FOURTEENTH CENTURY LIFE IN BRIDPORT. 99 



together with the Chapel of St. Michael, was in the third year of 

 King Edward VI. by Royal Letters Patent granted to William 

 Fountayne and Richard Mayne. In the interests, therefore, of 

 historical research I think the King Charles' incident must give 

 way in this case. 



Another place-name amongst many is worthy of notice. 

 John Proteys in 1390 bequeaths a house called " Castleheigh " 

 on the east side of South Street, between a house belonging to 

 the Corporation on the south and Walter Hazard's tenement on 

 the north. That there was a Castle of some kind at Bridport is 

 shewn by the extant name " Castle Square," which is on the west 

 side of South Street below the Church, and evidently connected at 

 one time with that strange old building called "the Dungeness." 



One word about the kind of houses the. people lived in. It 

 would appear that a narrow frontage to the street with a long 

 rope-walk or garden at the back was the general type of tene- 

 ment in the Fourteenth Century. The basement was groined, 

 paved with stone or spread with rushes, and called the cellar, 

 though not always below the frontage level. Above this and 

 reached by a short stone staircase was the ' solar chamber,' the 

 sun room or Sunday parlour, and above this again would be the 

 sleeping chambers, the garrets, and the merchant's store room. 

 In the year 1339 Lucy Barri bequeaths " eight shillings rent 

 " coming from one celar which John the Hatter holds for life 

 " and one solar over it which celar together with solar is situated 

 " in the angle on the east side of the Chapel of Blessed 

 " Andrew." She also mentions " The open warehouse (selda) 

 above my chamber," so that hers was evidently a three -storied 

 house. It seems strange to us in these days to realise how two 

 or three different owners could exist amicably beneath the same 

 roof. Robert Bemynstre, in 1386, says " Item I bequeath that 

 shop which is beneath the mansion of Thomas Sore and called 

 the Mede house to the bailiff and community of Bridport for 

 ever." Here we have at the same time two different owners of 

 the same building. What an exquisite dilemma for the lawyers 

 would arise when the first-floor owner brought an action against 



