orders to appease all controversies in such a \vay that the poor should
not be too much aggrieved nor the rich too much spared. 75
Yet another sign of the town's regional importance is the amount of
investment in its houses and fields made b\-. the count\-. families and
the religious houses, though this was almost certainly a continuing
process and not a new development. 76 OYer a dozen religious houses
had a stake in the town or its fields. j\ few like Eh·, Ramsey and St
Edmundsburv had more than an interest in the collection of yaluable
rents. They had a definite interest, probably from before the Conquest,
in the river trade and the facilities of the market: they had granges
for storage in parishes bordering the river and the hythes; both Ely
and Ramsey had property 'in Hulmo' in St Clement's parish, and in
St Michael's, and Bury had tenants on either side of the Great Bridge. 77
Finally, there is the Jewish community to be considered. At the latest
by I I 50 there was business enough from the town and county to attract
a small number. In the early days the town probably benefited in the
main by Jewish loans to landowners, whether burgesses or not, to
assist in the development of their agricultural land, but some of the
leading townsmen who borrowed from them in the years before their
expulsion in 1275, seem to have been merchants only. Barnwell Priory,
by now a considerable owner of rents and field acres, largely given to
it by burghal families, was another borrower and the transactions of
the neighbouring feudal landowners are brought into prominency
by the baronial raid of 1266 on the Jewry and the Jewish chest (area)
with the intent of destroying all the evidence of debts owed. 78
THE TOPOGR;\PHY OFYHE THIRTEENYH-CENTURYTOWN
By the end of the century the town had probably reached the limits of
its pre-nineteenth-century expansion and was perhaps more thickly
populated than at any time before the early seventeenth-century. It
was now organized in seven wards, and had seventeen parishes, three
on the left and fourteen on the right bank. Yhe town 'Liberty' included
populous suburbs outside the Trumpington and Barnwell gates, and
the hamlets of Barnwell, Newnham, and Howes, which were all legally
dependent, as well as about five square miles of field land. 79 Some
towns ~ those where industry or commerce by sea was early developed,
or those where feudal or ecclesiastical interests were strong ~ lost
control at an early date of their common fields, but at Cambridge
agriculture continued to be an important part of the town's economy
until the nineteenth-century enclosures. ;,\1any townsmen, indeed,
owned land not only in their own fields but outside in the county
while the tenant labourers formed a substantial part of the population
for centuries. The open common fields were divided by the river into
the West Field and the East Field, knO\vn in the fourteenth century
as Cambridge and Barnwell Fields. With the water-meadows along
the west bank of the river and the commons they closely encircled
the thirteenth-century town and, except for the meadows taken over
by colleges, were to remain along with the water-mills and windmills
an essential part of the urban scene for the next five centuries. 80
A traveller approaching Cambridge from the south by way of Royston
or Saffron Walden would enter the town by the Yrumpington Gate
after traversing the rich parish and suburb of St Peter's. On his right
as he went towards the Great Bridge lay the main Market-place and
the heart of the trading town. St Mary's church, a royal foundation
and a comparatively new one, dating it seems from the late twelfth
century, served as the religious and social centre of the merchant
fraternity whose guild of St Mary was attached to it, and it was also
used by the University.81 Although shops were scattered throughout
every parish it was in this area that the main concentration lay, as well
as substantial merchant houses. In the Market-place, too, were the first
municipal buildings and the home of a small community of Franciscans,
very probably the second to settle in England, the Oxford group being
the first. 82 In 1224 the burgesses leased from the King the stone house
See below maps 3 and 4. The medieval parish boundaries were probably stabilized
by now. They cannot at present be accurately defined everywhere, but there are a
number of natural lines (rivers, highways, ditches), which seem certain. In the
12th century the Old Cam formed the boundary of the parishes of All Saints,
St illichael's, St Edward and St Botolph: see map 4, A. W. Goodman, A Little
History of St Botolpb; A. Gray, DlialOrigin. Approximate boundaries can be elicited
from the Hundred Rolls, charters, and other documentary evidence. Small Bridges
and most of Newnham hamlet was in St Peter's; also Old Newnham mill
(Goodman, op. cit.). New Newnham was in All Saints by the Castle. It is possible
that St Radegund and Holy Sepulchre were taken out of All Saints and possibly
out of St Alichael's too (St Radegllnd, 22-3; Downing Call. Libr., MS. Bowtell 5,
f. 101 I), for it was common for town parishes to include dwellers both inside and
outside the walls or town bounds. The detached portions of St Bene't point to its
having had later parishes carved out of it and to the influence oflandownership on
parish boundaries. For wards see Gild Recs. 151-7, and for the hamlets in the
suburbs see Rot. Hllnd. ii, 363, 371, 376 and passim; Lib. ],[em. 90-2.
80 Pedes Finillm, CAS Publ. xxvi, passim. For the fields see map 3; Lib. Mem. 98
(Barnwell Field), xxxiii and map facing p. 336; Clark names 4 fields in the 13 th
century (organized in a 3-fieJd system); cf. ~[aitland, 55 sqq. and map. Some of the
names in the \X'est field recall the days of the Saxon town: Portfeld, Portwei, Port­
bridge, and it is possible that Aldermannes Hill, Gri!b Haire or Gre! TJOJI'f marked
the site of the open-air meetings of the bllrb's portmoot, once held near the
'\laidenburg': St John's Libr. drw. 24, nos 43, 100; dr\\,. 32, no. 2; Cal. Close,
126 3-7 2 ,262.
81 For churches see Cam, 129. The guild of St \lary, possibly to be identified with
the\krchant Guild, first occurs C.1232-5: Gild Recs, xii sqq., 1-25 sqq.
82 Maitland, 143 sqq. (analysis of the 1279 survey). For the Franciscans see l\Jonu­
menta Francisconrl (RS), i, 17-18; Little, Stlldies ill Ellp,lisb Franciscan His!., 236
(Cambridge was the head of the E. Anglian Custody); and sec below, n. 99.
79 '4 Rot.
Hund. ii, 367, 387, 388 and see index Sl/b Toylet; the latter's granary near the river and his grange at Dame Nicoleshythe (Lib. l\fem. 285) suggest an interest in the corn trade. For Seman property in the parishes of St Giles, St Peter by the Castle, and St Clement where Robert lived see ibid. 367; cj. Nicholas ~lorice: ibid. 375,376. See also]. M. Gray, Biograpbical ""-ales on Ibe Mayors ofCambricZf!,e (1921), 3,5,7,8,12. '5 CBC 14; C i, 43.
'6 E.g. Rot. Hund. ii, 389, 391, 392; Rot. Litt. Claus. i, 247b, 579b (Ralph de Trubel­ ville held 3 knights fees in Cambridge, etc. He was the successor of Nicola de Hemmingford, and the two provide one more instance of the close relationship between county magnates and the town). 77 E.g. Rot. Hund. i, 49, 50, 54, 55; ibid. ii, 360 (Bury's houses of 'ancient perquisite') and see CVL mm i.' 35, p. 436; Feudal Docs. ed. Douglas, 145 ; Ramsey Cart. i, 49 I (Ramsey's tenants); Ely had inter alia a grange and mill ad capllt de HOJ1'es(Sacrist Rolls of Ely, ed. R. R. Chapman (1967), i, 120) and property in St Andrew's parish (ex inj. .';lrs F. Jones); Rot. Hund. ii, 385 i 387; Gild Recs. p. 130, no. 4 (Anglesey's barn, shops in St Alichael's and booths in the Butchery); for other houses see Rot. Hund. ii, 360, 380, 381, 383, 384, 385-6, 389, 391, etc.; St John's Col. Libr. drw. 18, nos 13, 17. The taxation of 1291 recorded that 20 religious houses \,'ere assessed on their property in the to\n1: C i, 63 (most of them do not appear in the Hundred Rolls and St Radegund is not taxed). 78 H. P. Stokes, Studies in Anl!,lo-Jeu'isb I Iistory (19 I 3), 105-282 passim, and note
especially 124-32 (12th century), 139-199 (13th century); 144-6 and app. iv (list of
41 Cambridge debtors); Pipe R. I I 58-9 (PRS i), 53; P. Elman, Ec.HR 1st ser.
vii (1936), 147, 148-9; G. Richardson, hl,glisb jell'ry (196o), 9-10, 67 for a Herts.
landowner borrowing before 116o; Rot. ] lllnd. ii, 357 (Barnwell); cj. Cam, 95-6.
9
CAMBRIDGE
closest to it - St Giles and St Peter - were well populated with fifty-five
houses.87 All Saints by the Castle on the other hand had only seventeen,
a paucity that is probably partly explained by the Castle precinct
being outside the town's jurisdiction, and partly by the fact that
substantial burgesses, such as the Blancgernons, had their houses
and granges here, while there had also been a shift of emphasis
to the Market-place with its municipal buildings and to the hythes
on the right bank. 88 The river-trade that once flowed along the Cambridge
Water-course was temporarily halted around 1260 when it was presented
at the Eyre that ships that used to pass along this 'arm of the river in
the castle ward' no longer did, as William Ie Breton had built a bridge
blocking their passage. Afterwards, it seems that the channel gradually
fell out of use and that the Bin Brook was artificially turned into what
was now the main channel of the Cam (i.e. the modern course). Some
depopulation here may be indicated by the decision of the Pied Friars
(Fratres Beatae Mariae) to build in the parish. 89
To return to the right bank. Between the crowded High Street and
the river, the sloping land, which had been too marshy for occupation
in the early days of settlement, was intersected by lanes leading to a
'common ditch' (also called the King's Ditch or King's Stream, since
it was navigable) bounding Garret Hostel Green on the east side, and
to the Cam itself, where there were numerous hythes - Blancwynes­
hythe, Cholleshythe, Dame-Nicholleshythe, Flaxhythe, and Keverelles­
hythe in Henney.9o The ground between them was largely taken up
with gardens, barns for storing corn, and the houses of monastic
owners or of rich men and their dependents. Just above the Great
Bridge and the Great Hythe there was the Hospital of St John, a sub­
stantial building of stone. It was now succouring 'a great confluence
of poor and sick' and being supported by numerous bequests of town
houses and land. 91 To the south the Priories of Anglesey and St Edmund
had much property, including a stone house, and there were large
messuages which in the next century were to be sold for college sites
by the Walsingham, Croyland, Trumpington, and Buttetourte families.
When Robert de Croyland sold his house to the King in 1336 for King's
Hall it was clearly a very fine establishment and was presumably built
in the preceding century, as the Buttetourte's very large house certainly
was. Roger Buttetourte, son of Guido, l10bilis l!ir, described his property
as 'my messuage with buildings, garden, quay, and rents', and in 1306
he enlarged it by enclosing a continuation of St Michael's Lane, i.e. the
lane to Flaxhythe on the river. 92 From these lanes Milne Street ran at
right angles southwards to Small Bridges, midway between the river and
the High Street, with side lanes branching off to Salthythe and Cholles­
hythe. Here was the parish of St John Zachary and many hostels,
including Le Glomery Hall where the Grammar masters lived. 93 South
of Cholles Lane a number of townsmens' houses had been sold into
of Benjamin the Jew for use as a gaol, and the Franciscans were allowed,
on their arrival, to share it until 1238 when the King granted them the
whole of it and gave the town licence to build another gaol. Before
the end of the century the townsmen had a guildhall or tolbooth and
gaol in the Market-place, but whether in one or two buildings is not
clear.83 The names have survived of various Rows hereabouts where
craftsmen were concentrated, but they cannot all be located exactly.
There was Cutlers Row, Smith Row 'in St Mary parish where the
smiths dwell', Lorimers Row, Goldsmiths Row, Potters Row, Apothe­
caries Row, Butchers Row, and the Drapery. There is no doubt that
these rows were permanent structures and not just temporary booths
set up on market-day. One of the larger houses here was a 'great mes­
suage' in Goldsmiths Row in St Mary's parish, belonging to the sister
of Ernisius the Merchant. It had a 'great grange' with a solar on one
side and gates (with a solar above) on the King's highway, which were
large enough for loaded carts to enter by. So great was the demand
for shop or housing-space around the Market-place that the church­
yard of St Mary's was fast being encroached on and houses were built
right up against the church itself. 84
To the north lay the parish of St Michael, much favoured by the
well-to-do, whether of the town or the University: several families of
the burghal patriciate had property there; the Findsilvers lived in it
and gave their name to a lane, while towards the end of the century
the Archdeacon of the diocese had a residence between the Rectory
and Borden's hostel. 85 Further north still were the parish churches of
All Saints by the Hospital and of Holy Sepulchre, with Jew's Lane,
the centre of the Jewry, running between them. Both churches are
often described as lying 'in the Jewry', and one would expect to find
here the Jews' synagogue, but neither its site nor that of their burial
ground are known. A few years after their expulsion from Cambridge
the survey of 1279 recorded only eighteen dwelling houses in the
parishes of Holy Sepulchre and All Saints. Much of the land here
was subject to flooding and so may have formed a natural 'green belt',
but the small numbers may also be explained by the fact that Jewish
property here had escheated to the Queen Mother. 86 Further north still,
in St Clement's parish, which included the immediate approach to the
Great Bridge and the Great Hythe, houses were comparatively crowded
- there were thirty-four with five shops. Across the Bridge the parishes
For the first gaol see Rot. Fin. ii, 62 1,647; it is uncertain if the licence of 1232 was ever acted on: Cal. Lib. 1226-40, 33 8; Cal. Close, 1237-42, 61. The earliest known mention of the tolbooth is in 1332 (Cal. Pat. 1321-4, 173). It is possible that it is identical with the Jew's house which the Crown had re-leased to the town. 84 P N 49-50; St Radegund, no. 2 I 6; Potters Row had a shop at the corner: ibid. no. 2I9a; BM Add. MS 58 I 3, If. 169-70, 171, 193; Gild Rees. 131; CAS xiii, 23 6 ; if. Clark in Lib. Mem. xviii-xxvii for a description of the 13th-century town. 85 Stokes in CAS xlix Publ., 2, 9 and CAS xxii, 14; Rot. Hund, ii, 388, 389 (the Prior
of Ely's granary was approximately where Green St now runs) and see maps 4, 5,6.
The exact position of Findsilver and Puppelote (also apparently in this parish)
Lanes are uncertain. For the latter, named after Thomas Puppelote(ft. 1219) see
BMAdd. MS 5813, If. 144,147; Maitland, 168 and belowpp. II-12.
86 St Radegund, no. 88 (Jews St runs from the highway to the cemetery of All Saints).
For other Jewish houses in the parishes of Holy Sepulchre and St Clement see Rot.
Hund. ii, 367, 392, 393, etc; st Radegundnos 83, 87, 94, 96; Stokes, Studies, 190-1,
197; St John's Libr. drw. 19, nos 10, 12 (house of Joceus of Briggestrete, later
chirographer of the Jewish chest), and other royal escheats in Bridge St and a stone
house in Holy Sepulchre. Stokes and others believed that the Jewry was originally
in the Guildhall area, but this centuries-old belief appears to stem solely from the
statement by Thomas de Eccleston that the house of Ben jamin the Jew was a
synagogue (Mon. Franciseana (RS), 17-18). It has been regarded as confirmed by the
discovery in 1782 of a stray Jewish gravestone (which might have come from
elsewhere) on the site of the new Guildhall. But the Jews might hold property in
payment for debts anywhere in the town and royal records never refer to
Benjamin's house as a synagogue. When the Jews first came to Cambridge in
Stephen's reign the area of the Great Hythe and the Bridge were more likely to be
the centre of mercantile activity than the Market-place, where there were as yet no
municipal buildings; ef Cam, 95; B M Add. MS 58ro, If. 234-7, 252-75, etc.
83 ~Iaitland, 143-4.
For the Castle precinct and the Blancgernons see above n. 57.
89 Assizes 1260,43; there were also alleged encroachments on the Great Bank near
the Great Bridge so that where ships used to be steered willows were planted and
no ship or boat could sail; VCH ii, 287.
90 See below map 4. Dame Nichola (n. 76) was the heiress of a County landholder:
Maitland, 162. For Blancwynes, Keverelles (both unlocated) and other hythes see
St Radegund, 203b, 23 Ib, 238 and index; Rot. Hllnd. ii, index; W & C ii, 390-2.
The King's Ditch (Common or Town Ditch) here has no connexion with the
town's defensive Ditch.
91 Hist. Mss. Com. Report, i, 74; Gray, Sehl oj Pythag. p. 42, no. I I; for a summary
of the Hospital's history see VCH ii, 303.
9. W & C i, 159-60, ii, 395,431-2,456 (ground plan). 93 Cholleshythe was evidently named after the Cholle family: see CUL Ely Liber R., f. 561 for charter of Laurence son of Absolon Cholle of Cambridge granting to Ely
Abbey land with buildings next the lane leading to Cholleshythe; if. ibid. f. 563
(ripa de Absolon Cholle) and Lib. Mem. 219 for a reference to Mill Lane in 1258.
For hostels see map 5; W & C i. 78 for two messuages acquired from the Vicar
of St John's in e. 1270 and probably already used as hostels.
87
88
10 CAMBRIDGE
Mortmain when the Carmelites moved soon after I290 from their
Newnham site (see below), because Small Bridges Street was impassable
in winter and they were consequently prevented from getting to the
market for victuals. The Carmelites built their new church in :Milne
Street at about the same time as the Austin Friars were establishing
themselves on the eastern side of the town. 94
On the north-east, to\vn settlement was also encouraged by the
religious houses, although some dwellings (JJJansiones) may have been
pulled down by the Franciscans when they moved to the eastern edge
of the town. In I 279 some ten years after the move, their site which
straddled the Ditch covered six acres. The Nunnery of St Radegund,
though never very rich, was expanding too. In the mid-twelfth century
it had acquired ten acres for its buildings and by at least the mid­
thirteenth century a separate parish of St Radegund was made for the
surrounding population. The nunnery was well endowed with strips
in the common fields which it leased to tenants and it also derived a
small profit from its fair - Garlick Fair.99 Round Barnwell Priory growth
was on quite a different scale. About one hundred messuages, a very
large number even for a Cambridgeshire village, are recorded in the
parish in I 279. C ndoubtedh- many of the Priory's tenants were peasants
working on the land, but many too must have been craftsmen, supply­
ing their lord's and the villagers' day-to-day needs and very probably
selling their products in the Cambridge market and at Sturbridge Fair,
held in one of the nearby open fields. For them was built early in the
century the church of St Andrew the Less along the Bury road. 1 In
this century the number of canons rose to thirty and active building
work took place, so that by I 28 5 the whole complex of buildings
covered ten acres. Even before, it had been a favoured residence for
royal guests. Henry III and his brother lodged at the Priory several
times and the royal justice who held an inquiry into the insurrection
of I267 stayed, to the Prior's indignation, for a whole year, not only
with his entourage but with his wife and twenty-two of her women
attendants. 2
The Hundred Rolls give a vivid picture of the burgess community
inheriting, buying, and selling messuages, shops, and acres in the fields.
The transfer of houses and rents is often very rapid, the amount accumu­
lated by one person considerable and the legal complications intricate.
A father and son, for example, between them bought up eleven shops,
four messuages, two vacant places in the parishes of St Mary and St
Michael, and seven acres in the fields, while another burgess collected
nine messuages in St Peter's and eleven acres. 3
The majority of the better houses were timber-framed with an infilling
of clay and reeds, while cottages of one storey had mud-built walls.
Both were thatched with straw and reeds and so fire was a chronic
hazard. Fire among the houses crowded round St Mary's church badly
damaged it and another damaged the church of St Bene't and destroyed
many dwellings. 4 In view of the absence of stone in the region there was
a remarkable number of known stone houses - a witness to the wealth
of individual families and possibly to extensive robbing of the Roman
town. Across the river there was Dunningstede, now called Merton Hall
since Merton College in the sister University had purchased it, and on
the right bank many other stone houses are recorded. 5 Tenements
were of all sizes, doubtless the result of frequent buying and selling,
of division and amalgamation. In a row of houses fronting on Trumping­
ton Street, one was described as 22 ft wide with a croft behind, the next
was 44 ft wide, and a third had a house measuring 2 I ft X 56ft with
appurtenant buildings and lands. Along the riverbank, there were many
crofts growing hay crops and large granges like the one at Henney
But Cambridge had long spread outside the Ditch. There was a
Saxon suburb outside the Trumpington Gate and possibly outside
Barnwell Gate, and there was certainly considerable post-Conquest
growth. 95 In this century the parish of St Peter seems to have been the
wealthier of the two. Much of its land was in the hands of non-resident
landlords - the Priory of Anglesey and the ancient religious houses of
Cambridge, but the rich families of St Edmund and Ie Rus were resi­
dent. Here they had their private chapels of St Edmund and St Lucy,
and here in the second half of the centun- were clustered the houses
of several religious orders. The Carmelites occupied about three acres
at Newnham, and the Friars of the Sack obtained a site in I 258 when
the Mayor, John Ie Rus, who had fallen in debt to the Jews, was obliged
to sell them his stone house \vith its court\-ard and chape1. 96 B\- I 279
their property included a row of messuages fronting the highwa\- with
strips of pasture behind them, which had belonged to a variety of
traders and others - a brewer of Little Shelford, a tanner, a cooper,
a shepherd, a carter, and the Rector or Warden of the Chapel of St
Edmund. By I29I the latter had become the chapel of St Edmund's
Priory, a college for the Gilbertine canons of Sempringham who had
hitherto been using 'the castle at Cambridge' as a place of study. Their
move is likely to have been prompted by the Bishop of Ely's decision
to put his own scholars in two of his houses, 'hardby St Peter's church',
and already let as hostels for students. Soon after this move the Hall of
Peterhouse, the University's first college, was built for them in 1286
on land to the south of the church. 97
Little is known of the suburb outside Barnwell Gate, beyond the
fact that the influential burghal family of Absalom had land here and
possibly founded the church of St Andrew the Great. Land in its parish
was given to the Dominicans, who began to build their first chapel
here in 1238, and two years later closed a lane to the south of St Andrews'
so that they might enlarge their cemetery. Many dwellings, once paying
geld to the town, were said to have been included and despite the com­
plaints the site of eight acres was again enlarged in I285 and 1293.
Their great church, later to be used with the conventual buildings
for the only Parliament ever to sit in Cambridge, was consecrated in
1286. At this time the establishment numbered sixty or more Friars
and their buildings were considered suitable for the King's lodgings.
That the Friary's presence encouraged suburban growth is evidenced
by the building of dwelling houses opposite it by Barnwell Prion-. 98
Carmelites and Austin Friars see Cal. Pat. 1281-92, 368; VCH ii, 282, 287
sqq.; Stokes and Cranage in CAS xxii, 53 sqq. J. ~1itchell notes that the
Augustinian site was on the very edge of the marshy land that marked the depres­
sion in the gravels along an old pre-glacial course of the Cam: Cambridge Region 172.
Alienations in Mortmain whether to religious houses or to colleges caused constant
trouble with the parish priests who lost their dues and sometimes with the religious
houses themselves, when they in turn lost property to colleges; e.g. Lib. Afem.
209-11 (Dispute between Barnwell Priory and the Carmelites who had destroyed
houses in the parish of St John, 1291-4).
95 For full accounts see Stokes in CAS Publ. xliv and CAS Publ. xlvii.
96 For the Ie Rus and St Edmund families see also Rot. Hund. ii, 397, 398, 399; Luke of St Edmund was holding in 1279 by inheritance from his ancestors his house and chapel, a horse-mill in the market and 70 a. in the fields. For the friars see Lib. Mem. 218-19; VCH ii, 286-7, 290; Cal. Pat. 1266-72,236. For tenements of the Friars of the Sack in All Saints' and St Clement's see B ~l Cole :\lS. 41, f. 129. 97 Cal. Pat. 1281-92, 363; ibid. 1292-1301,25 (a grant of a house and 60 a. of the St Edmund property in Cambridge); VCH ii, 254; \X. & C i, 2-8; CAS Publ. XLIV. 98 VCHii, 269, 271, 272; Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, 52; Rot. Hund. ii, 360; the entry is
ambiguous, but it appears to mean that houses on the Dominican and Franciscan
sites were actually destroyed: Lib. Mem. 286.
94 For
99
J. R. H. ;'loorman, The Grey Friars in Cambridge (1952),4° sqq.; Rot Hund. ii, 360.
For the 1'.;unnery see St Radef!,lInd(a full account and transcripts or abstracts of C.4 00
charters). The demesnes reached to the King's Ditch. The fair was almost certainly
so named after Roger Garlek, who was a witness with other influential townsmen
to a charter of Prioress Letitia (1215 -(.1225) : ibid. 88.
1 :\Iaic1and, 147; RCHAf i, xlii. 2 Lib. ;Hem. 69, 71-2, 106, 122, 124, 222-3, 227-8; Cal. Lib. 1245-51, 7 I. 3 Rot. Hllnd. ii, 356 sqq., passim. , Symeon of Durham, IIisf. Regllm (RS)ii, 216,268; Lib. Afem. 230, 159, 220 for other fires. Sites in the town are often said to be vacant because of fire: e.g. Rot. Hund. ii, 357. 5 Lib. Afem. 97,182,223,283,285, etc. 11 CAMBRIDGE
next Puppelotelane (59 ft X 56 ft).6 The ephemeral nature of houses
in this period is brought vividly home by the dispute between Master
Ralph and Barnwell Priory over one of their houses which was being
used as a students' hostel. Master Ralph refuted the charge of disseisin
saying that he was using it as an hospicium only; that the Prior could
if he wished prostrate the house and build others at his will and this he
did when it pleased him. Another court case reveals how a neighbour's
sewer discharging against a house rotted its groundsills and posts
so that it fell to the ground. 7
As wealth and population grew the need for a proper water supply
and efficient cleansing of the town streets became more imperative,
but the orders issued on the occasion of the King's visit in 1267 reveal
how little was normally done: the town was to be cleansed of dirt and
filth; the watercourses were to be opened and kept open as of old so that
filth might run off; all obstacles which prevented this were to be moved
and the Great Ditch was often to be cleansed; two burgesses were to
be appointed in each street to see that the Ditch and other streams and
gutters were kept clean. Some of the trouble was caused by encroach­
ments. It was reported, for instance, in 1260 that a quay had been made
on the Henney stream (riparia) so that water which used to run through
the open gutters of the town was obstructed and, later, that a man had
appropriated a certain common ditch (60 ft long by 5 ft) to the harm
of the whole town. S
The century also saw improvements in the town's defences. Work
was ordered at the castle by Henry III in the 1260s, but it was Edward I
who initiated major works in 1284 which were intended to make it
one of the strongest in the country. Stone was brought from Peter­
borough and Barnack, and in 1295 an average of one hundred men a
week was employed. A new great hall of three storeys was constructed,
a gatehouse with barbican and four new towers in the curtain wall. 9 The
extent of the precinct is recorded by a local jury who perambulated
the bounds: they state that they started at a place called ArJJleswerch,
followed the Castle ditch to Aswykston, i.e. Ashwyke Cross, and then
descended to the river through the middle of the court of 1ferton
Hall per vetus jossatum,1o On the East bank, the King's Ditch had
apparently been put in a defensive state by King John: it was
probably deepened and widened in 1215, when 'the cost of enclosing the
town' was allowed to the bailiffs. Then in 1267, when the barons,
entrenched in the Isle of Ely, were raiding the county Henry III came
to Cambridge in person to supervise the town's defence. Once again,
it seems, the Ditch 'on the south and east side' was put in a state of
defensive efficiency, timber being bought for 'the emendment and
enclosure of the town', and houses that had been built up against the
Ditch in time of peace were pulled down. The Barnwell chronicler
writes of ditches being dug all round the town with such speed that
the workmen were not allowed to rest even on Saints' days; of the
King's intention to make a stone wall, and of how he had to leave
suddenly on the news that London was threatened. l l What exactly was
done is far from clear, but it seems either that a new ditch with a circuit
inside it was made round part of the town, or that the old King's Ditch
was re-dug and a circuit cleared. It was complained in 12.79 that both
ditch and circuit were still lying vacant and no one was profiting from
them to the great loss of those who had their 'courts' (curiae) adjoining.
Some, in fact, had planted trees, another had made a bridge across the
Ditch to take his beasts to their pasture on Green Croft, and so on,12
These complaints seem to apply only to the Ditch on the right bank,
but there is no doubt that there was also a King's Ditch on the left
bank in this century. It is frequently mentioned in connexion with
property in the parishes of All Saints and St Peter and may have been
the boundary of the Castle precinct, or possibly the ditch of the ancient
Roman enelosure.1 3
How futile the defensive efforts were may be seen in the account of
the Barnwell chronicler that, on the approach of the insurgent barons,
all the burgesses fled, that the gates were burnt down, and the houses
in which the King had lodged were burnt down also. The Ditch,
however, was still being maintained for defensive purposes in King
Edward's time, for in 12.92. the Austin canons were allowed to enclose
a piece of land (2.00 ft x 30 ft) adjoining it, provided they made two
gates through which the townsmen might pass when necessary for
the town's defence. The Carmelites had already been licenced to enclose
with walls land recently bought from the King, which lay between
their house and the Granta, provided they made two gates so that
when there was need to defend the town the King's men could have
access. 14
THE LATE MIDDLE AGES: THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
BACKGROUND
The period of relative prosperity and expansion was halted for a time
in the fourteenth century. No figures relating to population exist before
the Poll Tax of 1377, when 1,902. persons of fourteen and over were
returned. How many escaped the tax collector or what proportion of
the population was under fourteen can only be guessed at, but three
thousand inhabitants is likely to be a low estimate. 15 There are many
indications that the town had earlier suffered a severe loss of population
and many consequent setbacks. Signs of trouble were evident even
before the Black Death of 1349: the violent attack on the colleges and
hostels of 132.2., which led to the trial of the Borough's officers and
Rot. Litt. Claus. i, 2 34b: phrases such as this were common form and do not necessarily imply the first enclosure of a town. Cal. Lib. v, 267, 269; vi, nos 267 (an allowance was made for houses pulled down next to the Ditch), 580, 1533 ; Lib. Afem. 122-3. 12 Rot. Hltnd. ii, 392. There was an 8 ft-wide walk along the ditch or parts of it.
13 See St John's Coil. ~rs Cartulary ofSt John, ff. 5b, 6, 15b, 16 (near StNeot's
\\'ay); B~[ Add. 1\[S 5813, f. 25 I, records a certain 'Hulmllm' (i.e. an island or
land irrigated by water) in the circuit of the King's Ditch lying beyond the Great
Bridge in the parish of St Peter by the Castle. It may be that the 30 ft-Iong wall
built by Henry of the Castle on the King's Ditch was on the left bank rather than
the right: Assizes 1260,43. Cf Rot. Httnd. ii, 359: a messuage outside the Ditch of
Cambridge next St Neot's Way; RCHM ii, 307.
14 Lib. A[em. 122-3: the King was said to have lodged in the town, but this could
mean in the Castle precinct in contrast to his brother who lodged in the Priory. In
1293 Edward I lodged in the Castle, ibid. 227-8. For Austin Canons see Cal. Pat.
1281-92,482. Cf ibid. 474 for the royal interest in access to the river: the Carme­
lites were licensed to enclose with two walls land between their house and the
Granta bought previously from the town by the King. They were to make two
gates so that when need be the King's men could have egress and ingress for the
defence of the town.
15 W. G. Hoskins, Local History in England (I 971), 238; E. Powell, Rising in East Anglia (1896), 5!. 11 CAS xliv, 2 I, 27; cf a messuage measuring 140 ft (a length commonly found) X
24 ft: Cal. Pat. 1292-1301,51; and one 60 ft X 23 ft with a house built on it
extending from the churchyard of Holy Sepulchre to the King's Ditch: St John's
Libr. drw. 19, no. 22. For amalgamation see Rot. Hund. ii, 357 (Thomas Plot's
messuage near Segrimmes Lane, composed of 3 separate parcels bought of dinrs
men).
7 Lib. Mem. 183-4. The case makes it clear that the term domus was used to include
several buildings apparently erected round a court; for this arrangement see early
maps of Cambridge in Old Plans; CBD 10.
sCi, 51; Rot. Pari. v, 426. AssiZes 1260, 43; Rot. Hund. i, 55. The scholars of ~rerton
had also enclosed a ditch where there had been common fishing.
9 Rot. Lilt. Claus. i, I 5a; ii, 5 for expenditure on the hall and chamber 1212-16;
King's Works, ed. Colvin, ii, 583-8; Palmer, 'Cambridge Castle Building Accts.'
(CAS xxvi, 66 sqq.) and Cambridge Castle (1928), 10; RCHM ii, 304-6. The survey
of 1327 mentions 5 towers, of which 2 were incomplete. See map 4.
10 Lib. Mem. 167-9. The meaning of per vetusfossatum has been variously interpreted,
but there seems little doubt that Gray's identification of it with the 'Cambridge
Watercourse' is correct (CAS ix, 61-77). Clark has summarized the information
about the castle boundaries in Lib. Mem. xix-xxi. A terrier describes Ashuyke stone
as by the High Cross at Castle End, a quoit's throw (i.e. c. I 9 yards) S\V'. of the
stone cross. See map 4.
6
12