Winchester, Painted by Wilfrid BallVarley, Telford
History
Winchester, Painted by Wilfrid Ball
Varley, Telford
Winchester (England) -- Description and travel; Winchester (England) -- History; Winchester (England) -- Pictorial works
Naturally enough, many other interesting details are to be gathered
incidentally, _e.g._ the names of the inhabitants, among which many
names still familiar as distinctively Winchester names are to be found,
and their various ranks and occupations. We read, for instance, of a
market near the three minsters, of which the present Market Street is a
survival; of ‘estals,’ or stalls, in the High Street, a reference with a
curious modern echo, inasmuch as the stalls in the High Street and
Broadway have been quite recently the source of much local heart-burning
and contention; of ‘escheopes,’ or shops, which had belonged to the
Confessor’s queen, Edith; of reeves (_prepositi_), and of a ‘stret
bidel’ (or _street beadle_). One curious entry relative to Eastgate
speaks of certain steps which gave access to the church above the gate
(_qdā gradˢ ad ascendendā ad ecclam sup portā_), showing that King’s
Gate was not alone among the city gates in having a little church above
it.
Another important feature we gain information on is the position of the
Gilds. These trade organisations had now become important and fully
organised; they served for the protection of their members, they made
regulations for the conduct of the several trades, and their
headquarters were used as clubs or places for general meeting and
discussion--the latter including almost as a _sine qua non_
ale-drinking, and that not always in moderation. The Survey contains
references to three halls or ‘gild’ headquarters--_Lachenictahalla_ (or
_chenictes’ hall_) near Westgate, the _Chenichetehalla_ near Eastgate
(on the site of the present St. John’s Rooms), and the _Hantachenesle in
Colebrook Street_. What the very obscure term _Hantachenesle_, applied
to the last named, means is a problem on which so far no satisfactory
light has been thrown. Nor is it clear who the ‘cnechts’ or ‘chenictes’
were--whether, as is generally assumed, they were ‘knights,’ _i.e._
young men of rank, or ‘cnechts,’ _i.e._ sons of burghers not yet
admitted to the ‘Freedom.’ We read that at the Chenichetehalla, the
‘chenictes’ drank their gild (_chenictehalla ubi chenictes potabant
Gildam suam_), and at the Hantachenesle the ‘approved’ or freemen drank
theirs (_Hantachenesle ... ubi pbi homiēs Went potabant Gildā suā_).
That this beer-drinking was often inordinate we gather from various
contemporary references, such as Anselm’s rebuke of a certain monk who
was given to frequenting the gilds and drinking deeply: _in multis
inordinate se agit et maxime in bibendo ut in gildis cum ebriosis
bibat_. There is also a reference to a ‘_Gihald_’ or
‘_Gihalla_’--possibly a ‘Gild’ Hall,--and the Pipe Rolls of this reign
mention a Tailors’ Gild, and a _Chepemanesela_, or _Chapman’s Hall_. The
whole subject of these gilds, as well as of their halls, is one of great
obscurity, and the references in the Winton Surveys, full of interest as
they are, serve rather to whet our curiosity than to actually solve any
problems they suggest.
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