Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the Third - Life in the Mediæval Castle Fee - Chapter II

Contrary to popular belief, late Saxon Norwich was a large, thriving town with its own mint and forty-six churches (Domesday Book).

Pre-Conquest Norwich, showing the Fee area and the

Great Cockey stream in the foreground.

Courtesy Norfolk Museums Service.

This number would rise by the fourteenth century to fifty-six or so, hence the local legend "a church for every week of the year and a pub for every day of the year."

Once the Normans moved in, they sited their new marketplace where the current Marketplace and Haymarket still stand and lived in the area leading uphill west from this, between Chapelfield and the Roman Road at Pottergate, known as the French Quarter.

The Jews of Jewry, being under the king's protection and funding his armies, clustered around the southern end of the marketplace, eventually extending from where the Bell Hotel now stands, across the Great Cockey, through the middle of Debenhams and across to the Chapelfield Mall.

The Music House on King Street,

formerly Jurnet's House.

Photo: Old Dive.

'Jurnet the Jew' was the most prominent citizen among them, having his own extremely high status stone-built house on the new waterfront extending along Conesford; what is now King Street. The house substantially survives today as the Music House.

The original Jewish Synagogue was on the site on Haymarket now occupied by cheesy gift shop 'The Card Factory', between Pret a Manger and Primark.

Norwich's Jewish community was one of the largest and most important in England and a great number of their records, writings and poetry fortunately survives today.

Norwich Castle Fee.

Courtesy EAA 132.

The population of the Norwich Castle Fee surrounded the castle mound and a record of their houses is indicated on this map. In East Anglian Archæology no.132, Elizabeth Shepherd Popescu provides a list of the freeholders of each Fee property from Norman times through to the fifteenth century.

There was a well in the Barbican, in the position shown on the above map; originally sited about ten paces south of the western gatehouse at the foot of the Norman bridge (just about where the Tea Junction tea shop now sits in the Castle Mall), and this was used as a water source during the building of the stone keep, bridge and gatehouses, but then fell out of use, much to our own gain through archæological evidence found during the construction of Castle Mall.

White Watch of Norwich Fire Brigade spraying the loose earth around the newly-discovered well prior to stabilisation and excavation (during Castle Mall construction).

Photo courtesy EAA 132.

Elizabeth Shepherd Popescu gives us an account of the feofees, based on what they threw down the disused well:

"A wide range of artisans worked around the fringes of the castle and waste from virtually all of these trades found its way into the Norman well at the foot of the castle bridge, perhaps suggesting that the disposal was licensed.

Numerous trades and professions were active within the Fee, including silkmen, armourers, blacksmiths and swordsmiths, bow makers, fletchers, leather-colourers, spur makers and saddlers.

Section through the well, from EAA 132.

The prolific dumping of waste from these trades into the well (around 181 tonnes) may be a reflection of the city authority's attempts to keep the barbican and motte ditches clear: archæological evidence indicates that - despite the documentary references to its continued occurence - very little waste of that period was present in the barbican ditch which remained substantially open at this time. By the sixteenth century the sheriff was still spying on those dumping muck into the motte and barbican ditches.

Highlighting just one aspect of the massive assemblage from the well, the most conclusive evidence from the animal bone refuse of a particular craft is provided by the remarkable group of goose wing bones. Goose wing tips were valued for their primary feathers and a minimum of 270 left and 122 right wing tips were recovered from the well, along with many other wing bones and matted lumps of feathers.

The bias toward the left wing may indicate that these are the residue from a quill-dresser workshop, these being the preferred wing for right-handed quill users (as the feather curves away from the eye).

An alternative is that the bias may link to the fletching of arrows, during which feathers from a single wing would have been used. The behaviour of incorrectly fletched arrows, which do not fly true, is known among archers as 'flirting'.

Evidence for arrow manufacture in the locality comes both from documentary evidence for the presence of fletchers and bowyers and from the discovery of part-made armour-piercing arrows within the well fills.

This was the period of the longbow, when arrows were in high demand and when arms and raw materials had to be supplied to the crown for its military campaigns. In 1417, six feathers from every goose within twenty southern English counties were to be supplied to the Tower, while the following year, sheriffs were commanded to supply 1,190,000 goose feathers by Michaelmas (Ca; Pat. Rills, 1416 - 22, 178: cited in Hardy, 1994, p.168)."

In the next post, discover more about 'flirting' and the lost rivers of Norwich and things will start to get gross.

Sources:

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part 1: Anglo-Saxon to c.1345: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009

The Norman Connections - Castle: Part 1: Norwich Castle: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2010

Mediæval Norwich: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004

Eastern Daily Press website: "13th century cat and goat hide shop excavated."

A Brief History of Arrowmaking: Veronica-Mae Soar; Clerk to the Craft Guild of Traditional Bowyers and Fletchers: The Worshipful Company of Fletchers: online resource

East Anglian Archæology Vol. 112: Dragon Hall, King Street, Norwich: Excavation and Survey of a Late Mediæval Merchant's Trading Complex: Norfolk and Norwich Heritage Trust

East Anglian Archæology Vol 28: Excavations Within the North-East Bailey of Norwich Castle: 1979

Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: 1753 to 1775 

The Oxford History of England: 1087-1216: From Domesday to Magna Carta: Austin L. Poole (ed): 1951

The Pipe Roll Society: Archive Editions (various): online resource