In 1377 the inhabitants of Shrewsbury aged 14 years or more (including 100 persons discovered moving from street to street to evade the collectors of the poll tax), numbered 2,083, indicating a probable total population of more than 3,000 and a town comparable in size with Gloucester and larger than any other strictly within the Welsh march.J.C. Russell, Brit. Med. Pop. 142; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), ii.
There is no evidence regarding the size of the population of Bridgnorth in the late 14th century, but since it was a small, walled town, ‘scant a mile in compace’, with only one parish church, there can hardly have been many inhabitants. The town was probably similar in size to Leominster, and, like that borough, it ‘stood by cloathing’.
In the last quarter of the 14th century Oxford was easily the biggest and most important town in the middle Thames valley and of the surrounding counties, with a lay population twice the size of that of Reading or Newbury, and rather larger than that of Gloucester. Besides making use of links afforded by the waterway, it also developed as a major route centre for overland traffic, having good communications with London, Bristol, Southampton, Leicester, Worcester and, very easy of access, the Cotswold wool towns.
With an estimated population of 2,170, in 1377 Nottingham was similar in size to Northampton, larger than Derby and Newark, but smaller than Leicester. The town’s geographical position, within easy reach of the Fosse Way and commanding the waterway of Trent, which provided easy access to the Humber and the port of Kingston-upon-Hull, gave impetus to its growth as an important commercial centre. From the 13th century two fairs were regularly held there, one lasting eight days around the feast of St. Matthew, the other 15 days around that of St.
Recognizing the importance of Newcastle-upon-Tyne as both a port and a defensive site, the Normans lost no time in fortifying the township, just as the Romans had done before them. A flourishing community grew up around the castle, and shortly before 1135 the first of many royal charters was awarded to the residents. King John later permitted them to occupy the borough at a fee farm of £100 a year, payable at the Exchequer, while at the same time improving the fortifications.
During the two centuries which followed the Norman Conquest, Northampton had been a town of national as well as local importance, owing its early development and status largely to its close association with the Crown. The borough was situated at the centre of the kingdom, was easily defensible and provided with roads which facilitated not only trade but also military communication.
Norwich was perhaps the fifth largest city in the kingdom, with a population of about 6,000. It had grown in importance as a commercial centre where the wool staple for the area was sometimes sited, as the seat of a bishop whose diocese included Suffolk, and as a base from which the sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk exercised his jurisdiction. Even before being granted the charter of 1404, which made Norwich a shire-incorporate, the inhabitants had countenanced no interference from outside in the day-to-day administration of the city.
In the earlier part of the 14th century Yarmouth had been one of the wealthiest English towns, owing its prosperity to its position as the most important centre for herring fishing in the kingdom, and, indeed, as one of the major fishing ports of Europe. Several hundred fishing boats visited the local autumn herring fair, held from Michaelmas to Martinmas. Yarmouth was also a shipowning centre of considerable note, the size of its merchant fleet giving it an unusually large role in certain phases of the wars with France and Scotland.
The population of Bishop’s Lynn in 1377 has been estimated as 4,691; about 1,300 less than that of Norwich. A large port by contemporary standards, it was slightly bigger than Boston, nearly twice the size of Great Yarmouth and double that of Southampton and Kingston-upon-Hull. The town had been founded at the end of the 11th century by the bishop of Norwich, at the request of a group of traders already established on the western boundaries of his manor of Gaywood, and situated where road, river and sea transport met on the southern shores of the Wash.
The strategic importance of Lincoln’s position upon a steep hill commanding the river Witham was early recognized by the Ancient Britons and subsequently by the Romans who established a colony there. The construction of Ermine Street, which stretched from London to York, and of the Fosse Way, which linked Exeter with Leicester, proved a great stimulus to the city’s development, since it lay at the intersection of these two major thoroughfares.
