SNN100410 - Document Search: "The Land Of Gildhalle" Northampton's Earliest Guildhall?

The subject of this document search is the location of an obscure land unit in Northampton known as "the land of Gildhalle". There is only one mention of this in any known document, an inspeximus and confirmation to St John's Hospital in 1404 in the Public Record Office published volumes of the Calendar of Patent rolls (1401-5 p368). This confirms a charter of Simon, Earl of Northampton, confirming grants his father made, which would have been shortly after the founding of St John's Hospital in 1138. in the list which follows is: "the place where stands the chapel of St Mary Magdalen with all the land of Gildhalle and the men dwelling on it quit of pleas, aid, gelds and customs". Welsh suggests that documentary evidence places the "land of gildhalle" at the east of Gold Street, on the north side. If this is an early Guidlahll, this is more likely to be the centre of the early Norman town.