A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



increased. Again, there are various cases during the i 5th century in which 

 numerous buildings are mentioned of which no previous trace appears, and 

 which therefore may have been newly built, but which are still stated to be 

 ruinous and worth nothing. Apparently rural housing in the I5th century 

 was an unprofitable speculation. The inference from these facts seems clear. 

 Nottinghamshire, like the rest of England, must have suffered from a decrease 

 of rural population as a result of the social disorganization caused by the 

 Black Death. 



Higher wages among craftsmen were probably characteristic of Notting- 

 hamshire as elsewhere, as appears by the account of the repairs at Nottingham 

 Castle about 1361. The master craftsmen (with the exception of the 

 plumbers) had an advance of 'id. or 3^. a day on their earlier earnings, and 

 their assistants of id. a day. 78 The master masons earned from 6d. to %d. a day, 

 and their assistants from 2s. to 2s. 6d. a week ; stone-cutters got $d. a day, and 

 their servers ^d. ; master carpenters got 6d. a day, or 3-r. ^d. a week, and their 

 assistants $d. a day ; plasterers and plumbers got 2s. 6d. a week, and their 

 men is. 6d,, or ^d. a day ; while quarrymen and unskilled labourers earned 

 respectively \d. and ^d. instead of 2d. Servants, too, seem to have had higher 

 wages. At Blyth the cook's servant in 1379 had 13^. ^.d. for board and 

 clothing, 79 whereas a similar servant at Ossington in 1330 received only 5-f. 

 besides his living. 80 



As before the Black Death, these wages are in excess of those quoted 

 by Thorold Rogers, and, with the exception of the plumbers, they show a 

 decided advance over the wages in Nottingham itself about forty years 

 before. Possibly these high wages may have been transitory. At Nottingham 

 Castle 81 about 1395 the carpenters received only 6d. a day, the masons 5</., 

 and their servers 3^., a tile maker and his man 8d. The plumbers, however, 

 continued at their old rate of 6d., and the unskilled labourers at 3^. About 

 the same time there was a general complaint of overcharging at Notting- 

 ham. Carpenters, plasterers, stone-cutters, and labourers were all said to 

 demand too much. 82 These objections may possibly have only anticipated 

 the real tendency of economic conditions. At any rate wages seem to have 

 been fairly stationary in Nottingham during the I5th century. Between 

 1400 and 1500, masons appear to have received 6d. a day, and their server? 

 4<y. ; thatchers 5^., and their servers ^d. Plumbers got 6d. as before. There 

 is a solitary instance of a carpenter earning u., and labourers' wages rose to 

 4^., while those of quarrymen sank to ^d. ; but these are the only changes 

 of note. It is, however, observable that the wages were no longer above the 

 general English average. 83 



Outside Nottingham, too, wages seem to have been less ; at Clip- 

 stone in 1350 i 84 masons received only 2s. a week ; slaters, ^d. a day ; 

 plumbers, 6d. (the plumbers' wages seem fairly steady), and carpenters only 

 is. %d. a week, while the inferior workmen received only 2d. a day. The 

 wages mentioned above were apparently all paid in money ; but at Bestwood, 

 about 1395, labourers from various neighbouring villages were largely recom- 



" AccU. Eich. K.R. bdle. 478, no. 7. " J. Raine, Hist, of Blyth, 48. 



* Larkin, The Knights Hospitallers in Engl. (Camd. Soc.), 54-6. 



81 Accts. Exch. K.R. bdle. 478, no. 14, 17-19 Ric. II. " Rec. of Borough ofNott. i, 275. 



M Ibid, ii, 364-8 ; iii, 33, and 1*9-32, &c. 



M Accti. Exch. K.R. bdle. 542, no. 24, 23 Edw. III. 



276 



