of their tokens are extant, of which the dated ones 

 range from 1666 to 1669, and all of which were 

 probably issued between 1665 and i68o. sl 



Fairs were held at Stortford three times a year, on 

 the feasts of St. Michael, Ascension and Corpus 

 Christi. Part of the fairs were held inside the 

 churchyard until the end of the 16th century. 3a A 

 schoolhouse stood near the churchyard in the 15 th 

 century, where a chantry school was probably carried 

 on. 33 The grammar school founded by Margaret 

 Dane in 1579 was a building abutting on the High 

 Street on the north and on Church Lane on the 

 west. The library adjoined the schoolhouse ; this 

 was collected chiefly by Dr. Thomas Leigh, vicar of 

 Stortford. On the refounding of the school by 

 Dr. Tooke, the Wheat Hill market-house was acquired 

 in 1699, and a schoolhouse built on arches over the 

 market-house with the west front looking over the 

 churchyard.' 4 



Destroyed either at the Reformation or during 

 the Commonwealth were four crosses which stood in 

 roads leading from the town of Stortford. Collin's 

 Cross probably stood on the site still called by 

 that name at the point where the road from 

 Take'ey joins the road leading from Hockerill to 

 Stanstead. It was probably named from the family 

 of Colin who were living here from the 13th cen- 

 tury onward. The name also survives in Collin's 

 Croft. Crabb's Cross stood on the road now called 

 Rye Street leading from Stortford towards Manuden, 

 probably at a four-want-way made by the inter- 

 section of this road with an ancient way (now a 

 water-course) to Farnham. Crabb was a common 

 surname in the parish, and the family has given its 

 name to Crabb's Croft, Crabb's Croft Mead and 

 Crabb's Field in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the site above indicated. A third ctoss was Wayte 

 Cross, which Stood at the junction of Maze Green 

 Road with the old road from Stortford to Little 

 Hadham on a site now occupied by the grounds 

 of Westfield (the modern name for Waite Field) 

 House. Close by was Waite Field, 26 and Wayte 

 Strete 26 was probably the name of the road leading 

 from the cross to the town. Maple Cross, the fourth 

 cross, is said by Chauncy to have stood on the south, 

 of the town, probably on the old South Road leading 

 from Stortford to London. 27 Its exact site and also 

 the derivation of the name are uncertain. 



Like other market towns with a powerful lord of 

 the manor, Stortford had to some extent a burghal 

 constitution, but there seems to be no truth in the 

 story told by Chauncy and repeated by other historians 

 of its having received this constitution from King 

 John, for as far as is known he gave no charter 

 to the town. It appears to have been a mesne 



BRAUGHING HUNDRED bishops stortford 



borough held of the Bishops of London. Ac 

 the beginning of the 14th century separate courts 

 were held for the barony and the borough/ but 

 later only manorial courts were held, at winch the 

 borough presented separately from the ' upland by 

 iz burgesses and separate officers were elected. 

 The burgage tenants could alienate by charter, and on 

 entering into a tenement they paid a variable sum 

 ranging from Sd. to iod. for the freedom of the 

 borough. In 1344-5 the burgage rents amounted 

 to 5/. \d. for the year. 30 In the 13th and 14th 

 centuries the township is found presenting separately 

 from the hundred before the justices of assize,* 1 and 

 in a subsidy collected in 1340 it is classed as a 

 borough with Hertford and assessed separately from 

 the rest of the county. 32 As the head of the Bishop 

 of London's barony it was important enough to send 

 members to Parliament in the 14th century. Two 

 members were summoned from it to the Parliaments 

 held in 13 n, 33 1312,1313, 1314-15, I 3 1 8, 1320, 

 1322, 34 and I34.o-i. 3S 



The number of inns which appear in the records 

 of the town witness to its active commercial life. 3 " 

 Many of these are still standing, although most of 

 them have been much altered. The White Horse 

 Inn in North Street is a house of two stories built of 

 brick and plastered timber, in plan the shape of an L- 

 The overhanging upper story is plastered and 

 decorated with square and diamond-shaped plaster 

 panels containing ornamental designs. The Half 

 Moon Inn in the same street is a timber house 

 which was restored about thirty years ago. In High 

 Street there is the Boar's Head Inn, built about 1600 

 of timber and plaster, but so much altered that the 

 original plan is obscured. The projecting wings as 

 well as the main building are gabled. In a few of the 

 windows are still the old metal casements ; the quarter- 

 circle bay windows in the re-entering angles are an 

 18th-century addition. In the stables there has 

 been inserted a moulded beam with a defaced carved 

 boss of the 15th century. There is an embattled oak 

 beam of the 1 5th century over the fireplace in the top 

 room. The Grapes Inn in South Street is probably 

 of the late 1 6th century. It is built of timber and 

 plaster. An original angle bracket is hidden behind 

 a square corner. On the other side of the same street 

 is a house now known as the Reindeer Inn of the 1 6th 

 or 17th century. This is not the Reindeer Inn of 

 Pepys fame, kept by the notorious Betty Ainsworth, 

 which stood at the corner of Fish Street and High 

 Street on the site now occupied by Messrs. Walker's 

 Stores. In Bridge Street is the Black Lion Inn, a 

 16th-century timber and plaster rectangular house of 

 two stories and an attic. The upper story overhangs 

 on the north and east, and the attic again projects ; 



11 Information from Mr. J. L.Glasscock. 

 ** Sets. R. (Herts. Co. Rec.), i, 1 3. 

 n This and the Gatehouse, close by, 

 paid a rent to the church (Glasscock, 

 Set. of St. Michael's, Bishop's Stortftrd. a). 

 » V.C.H.Htrt,. u,ii. 

 JS Chauncy, Hist, and Antlq. of Hrrts. 

 170. 



!s Mins. Accts. bdle. 1140, no i- 

 Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), port*. 178, no. 6;, 66^ 

 Wadeawyk la another name found in the 

 14th century (Ct. R. portf. 178, no. 66). 

 This is probably the same word, for 

 Wadesmill in Standon is found asWates- 

 mill (Cott. MS. Nero, vi E, fol. 120). 



irV. R. 



mt of these 

 asscock, 4*c, 

 Glasscock h 

 1 'Shyrte Cross' 

 '.99), which ma' 

 le for one of th 



' (Rent; 



■ another 



» MSS. of D. and C. 

 ;ess A, box 64, no. 23. 

 • Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 



lee also Agard's MS. index to Assize R. 

 6 Edw. I. 



H Lay Subs. R. bdle. 120, no. 15. 



in August 151 1, but was prorogued and 



the second summons Stortford did not, so 

 h. ,. »p k noWl return any members. 



of Memb. of Pari, i, 23 ; 



■' Mir: 



Accts. 



ze R. 318 (32 Hen. 1 

 1. Ill); 525 (.5 Edw 



y.c.H. H, . 



33 The names of these two 



arc given by Willis Browne in No 



M Glasscock, Rec. of St. Mich 



Bishop's Stortford ~ 

 R. 299 ; Ct. Roll 





Sun 



