Norwich Market (also known as Norwich Provision Market) is an outdoor market consisting of around 200 stalls in central Norwich, England. Founded in the latter part of the 11th century to supply Norman merchants and settlers moving to the area following the Norman conquest of England, it replaced an earlier market a short distance away. It has been in operation on the present site for over 900 years.
By the 14th century, Norwich was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in England, and Norwich Market was a major trading hub. Control of, and income from, the market was ceded by the monarchy to the city of Norwich in 1341, from which time it provided a significant source of income for the local council. Freed from royal control, the market was reorganised to benefit the city as much as possible. Norwich and the surrounding region were devastated by plague and famine in the latter half of the 14th century, with the population falling by over 50%. Following the plague years, Norwich came under the control of local merchants and the economy was rebuilt. In the early 15th century, a Guildhall was built next to the market to serve as a centre for local government and law enforcement. The largest surviving mediaeval civic building in Britain outside London, it remained the seat of local government until 1938 and in use as a law court until 1985.
In the Georgian era, Norwich became an increasingly popular destination with travellers and developed into a fashionable shopping town. Buildings around the market were developed into luxury shops and coaching inns. The eastern side of the market was particularly fashionable and became known as Gentleman's Walk. The area around the market had become very congested by the 19th century, but the council was unable to raise funds for improvement and few alterations were made. Because many of the market's stalls were privately owned, the council was unable to rearrange the market into a more rational layout.
Following the First World War, the local authority began to systematically buy up all the stalls on the market, eventually bringing the entire market into public ownership. It was radically redesigned in the 1930s: stalls were arranged into parallel rows and a new City Hall was built along the entire western side of the marketplace to replace the by then inadequate Guildhall. This new arrangement survived with few significant changes for the rest of the 20th century. By the 1990s, the market was becoming decrepit and, in 2003, proposals were made for another radical rebuilding of the area. These proposals were extremely controversial and were abandoned in 2004 in favour of a scheme which retained the parallel rows of stalls, but replaced the old stalls with steel units of four stalls each. The rebuilt market was completed in early 2006 and is one of the largest markets in Britain.
Foundation The county town of Norfolk, Norwich is a city on the River Wensum in the East of England. Its origins are unclear, but by the reign of King Æthelstan (924–939) the city was a major trading centre and one of the most important boroughs in England. The Anglo-Saxon settlement was centred around Tombland, a large open space at the point where the roads into Norwich converged. The plain of Tombland was the site of Norwich's market.
Following the Norman Conquest of England (1066–1071), Norwich was radically redesigned. Norwich Cathedral was built immediately to the east of Tombland and much of the old town to the southwest of Tombland was cleared for the motte of Norwich Castle. A new Norman town was built west of the Castle, in an area known as Mancroft. The new town at Mancroft included a market of its own to provide for the Norman settlers and merchants moving into the area, and possibly also to supply the castle's garrison. The exact date of the foundation of the market at Mancroft is not recorded, but it is known to have been operational by the time the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086. Granting the right to trade in Norman England was a part of the Royal Prerogative and, as with most fairs and markets of the period, the market at Mancroft was operated under licence from the King. The King's Clerk had jurisdiction over all trade conducted at the market, and tolls and rents were collected on behalf of the King.
Almost no records survive of the Norman market in the 11th to 13th centuries. It is known that shortly after the market's establishment, a tollhouse was built nearby, which served as a collection point for taxes on trade. Although the precise location of the tollhouse is not recorded, it was immediately north of the market on part of the site now occupied by the Guildhall. At some point soon after its construction, the tollhouse also became the centre for the civil administration of the city. Although the Tombland market retained its charter to host an annual horse fair, over time the market at Mancroft supplanted that at Tombland as the principal market of the area. At the end of the 11th century, the Tombland market was removed during construction work on Norwich Cathedral.
Norwich Market in the Middle Ages By the start of the 14th century, Norwich was one of Europe's major cities. East Anglia was at this time one of the most densely populated areas in England, producing large amounts of grain, sheep, cattle and poultry. Much of this produce was traded in Norwich, an inland port roughly at the centre of the region. The City, meanwhile, had industrialised, its growth based on textiles, leather and metalworking, as well as being the administrative centre of the region. By 1300, Norwich had a population of between 6,000–10,000, with a total of around 20,000 people living in the area. (One 19th-century historian estimated Norwich's population pre-1349 at as high as 70,000.) It was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the country, and was considered the second city of England. Aside from occasional fairs, the majority of all goods produced in or imported to the region passed through the market at Mancroft. While there is some evidence that the market operated daily for a period around 1300, it generally operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Layout
The market had by this time taken on roughly the layout it retains today. It was a long rectangular open space aligned north–south, with the tollhouse (the Guildhall after 1413) marking the northern end and the very large church of St Peter Mancroft marking the southern end. (St Peter Mancroft was built in 1430–1455 incorporating an earlier church built in 1075 and was financed by the market's merchants. It retains its association with the market; all stallholders retain the right to hold their weddings in the church and to be buried in the churchyard.) The marketplace sloped downwards from west to east. A long straight passageway called the Nethererowe or Nether Row (later renamed Gentleman's Walk) marked the eastern boundary. Another passage called the Overerowe, or Over Row (later renamed St Peter's Street, and since 1938 occupied by City Hall), marked the western boundary.
The mediaeval market was divided into sections, each dealing with a particular trade. The stalls of the market were arranged in rows. They varied in width from to . Highly valuable, in the early years of the market they were generally owned by major institutions such as trade guilds and religious bodies, and generated a high income from rents. They also provided a steady income for the King, and later the city, from perpetual rents. The marketplace was surrounded by retail buildings, construction of which began in about 1300. These were fixed, permanent structures, some of which had multiple storeys and cellars.
The northern section of the main market place, immediately south of the tollhouse, housed fishmongers, butchers, ironmongers and woolsellers. This section of the market also housed the murage loft after 1294, where tolls to fund the building of Norwich's city walls were collected. The southern section of the main market place, north of St Peter Mancroft, housed a bread market and a number of stalls associated with Norwich's significant cloth and leather industries. A broad space between the main marketplace and the Nethererowe was kept clear for the use of country smallholders, who would set up temporary booths and tents to sell their wares.
South of St Peter Mancroft was a second marketplace dealing in wheat, poultry, cattle and sheep. Pigs, horses, timber and dye were not traded in the main market, but had dedicated markets elsewhere in the city. (The modern Norwich place names of Timberhill, St John Maddermarket and Rampant Horse Street derive from their origins as the sites of the mediaeval timber, dye and horse markets respectively.)
Transfer to city control In 1341, King Edward III visited Norwich for a jousting tournament, coinciding with the completion of the city's defensive walls. Edward and his mother, Isabella of France, were very impressed by the city and, as a token of appreciation for bearing the costs of the defensive fortifications, Edward granted the franchise of the market to the city in perpetuity. The control by the King's Clerk over trade at the market was ended and tolls and rents from the market from then on went directly to the city's bailiffs (the rulers of the city).
With the powers of the King's Clerk abolished, the bailiffs of Norwich set about regulating the operation of the market for what they felt was the greatest benefit to the city. To encourage fair competition among the market's traders, it was forbidden to sell foodstuffs before the Cathedral bell had tolled for Lady Mass (6.00 am). The practice of forestalling (meeting merchants on their way to the market either to buy their goods for resale, or to prevent them from attending the market and thus make goods of the type they were selling scarce and hence more expensive) was forbidden. Trading anywhere other than in the market was strongly discouraged and the right to re-sell goods at a profit was restricted to Freemen of the city. The prices of bread and beer were fixed, and a set of standardised weights and measures was introduced, against which measures used by merchants would regularly be checked. Shortly after the transfer of the market to the city a market cross was erected near the centre of the main market (opposite the present day entrance to Davey Place), the design of which is not recorded.
In mid-1348, the outbreak of bubonic plague known as the Great Mortality (later referred to as the Black Death), which had swept across Europe during the past year, reached England for the first time with an outbreak in the south coast port of Melcombe. The plague spread gradually over the rest of the country with devastating effect, causing a mortality estimated at between 30%–45%. In late March 1349, the outbreak reached East Anglia and, for reasons which are not understood, increased drastically in intensity. In 1349–50 alone, more than half the population of East Anglia died.
In 1369, East Anglia, whose farming economy had collapsed in the wake of the plague, was struck by famine. Although the market continued to operate, in the immediate aftermath of the plague it was at a much reduced level and many stalls were left empty for some years after. The famine of 1369 overwhelmed Norwich's burial grounds, necessitating an expansion of St Peter Mancroft's churchyard. The southernmost rows of stalls in the main marketplace, which had been occupied by drapers and linen merchants, were removed to clear space for an enlarged churchyard. By 1377, the population of Norwich had fallen from at least 20,000 before the outbreak to below 6,000.