London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History -- 16th century -- Sources; London (England) -- Surveys
The running water, so called by William the Conqueror in his said
charter, which entereth the city, etc. (before there was any ditch)
between Bishopsgate and the late made postern called Moorgate, entered
the wall, and was truly of the wall called Walbrooke, not of Gualo, as
some have far fetched: it ran through the city with divers windings from
the north towards the south into the river of Thames, and had over the
same divers bridges along the streets and lanes through which it passed.
I have read in a book[22] entitled the Customs of London,[23] that the
prior of the Holy Trinity within Aldgate ought to make over Walbrooke
in the ward of Brod street, against the stone wall of the city, viz.,
the same bridge that is next the Church of All Saints, at the wall.
Also that the prior of the new hospital, St. Mary Spittle without
Bishopsgate, ought to make the middle part of one other bridge next to
the said bridge towards the north: and that in the twenty-eight year of
Edward I. it was by inquisition found before the mayor of London, that
the parish of St. Stephen upon Walbrooke ought of right to scour the
course of the said brook, and therefore the sheriffs were commanded to
distrain the said parishioners so to do, in the year 1300. The keepers
of those bridges at that time were William Jordan and John de Bever.
This water-course, having divers bridges, was afterwards vaulted over
with brick, and paved level with the streets and lanes where through it
passed; and since that, also houses have been built thereon, so that the
course of Walbrooke is now hidden underground, and thereby hardly known.
Langborne water, so called of the length thereof, was a great stream
breaking out of the ground in Fenchurch street, which ran down with
a swift course, west, through that street, athwart Gra street, and
down Lumbard street, to the west end of St. Mary Wolnothes church, and
then turning the course down Shareborne lane, so termed of sharing or
dividing, it brake into divers rills or rillets to the river of Thames:
of this bourn that ward took the name, and is till this day called
Langborne ward. This bourn also is long since stopped up at the head,
and the rest of the course filled up and paved over, so that no sign
thereof remaineth more than the names aforesaid.
Oldborne, or Hilborne, was the like water, breaking out about the place
where now the bars do stand, and it ran down the whole street till
Oldborne bridge, and into the river of the Wells, or Turnemill brook.
This bourn was likewise long since stopped up at the head, and in other
places where the same hath broken out, but yet till this day the said
street is there called High Oldborne hill, and both the sides thereof,
together with all the grounds adjoining, that lie betwixt it and the
river of Thames, remain full of springs, so that water is there found at
hand, and hard to be stopped in every house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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