City Wall, Cook Street Gate, Plumb House

March 1935

The complaints of the Prior were many, and besides the complaints mentioned in the article last month, he said that they broke open the gates at Spittlemore letting out his cattle, and made it a general sporting place, and when rebuked, they gave the Prior and his servants short language, saying that they would keep it as a sporting place. Fishing in the Swanswell was another complaint, as they took the fish by stealth, and thus caused great loss to the Church. They also washed in the pool, the Prior suggesting that it hurt the fish, but the citizens replied that it would help to fatten the fish.

Cook Street Gate came under the list of complaints, the Prior saying that the people placed a quantity of builders' rubble on the dung heaps, which the farmers carted away to their land, but refused to do so because of the rubble; also the gateway was blocked up, so that the Prior could not get through to his orchards (which would be near what is now Jesson Street).

The plumb house, where the lead was hammered out for roofs and windows, was claimed by the Prior, while the Church of St. Michael claimed it also, and possibly rightly so, because it stood in front of the Drapers' Hall, near Bayley Lane.

Regarding the story of the City Wall, the Prior stated that they had paid £10 per annum murage to the City Wall, and that the Corporation should have built 6 perches per year, whereas they had only built 2 perches, and that most of this money had gone to the repair of the wall on other land. The leet replied that they considered the people of the Monastery should be thankful, as the pulling down of the old wall, and including St. Osburg's pool (now the Pool Meadow) cost them 5 marks more than the first wall, and as the wall protected their Monastery grounds, and also that no other complaints had been made prior to that of Prior Shotswell in 1461-2.

The newly discovered Tower base would appear to be about the same size as the present Priory or Swanswell Tower. The river bed where it was discovered would at one time be a part of a pool of very large extent, and the ground to a great depth was of very marshy quality. To build a large stone building or gate would be impossible without a strong foundation, and to make such a foundation it required timber of great thickness.

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