A SOCIAL HISTORY OFENGLAND, 1200-1500

edited by

ROSEMARY HORROX

and

w. MARK ORMROD

~CAMBRIDGE~ UN~~S.ITY PRESS

" ' D~lA ~-;-O

CHAPTER 9

Moving aroundWendy R. Childs

The ease and amount of travel within medieval England is still oftenunderestimated. Over a hundred years ago, Jusserand showed thatmedieval roads teemed with herbalists, jugglers, messengers, pedlars,wandering workmen, peasants, preachers, friars, pardoners, pilgrims andthe like; and in 1936 Stenton described in detail the medieval roadnetwork and provided plenty of examples of journey speeds. Beyondthose works, which were specifically on travel, the many studies showingEngland as a much governed country and one with vibrant trade, marketsand towns also presuppose an effective transport system within whichpeople and goods could travel regularly and in safety. It is not surprisingthat England's roads and rivers should be busy, since there are no greatphysical obstacles to movement. Although English terrain can sometimesbe bleak, as in the Pennines or Dartmoor and Exmoor, the terrain itselfdid not make travel prohibitively difficult. Moving around in the middleages was essentially no more difficult for most people than it remaineduntil the improved roads and canals of the eighteenth century and thetrains of the nineteenth. Even at the end of the nineteenth centuty theusual local form of transport for many people was by foot or horse andjourney times would not be much shorter than in the middle ages.

The speed of travel in the middle ages depended on the size andpurpose of the travelling group and the fitness of man and horse: Thoseon foot might expect to cover fifteen to twenty miles a day, and more ifthey were in haste. If conditions were adverse or animals were beingdriven, normal speeds might be not much more than six to ten miles aday. Goods were transported by people, pack-animals or carts. Theymight be simply put in baskets, sacks and bags, wrapped more carefullyin oiled or waxed cloth or in leather, or placed in boxes and barrels.

I M. Harvey, 'Travel from Durham to York (and back) in the fourteenth century', Northern History,42 (2005), II9-30.

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Packhorses might normally carry about two hundredweights, but largebulky packs (perhaps full sacks of wool, weighing 3641b) and large barrels(such as pipes and even full tuns of wine) would need a cart.

Pack-animals - horses, ponies or mules - would normally go at the samespeed as a walking group but were fast enough to deliver fresh fish some wayfrom the sea, and are known to have been capable of thirty miles a day. Thelarge two-wheeled carts, capable of carrying up to a ton, were slower,probably normally making about twelve miles a day. In the worst winterconditions they might make only five to eight miles a day, but in fairweather, on good roads and drawn by horses they were capable of overtwenty miles a day in the fifteenth century. By 1200 most majorimprovements in harnessing draught horses had already occurred: paddedcollars and harnessing in single or double file for maximum pull werecommon instead of several animals abreast. However, further improvementin cart design in the fourteenth century, especially for two-wheeled carts,undoubtedly helped speed and manoeuvrability by the fifteenth century.Double shafts between which the animals walked, rather than a single polebetween two animals, facilitated single-file harnessing, which wouldincrease traction; shafts also allowed the cart to be reversed and the horse toact as a brake downhill; the introduction of a postillion increased controlover big teams; spoked wheels were less prone to bog down and werestronger for load carrying. These improvements were more important thanany move towards larger four-wheeled carts. Large estates and householdsowned their own carts, but carts could also be hired for occasional use, andpart loads or smaller packages could be sent by the regular carrier servicesthat ran between the main towns. Women in the richest households mightalso use personal carriages, unsprung and no doubt uncomfortable, butoften with magnificent cushions and hangings. The distances travelled inthese conditions were sometimes surprisingly high. Eleanor de Montfort in1265travelled between fourteen and thirty-eight miles in a day, averagingtwenty-six miles; Joan de Valence in 1296-7 travelled (often cross-countryrather than on the main roads) from five to thirty-two miles a day, withmost daily rates falling in the range of ten to twenty-three miles."

Unaccompanied riders travelled fastest of all. Those who could notafford to keep their own horses would find no difficulty in hiring them,especially in the larger towns where inn-keepers often ran stables of horsesfor hire. However, unless frequent changes of horses were organised, a

• C. M. Woolgar. The Grou Housthold in Lau Medieual England (New Haven. cr. 1999). P.187.

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rider using one horse continuously over a long distance might still chooseto cover not much more than about twenty to twenty-five miles a day ifhe or she wanted to keep the horse in good condition. On the other hand,the rich and others such as sheriffs and royal messengers on officialbusiness, who could change horses and were in some haste, could reg-ularly travel thirty to forty miles a day; some reached over fifty. In 1375William Percehay rode from York to Westminster in five and a half days,averaging thirty-six miles on the full days, and rode home in four and ahalf days, averaging forty-four miles on the full days.' In exceptional casesdiplomats and messengers are known to have covered around 100 miles aday; one diplomat took only six days to cover the 600 miles from Londonto Milan in 1406. Once post services were organised by governmentstowards the end of the fifteenth century, speeds of seventy to eighty milesa day could be more frequently reached. But if speed was not essential,then the most comfortable ride was on an ambling horse, specially trainedto move both right legs forward together, then both left legs. Chaucer'sWife of Bath is shown astride an ambler in the Ellesmere manuscript,written and illuminated c. 1400. Riding astride was more secure and mayhave been the preferred style for some women, but side-saddle seemsalways to have been considered more seemly. The Virgin in the flight toEgypt is always depicted in this way; the Ellesmere manuscript showsChaucer's more refined prioress riding side-saddle; and it was also clearlythe favoured aristocratic practice even for hunting by the early fifteenthcentury." In extreme conditions, however, aristocratic women rodeastride. Fleeing from Winchester in I14I, Empress Matilda rode 'male-fashion',' although it seems to have exhausted her and once out of dangershe completed her flight by litter.

The speed of travel did not, of course, depend wholly on time spent onthe road. Animals had to be fed and watered; time was also taken up inloading and unloading them; rest days might also extend the time takenon a long journey. Maximum distance might willingly be sacrificed infavour of particularly good shelter for the night. The rich might staycomfortably with relatives or friends; rich and poor alike could usemonastic hospitality, although the Church was anxious to curb abuses ofthis. The majority of travellers probably stayed at inns. These could varywidely in size and comfort, from good-sized stone buildings to little more

J F.M. Stenion, 'The road system of medieval England', EcHR,7 (1936), 17 ... See the calendar for May in Us Tm Riches Heura du Due tU Berry, ed, J. Longnon and R. Cazelles

(1969); see also G.W. Digby, Tbe Devonshire Hunting Tapestries (HMSO, 1971), plates I, 11.S P. McGurk, ed.• The Chronicle of John ofWormtfr, III (Oxford. 1998). P.301.

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than poor rooms in taverns, marked by their pole or 'ale-stake' pro-truding into the highway. The rich might be lucky enough to hire aprivate room; others had to share not only rooms but also beds. Com-plaints of over-charging and poor service were sometimes vociferousenough to reach parliament and resulted in statutes to control prices. Inaccommodation, if in little else, Margery Kempe's experiences probablyillustrate those of many travellers. She stayed in monastic guest-houses, inprivate houses and at a wide variety of inns, including one run by aGerman in Canterbury and another in Leicester big enough to haveupstairs rooms for its guests. Time might also be deliberately sacrificed bytravelling in a larger group to ensure safety from brigands. Robbery was aconstant problem. The Statute of Winchester in 1285 decreed that theking's highways were to be cleared of brushwood for 200 feet on eitherside to deter brigands, and authorities for the St Giles fair at Winchesteractively policed the notoriously dangerous stretch of the London-Winchester road at the time of the fair.

Land travellers had a whole network of highways and byways at theirdisposal, from major through routes based on prehistoric tracks andRoman roads to more recent pathways linking settlements. The Goughmap of c. 1360 indicates some of the major routes, and studies of royalitineraries have suggested others. Landscape archaeology has helped toidentify medieval roads that sometimes survive as hollow ways, as atWeekIey in Norrhamptonshire. It can also identify the network ofalternative local routes that helped to spread traffic and wear and tear onthe roads.6 Road surfaces are generally assumed to have been poor, deeplyrutted in summer and quagmires in winter with holes so deep that theunwary could drown in them? However, there was a significant amountof regulation of roads. The label 'king's highway' was given to roads ofacknowledged importance, which at least from the time of the LegesHenrici Primi had a recognised minimum width and which fell under theking's direct protection. For example, in 1362 it was alleged that the king'sroad to York, which ran between a park and a wood at Escrigg, wasovergrown and narrow. The defendants counter-claimed that the roadwas only a local track and was sufficient for that purpose, and that therewere two alternative routes. The jury agreed, but nonetheless decreed thatthe track should be enlarged and repaired.f Local lords and communities

6 C. Tar1or, Roads and Tracks of Britain (1979), pp. n6-13·7 H. S. Bennen, Tbe Pastons and their Englllnd (Cambridge, 1951), PP·13

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had acknowledged responsibilities for road maintenance. Assize recordsprovide plenty of evidence of unwillingness to fulfil these responsibilities,but there is no proof that this was the norm. Certain stretches might havebeen particularly difficult and expensive to maintain; certain people mayhave been reluctant to spend money; as the fortunes of towns and marketsrose and fell, so the quality oflocal roads may have waxed and waned. Butthere is no proof that for the majority of lords and communities supportfor land transport had to be forced. Some, indeed, were always willing notonly to support but to improve communications, to pave roads and buildcauseways and bridges to encourage access to their markets and thusincrease their incomes from tolls.

Church support also helped. Travellers were considered worthy ofcharitable help. Hospitality was one of the duties of monastic houses, andlaymen were encouraged by offers of indulgences or by admonition tohelp travellers. In Langland's Piers Plounnan, Truth promises grace tomerchants who do good works, including having bad roads mended andrebuilding broken bridges. Robert Holme of Hull took this idea to heartand in 1450 left over 46 for road building between Hull and Cottinghamand between Hull and Anlaby," The numerous examples of survivingmedieval bridges testify to the skill and resources invested in them. Some,such as those at Rotherharn, Wakefield and St Ives (Cambs.), still havebridge chapels attached, which served to invoke saintly protection - and,of course, to solicit financial offerings. The bridge at Rochester wasmaintained by endowments and other bridges by intermittent grants ofpontage, but upkeep was a problem and sometimes when a bridgedecayed a profitable ferry was installed instead. Wider rivers had to becrossed by ferry, which could be tiresome. The Humber ferrymen wereaccused of taking excess fares, making travellers wait until the boat wasfull and digging holes in the river-bed to make fording at low water. ibl 10ImpOSSl e.

Finding the way along the roads could be difficult. Medieval mapswere not primarily designed to show routes, although itineraries didexist." Some signposts were put up, such as those in 1352 at the bridgesover the Col ne in Buckinghamshire 'by which the way might beknown' .Il. Way-marks were also used to guide travellers through woods(although these might be altered by those intent on theft). Local guides

9 J. Raine, ed., T~stammta Eboracensia, III (Surtees Society, XLV, 186j). pp.182-3.10 Flower. Public Works, ii, p. 306. U For medieval mappa~ mundi see below, pp. 437-9·11 L F. Salzman. English Trade in th~Middk Ago (Oxford, 1931),P.197.

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could be hired or directions could be sought at the inn. A popularEnglish-French phrase book of the fifteenth century includes just such aphrase for those going abroad: 'A quelle parte ysseray ie, et a quelle mainprenderay ie mon chemyn?' (Which gate should I take to leave, andwhich way should I turn to get onto my roadr).? Margery Kempe oncesimply knocked at a private house in Dover and successfully hired theowner and his horse to take her to Canterbury. Often the traveller couldjoin those already familiar with the route. The number of regular com-mercial travellers and of common carters probably made this the easiestpath of all.

Many goods, of course, were carried by water if possible and the costadvantage of water transport over land transport is well known, especiallyover long distances. Water transport needed fewer men to move bulk, andhad no train of pack-animals to be loaded and unloaded every day, eatingtheir heads off every night. The emphasis on rivers on the Gough map ofc. 1360 underlines the acknowledged importance of river transport. Acommentator in 1675 quantified the difference: packhorses were one-thirddearer than carriage by cart; the cost ratio of carts to river carriage was12: I and that of carts to sea carriage was 20: I. Cost differences in themiddle ages were similar: it cost more to send wine fifty miles on landthan to carry it nearly 1,000 miles from Bordeaux to London." Theadvantage of water over land is particularly marked for cheap bulk goods:the cost of carting at jd a quarter over ten miles might mean an increasein the selling price of 100 per cent for coal but only 5 per cent for wheat.Many rivers were navigable (with flat-bottomed boats) far above modernnavigable limits. Goods passed up and down the Humber and the Trentin small keels, and boats rode up the Ouse to York, but such watertransport was not necessarily easy. In the Ouse, piles were needed to markthe forry-foot wide safe passage at Barlby and boats had to stop over atSelby to catch a second tide in order to reach York. In deeper waters boatswere hindered by fish weirs and in shallow ones by fords and silting. Yorkjurors in 1394, after stating that 'the water of Ouse is a highway and thegreatest of all the king's rivers ... and is for the use of merchants in shipswith diverse merchandise from the high seas to the ciry of York', went onto claim that goods were frequently endangered by fish weirs and fishnets, and that eight lives and fifteen ships with cargoes worth over £766had been lost over a period of fifteen years. Navigation on the Trent was

., W. Caxton, Dialogue: in Frmch ami English. ed. H. Bradley (EETS. es LXXIX. 1900). P.49 .•• M. K. james, Studie» in tht Mtdiroal Wint Trade (1971). p.149.

266 Wendy R Childssimilarly threatened by weirs, and the Foss Dyke running between theTrent and Lincoln was so shallow that cows were driven across in sum-mer." Shallow water encouraged the use of fords; this problem could beoffset by more expensive bridge-building, but too Iowa bridge could itselfimpede boats. To overcome this, lifting bridges were devised, such as theone called 'Turnbrigg' on the stream called the Dike at Snaith which wasrebuilt after 1442 with a four-foot drawbridge in the middle; ship masterscould lift the drawbridge at Id a time to let their ship-masts through,"

Coastal transport was also very important for the distribution of localand imported goods, although it is generally too poorly recorded in themiddle ages to be quantified. Heavy or bulky cheap goods, such as coalfrom Newcastle, were hardly worth moving at all except by water, andboats delivered it all down the east coast to London and beyond. In theWest Country, Exeter received coastal cargoes on boats from pons allalong the south coast from Dartmouth to the Cinque Ports, and some-times received deliveries of herring on board ships from Great Yarmouth;similarly boats from Topsharn, Fowey and Dartmouth could be founddelivering slates and small timber to Southampton. Many coastal vesselswere probably very small, but slightly larger ones of twenty to thirty tonswere versatile. Not only could they carry substantial cargoes between localharbours and England's great international ports but they could alsooperate as off-shore fishing boats, and they could even undertake shortinternational journeys. By way of such vessels, the merchants of Lynncould export ale, and south-east England could export firewood toFlanders. Larger ships of 100, 200 and even 300 tons dealt with the longerjourneys to the Baltic, Gascony and Iberia. Although such trade was oftenin expensive goods, the cheapness of sea transport also ensured, forexample, that timber could be imported from the Baltic to Hull or Lynnmore cheaply than it could be obtained overland from English forests.Local investment, charitable gifts and royal grants (of quayage and era-nage) maintained and improved the facilities for water transport just asthey did for land transport. Open harbours were improved with jettiesand quays, first of timber and then of stone; docks were built in London;cranes had appeared on quays at London, Southampton, Bristol, Yorkand elsewhere by the fifteenth century; and warehouses, cellars and cus-toms houses were built. To find the way in and out of ports and round

'1 Flower. Public Works. ii, pp. m. 253-5. 358. 368; Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the PublicRecord Offict. Henry W. 142~36 {I907}. p.202 .

•6 Rotuli Parliamentorum (6 vols .• 1783). v, P.44.

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the coasts local pilots, sailing marks (ranging from stakes stuck in theforeshore in order to define safe channels to cairns, church towers andsteeples) and even lights were used. Sounding leads, lodesrones andcompasses, and sand-glasses helped pilots and masters to navigate at sea.Written sailing directions or 'rutters', which survive from the fifteenthcentury, incorporate information on directions, tides, currents, rocks andsandbanks, land-marks and the state of the sea bottom.

Sea transport, of course, carried higher risks than did land transport; itcould also be slow whenever seamen prudently waited for good weather.Speeds at sea often averaged three to six knots, but were much morevariable than on land, as ships wete wholly dependent on weather andtides. A voyage from Poole to Brittany was expected to take four days, butonce took seventeen; and the Margeret Cely took twenty-two days to sailfrom London to Plymouth (making an average speed of about half aknot)." In sea transport as in land transport there were technicalimprovements. In the thirteenth century side steering oars gave way tostern rudders; in the fourteenth century compasses were increasingly used;and in the fifteenth century multiple masts with mixed square and lateensails improved manoeuvrability. This encouraged the building of evenlarger ships, which could carry more goods more cheaply and were also lessvulnerable to attack; by the mid fifteenth century English shipowners werebuilding ships of up to 300 and even 400 tons. Better ships might mean agreater margin of safety, but no greater comfort. There are several graphicdescriptions of storms, terror and the overcrowding, theft, seasickness andstench on board medieval ships." The rich could hire a whole ship andspecify conditions; a lucky single merchant on a cargo ship might have asmall deck cabin; but pilgrims packed on a passenger ship crossing the Bayof Biscay to Santiago would be lucky to have even temporary shelter.

In the thirteenth century most English ships went only as far as Ireland,Gascony and Flanders - where, at the great northern entrepöt at Bruges,they could sell wool and find goods from all over the known world - buta few already went as far as Norway. In the fourteenth century they beganto sail into the Baltic and to Iberia. By the mid fifteenth century they canbe traced making safe and regular journeys year after year to Iceland,Danzig, Bordeaux, Lisbon and Seville, and English merchants could tradeinto the Mediterranean using Spanish and Italian ships. Once across the

'7 M. Lens. ed .• The Travels of Lea of Roemital (Hakluyt Society. and ser, CVIII. 1957). PP.5')-60.62-4; I. Friel, The Good Ship (1995). p.85 .

•8 Lens. Rozmital; PP.5')-60. 62-4; F.J. Furnivall, ed .• The Stacions of Rome and th~ Pilgrims Sea.voyage (EETS. os XXV. 1867). PP·37-40; H. F. M. Prescorr, Jerosalem Journey (1954). pp.5')-62.

268 Wendy R ChildsChannel or into the Baltic, English goods and English travellers madetheir way by roads or great rivers such as the Gironde, the Rhine or theVistula to Bordeaux, Avignon, Cologne, Santiago, Rome, Jerusalem orwherever their business took them.

Reasons for travel were many - economic, political, religious andsocial. Among the most important economic ones were not only trade butalso employment and migration. Specialists such as masons, fine carversand sculptors followed work from church to church or castle to castle.Fishermen too had to be on the move to follow the fish in season. Butpeasants and local craftsmen also needed to travel as part of their normalwork. As the economy expanded, so markets and fairs grew in numberand size to serve rural communities. Here producers from peasants to thebailiffs and estate managers of large estates sold grain, livestock and wool,and small craftsmen sold their goods. In return they might hope to buynon-local iron, salt and other essentials. Such local markets drew peoplefrom no more than a few miles away, but whether on foot or with cartsand pack-animals they still needed adequate local roads, fords andbridges. Rural links, moreover, were not exclusively with one nearbymarket. Village contacts by the fourteenth century were wider spread andnot simply economic. Peasants and craftsmen identified common poli-tical interests over a large area, as is made clear by the speed with whichthe news of the Peasants' Revolt spread in 1381.

The twelfth- and thirteenth-century expansion of the economy andpopulation also brought about growth in the size and number of towns.Demand for food and other goods inevitably had an impact on movementin urban hinterlands. A small town such as Colchester drew its grain froma radius of about eight miles, but it drew raw wool for its cloth industryfrom a much wider area. Larger towns made even larger demands andsome of the greatest might also begin to encourage the developmentof nearby rural markets as regional 'feeder' markets. The demands ofLondon, the largest town of all, produced an integrated market for grain insouthern England around 1300 and spawned contacts all over the countrythrough the trade in wool, cloths, dyes and other industrial and consumergoods.

Towns not only depended on the temporary movements of marketingbut on the permanent movement of migration. Migration was substantialand essential both before and after the Black Death. Much of it wasrelatively short-range and depended on local push and pull factors: localland hunger might push, while hopes of work and fortune in the townspulled. The normal distance travelled by migrants was about ten to

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twenty miles, although some larger towns drew a noticeable number froma wider area. In small, rural Stratford-upon-Avon, only 10 per cent ofimmigrants came from beyond a radius of sixteen miles, but Exeter, as aport and one of the most important towns in the region, drew 46 per centfrom beyond a radius of twenty miles and 15 per cent from over sixtymiles away. Similarly Colchester, although small, attracted migrants fromas far away as Bristol, Gloucester, Lincoln and York. London wasexceptional and drew larger numbers from all over England.

In the thirteenth century urban migration can have caused little eco-nomic difficulty in the countryside and indeed might have been a relief tolocal over-population. Lords, like the earl of Devon at Plympton in 1242,might forbid their own serfs from claiming liberty as burgesses in the newlychartered towns without purchasing licences, but in most cases theyencouraged immigrants. Few seem to have chased villeins who went furtherafield, although they might prosecute those who returned. One spectacularcase concerned Simon de Paris, a freeman of London since 1288, who wasarrested by his lord when he went home to Norfolk in 1306/9 A number ofinitiatives were taken to stop villein migration after the Black Death, buttheir overall impact is uncertain. Migrants also included free peasants,small craftsmen and traders over whom lords had little control. Suchmigration brought further opportunities for travel because, even if journeyshome were not regular, links with home were maintained.

Much movement also came from the demands of long-distance trade,which in time spawned some of the best transport organisation. In thethirteenth century international trade produced what might be called a'cycle' of great fairs selling English cloth to foreign merchants, starting inspring with Stamford fair, which was followed by St Ives (Cambs.),Boston, Winchester and Northampton. To Winchester came merchantsfrom as far away as Yorkshire, Herefordshire and Devon to trade withmerchants who had travelled in from Flanders, the Empire, Spain andProvence. The importance of these fairs, and of others such as the one atStourbridge, outside Cambridge, faded at the end of the thirteenth and inthe first decades of the fourteenth century, just as that of the greatChampagne fairs did in France, but trading mobility continued. It wasconcentrated now in the more permanent urban markets, which becamethe foci for much wholesale trade. Merchants in these towns, and espe-cially in the major ports, kept up significant commercial contacts over awide hinterland and abroad. Wool travelled to Hull from Yorkshire,

I, H. S. Bennen. Lift on the English Manor (Cambridge. 1937). PP.300-1.

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Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and even as far away as Shropshire in thefourteenth century; wool from the Cotswolds and the Welsh Marches wassent to Southampton and London in the fifteenth century. At that timeSouthampton exported cloth brought from Devon, Wiltshire andGloucestershire as well as Hampshire. London sucked in cloth not onlyfrom nearby Essex and East Anglia but also from Yorkshire, Glouces-tershire and Devon; at the beginning of the fifteenth century its com-mercial contacts spread over almost all counties, and these steadily grewstronger even in the more distant provinces. Clearly, London's prosperitydepended to a significant degree on an extensive and well-organisedtransport system.

A regular and efficient transport system was also essential for inter-national traders. The 30,000 to 40,000 sacks of wool exported annually atthe height of the wool trade weighed some 4,875-6,500 tons, whichwould need at least that number of large carts or some 48,000-65,000pack-animals to take it to the pons if it all went by road. The roads intoBoston (Lincs.) alone would have had to cope with around 1,600 cans or16,000 pack-animals carrying 10,000 sacks of wool in the three months orso between the shearing in June and the normal export season beginningin September/October. Roads and any alternative water routes would bepacked. At the peak of European economic expansion, pons werecrowded with ships: Hull needed 142 ships to move its wool to Flandersin 1304-5; Scarborough received over 300 fishing boats in the summer of1305;and there were 300 English ships among over 950 ships loading wineat Bordeaux in 1304-5. The absolute volume of trade decreased after theBlack Death but increased per capita, so that the cloth industry, forexample, developed a strong export trade in the later fourteenth andfifteenth centuries. The industry depended not just on local wools butalso on imported raw materials - woad, madder, alum, oils - which hadto be transported from the ports to the production areas. Moreover, whileall stages of manufacture might take place within towns such as Bristol orSalisbury, in country areas the cloth itself kept moving. Wool might bespun in one area, woven in another and the cloth moved again for dyeingand finishing. What happened can be seen in the business of John Stobyof Cirencester in 1459. He had thirry-six 'Bristol reds' woven and dyed inCirencester and then had these cloths delivered by packhorses to sixfullers at Stroud, eight miles away. After watering, washing, fulling,teasing and shearing the cloths were returned to him at Cirencester foronward transport to suitable markets. The cloths, however, were thenseized on the grounds that Stoby had not paid ulnage {the duty charged

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on cloth exposed for sale) and were sent up to Westminster as exhibits inthe case against him, transported by a regular Wiltshire carter passingthrough Cirencester at the time.i"

Regular carting services were widespread in the fifteenth century, andno doubt long before. The Paston family relied on regular carriersbetween Norfolk and London for the delivery of letters and goods, and'common carriers' served routes all over England. John Baron operated asa carrier 'for many years' between Bristol and Exeter; the common car-riers of Oxford regularly carried scholars' possessions and books. Thescale of the carting business around ports is visible through tolls paid atSouthampton: in 1443-4 over 2,600 outward cart journeys distributedgoods over a wide hinterland." Carting was a regular livelihood, but hadits difficulties and responsibilities. John Joce pleaded in 1448 that when hewas carrying a pipe of the king's wine to Elrham, his horse fell comingdown Blackheath Hill, the pipe rolled out of the cart, killed the horse,broke, and spilled the wine. He was liable for the damage and loss, butwith his chief means of livelihood (the horse) dead, he could not pay.22

Traffic for economic reasons (marketing, migration, long-distancetrade) may have formed the greater part of that on the roads and rivers,but travel for religious, political and administrative reasons was also high.The Church, as a pan-European organisation, demanded extensive tra-velling in the middle ages. Archbishops and bishops frequently went toRome (or Avignon) to receive the pallium, symbol of their office, or onother church business; monastic orders sent representatives abroad; themendicant orders regularly moved their members between universitiesthroughout Europe; and clergy at any level might be called to the papalcourt. At home, archbishops and bishops travelled within their diocesesand attended convocations. They were often royal servants and balanceddiocesan work with presence at the king's court and at Westminster.Travelling preachers such as the friars and unbeneficed priests in search ofthe next casual employment swelled the numbers of clergy on the move.

The Church also made demands on its lay members. Within thediocese, a steady stream of people might be called before church courtsfor spiritual offences. The Church also encouraged pilgrimage." Manypilgrims went to nearby shrines, and the majority probably travelled nomore than about forty miles, but some major shrines maintained a strong

10 PRO. E 1591236.Recorda. Michaelmas m. 16.11 Bennen. Pastons. pp.160-4; PRO. C 1/,,/467. 19/469. 29/4[7. 46/60. 61/499; O. Coleman, ed .•

The Brokag~Book of Southampton. 1443-4 (Southampton Records Series. IV. VI. 1960-1). passim.11 PRO. E 28178. 14 Oct. 27 Henry VI. 1) Discussed in more detail below. pp. 314-18.

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attraction over a wide area. While there were probably no more than ahandful of pilgrims each week at many shrines, there might be thousandsat major ones. Pilgrim numbers seem to have peaked around 1300, anddonations declined at almost all English shrines thereafter, but new cultscould pop up at any time, as at the tombs of Thomas of Lancaster after1322 and Edward 11after 1327. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuriespilgrimage abroad increased in popularity, or at least is better docu-mented. Pilgrims on their way to Rome and Santiago would be parti-cularly conspicuous on the roads to Dover and Plymouth in Jubilee years,when exceptionally generous spiritual benefits were offered. In both 1350and 1390 around 400 pilgrims and others acquired licences to go toRome, and in 1428 and 1434 English shipowners bought licences totransport up to 3,000 pilgrims to Corunna for Santiago.

Soldiers made up another very large body of travellers. Kings musteredtroops from all over England to serve in Scotland, Wales and overseas,mainly in France. In 1296 there were about 25,000 infantry on the payrollfor Edward I's Scottish campaign and an additional Irish contingent ofnearly 3,000 men. Such armies were accompanied by carts and pack-animals with supplies, although local suppliers were also used and wherepossible supplies were sent by sea. Even in years without campaigns, smallforces moved to and from garrisons within the border areas. The conquestof Wales brought thousands of English soldiers on to western roads in1277 and 1282; troops for Gascony were mustered at Plymouth andWinchelsea in 1294 and 1296; and over 8,000 travelled to Flanders in1297. Although later armies were on the whole smaller than those ofEdward I, the Hundred Years War with France led to yet more thousandsof Englishmen thronging the roads as they made for southern pons toawait embarkation for France. On return they again choked the roads,inns and billets round the ports, waiting for late pay before finally settingoff for home. Since troops were drawn from all over England, mostvillages experienced the stories of returning soldiers.

The political world also demanded constant movement. The royalcourt remained peripatetic, although as time went on kings increasinglyspent longer at their favoured places: King's Langley in the case ofEdward 11or Sheen in the case of Richard II. Royal itineraries show thatkings rarely spent more than two or three weeks in one place and could beon the move for several weeks at a time. Many of the king's greatersubjects also led peripatetic lives travelling between their estates and onpolitical, diplomatic or military duties. Their itineraries are harder toestablish, but in Edward II's reign Thomas earl of Lancaster {who rarely

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went abroad) can be traced moving between his estates when he was notin London or Westminster, and Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke,travelled energetically on the king's business between southern England,the Scottish borders, and France (sometimes twice in a year) as well as tohis own estates in Pembrokeshire and Norfolk. Peripatetic householdscarried much baggage with them, sometimes even including house fittingssuch as glazed windows. The number of carts and packhorses neededcould be high, but households such as those of Joan de Valence andEleanor de Montfort in the thirteenth century kept costs down by owningonly two or three vehicles themselves and borrowing or hiring more asnecessary.i"

The growth of government was almost constant throughout the periodand, once the law courts and greater offices had settled at Westminster, anincreasing number of people came there. Plaintiffs, defendants, witnessesand juries were summoned to the law courts there. From the fourteenthcentury many lesser cases were heard in the counties by keepers andjustices of the peace and by ad hoc commissions of enquiry but they stilldemanded local travel. The Chancery drew many petitioners to West-minster and the Exchequer also brought all manner of accounting officialsthere. Sheriffs, for example, routinely travelled three times a year to theExchequer. Back in the counties the stream of instructions to sheriffs andother officials demanded large numbers of royal messengers to deliverthem. The estimate that the sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshirein thirteen months in 1333-4 received about 2,000 letters and writsrequiring action (sometimes requiring onward transmission of instruc-tions to others) points not only to his burden of work but also to theimmense mileage covered by messengers." Government service also tookofficials to Wales, Ireland and Gascony. The development of parliamentadded a further group to the regular travellers. From Edward I's reignparliaments were held on average once a year (less frequently in thefifteenth century), and from Edward Ill's reign the commons were alwaysthere. By then a parliament meant the assembly of about 120-30 lords(earls, barons, officials, bishops and abbots), some 220-40 knights andburgesses, and up to sixry clerical proctors if they came. This group of340-43° people brought with them retinues and servants in varyingnumbers. Accommodation for such numbers, even if temporary, was

... Woolgar, Great Household; PP.184-6.11 H. Jenkinson and M. H. Mills, 'Rolls from a sheriffs office of the fourteenth century', EHR, 43

(192.8),24·

274 WendyR Childsdifficult to find in smaller towns and it is not surprising that parliamentwas increasingly called to London or Westminster. We know little ofexactly where lords or commons stayed, but in the crisis parliament of1321 the rebel lords found lodgings at the house of St John, Clerkenwell,St Barrholornew's priory, Srnithfield, the New Temple, the earl of Lan-caster's house in Holborn, and elsewhere around Smithfield, Islingtonand Holborn.

How significant was all this movement? Should we envisage latermedieval England as a collection of regions or already as a country with aconscious identity as a whole? It was a commonplace of medieval lit-erature to identify 'nations' and laugh at 'national' characteristics. TheEnglish were widely seen as emotional, violent and equipped with tails.But how strong was the awareness in England of a common 'Englishness'?As Robin Frame explores in his chapter on 'The wider world', those whotravelled abroad (merchants, soldiers, sailors) and those who had lived onthe unsettled northern borders were undoubtedly conscious of some SOrtof common identity, or at least of not being one of 'them' - the 'other';but those elsewhere at home may have been less strongly aware.

Recent studies of inland trade discuss how far it is already possible inthe middle ages to speak of an integrated economy. Integration has alwaysbeen clear for the goods in international trade: wool and cloth came totrading centres from all over England and commanded very similar pri-ces; high-value imports reached all parts of England and likewise com-manded similar prices everywhere. Homogeneous prices are less evidentfor cheaper bulkier goods. Cheap heavy imports such as tiles and bricksprobably did not move far from the ports and the internal grain trade wasmore regional than national, but even here there is some indication thatthe population pressure of the late thirteenth century brought aboutlinked price movements especially in London's hinterland. Despite thispartial economic integration England was still a country with a distinctiveeconomic regional diversity, shaped by local terrain, climate andresources. This can be seen in regional exports of coal from Newcastle,lead through Hull, ale through Lynn from the barley fields of Norfolk,horses from Dorset, and beans and peas through Bridgwater. Yet, onbalance, it might be fair to see the unity of the wool and cloth trades andthe move to specialist industrial areas in England (as in Europe) as moresignificant than the regionality.

The most telling argument against over-emphasis on English region-alism is in political history. England was run as a single political unit, withone legal system, one parliament and a highly centralised government

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administration. This promoted a great deal of inter-regional travel andclose links between London and the regions. It was the commonality ofexperience through movement to and from London and the royal courtthat helped in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to promote the use ofeastern midland or London English as the most common variety in ver-nacular literature and Chancery law suits. The manageable size of Eng-land, the relative ease of travel and the highly centralised governmentmean that a political approach to the question of integration will alwaysemphasise communication and common experience.

Over 300 years there were inevitably changes in 'moving around'.Changes are clear in technical and physical matters, such as in harnessing,cart design, ship-building and increased bridge-building; all made mov-ing around easier, cheaper and safer. Changes also took place in patternsof movement and these made different demands on the routes used.As fairs gave way to more permanent urban centres, surges of seasonalactivity gave way to more evenly spread traffic. As towns rose and fell inimportance, activity on the roads leading to them changed and localhostelries or bridges flourished or decayed. The development of ruralcloth industries spread industrial traffic wider as half-finished cloth anddyes moved around the local roads; the development of a cloth exportindustry in the West Country increased traffic to western ports; and thegrowth of London as a commercial, political, legal and administrativecentre pulled in yet more travellers eastwards. There were changes in thevolume of traffic on the roads and rivers, although these are hard toquantify. The demographic decline of the fourteenth century meant thatthere were fewer people to travel and a smaller volume of bulk trade to becarried. Yet these falls were partly offset by a rising standard of living,which encouraged greater trade in newer consumer goods and providedmore time for social travel, and by the inexorable increase in adminis-trative, governmental and industrial activity.

The overall conclusion must be that moving around in this period wasfrequent and not too difficult. Probably the majority of poorer countrydwellers rarely went beyond the local market, but a large minority travelledfurther for work or for religious, political and social reasons. Further upthe social hierarchy greater mobiliry appears among the merchant classes,the clergy, gentry, nobility and royal officials. Against such a backgroundof constant movement it is probably irrelevant to argue whether thecondition of roads was good or bad: travelling conditions did not inthemselves suppress either the need or the desire for travel.