Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
After the experience of the black death, some sanitary measures were
taken. The notorious offenders in matters of public hygiene in the
towns, such as the butchers, the fishmongers, and the leather tanners
were assigned specific localities where their trades would do least
harm. The smiths and potters were excluded from the more densely
populated areas because they were fire risks. In the town of Salisbury,
there was Butcher Row, Ox Row, Fish Row, Ironmongers' Row, Wheelwrights'
Row, Smiths' Row, Pot Row, Silver Street, Cheese Market, and Wool
Market.
For water, most communities depended on rivers that ran near by or on
public wells that were dug to reach the water underground. Some towns
had water public water supply systems. Fresh water was brought into the
town from a spring or pond above the town by wood or lead pipes or open
conduits. Sometimes tree trunks were hollowed out and tapered at the
ends to fit into the funnel-shaped end of another. But they leaked a
lot. In London, a conduit piped water underground to a lead tank, from
which it was delivered to the public by means of pipes and brass taps in
the stone framework. This was London's chief water supply. Water
carriers carried water in wooden devices on their backs to houses.
The paving and proper drainage of the streets became a town concern.
Building contracts began specifying the provision of adequate cesspits
for the privies at town houses, whether the latrines were built into the
house or as an outhouse. Also, in the better houses, there grew a
practice of carting human and animal fecal matter at night to dung heaps
outside the city walls. There was one public latrine in each ward and
about twelve dung carts for the whole city. Country manor houses had
latrines on the ground floor and/or the basement level.
In London, the Goldsmiths, Merchant Taylors [Tailors], Skinners, and
Girdlers bought royal charters, which recognized their power of
self-government as a company and their power to enforce their standards,
perhaps throughout the country. The Goldsmiths, the Mercers, and the
Saddlers became in 1394 the first guilds to receive charters of
incorporation, which gave them perpetual existence. As such they could
hold land in "mortmain" [dead hand], thus depriving the king of rights
that came to him on the death of a tenant-in-chief. They were authorized
to bestow livery on their members and were called Livery Companies. The
liverymen [freemen] of the trading companies elected London's
representatives to Parliament.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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