Monument record 638/20/1 - Market Place

{1}Daventry’s market place was located at the eastern end of High Street and was bounded on its eastern side by the priory and the parish church. It would seem that it was originally much larger than at present and more or less square in plan. A.E. Brown considers that it was an addition to the early medieval landscape and suggests that it may have been created when the town was replanned and burgages laid out along the north side of High Street on former villein holdings.
This re-organisation may have taken place when the priory was established or in the immediately following decades, and had certainly occurred by the mid 12th century. Brown’s map of medieval Daventry shows the greater part of the original market place occupied by five men holding three burgages. It is not clear when this infilling occurred
In 1365 the lord of the Over Manor leased to Hugh Ironmonger a shop in Daventry next to the flesh shambles. This lease suggests that the market place already contained at least some of the specialised marketing precincts attested in the early 1380s, when there was mention of the Butchery with 17 butchers’ stalls and two shops at the end, and the Drapery with a gate on its western side, and which contained 12 drapers’ stalls, 5 mercers’ shops and 3 shops belonging to ironmongers.

<1> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Daventry (Medieval/Post Medieval/ Industrial), Section 3.5.1, 3.5.1.2 (Digital archive). SNN100501.

Record last edited

Apr 28 2008 9:51AM