Warminster Museum Column: Market

Thomas Mauduit, our local Lord of the Manor, decided that he should have a market town. It is not known exactly when he made this decision, but it would have been in the 1220’s or early 1230’s.

Warminster, at that time, was little more than Silver Street and Church Street. The layout of this small town was quite unsuitable for a “modern” market town, so the new town had to be established somewhere else.   

Should he build a market square or a market street?  He decided on a market street.

The market street of a new market town was portioned off into standard sized plots, known as burgage plots. These plots would normally run back from the street and end with a back entrance on a back lane, which ran roughly parallel with the market street.  Different towns had plots of different standard widths, but Thomas Mauduit decided that his plots should be one perch wide. One perch is five and a half yards (five metres).

If you wished to set up a business in a market town, you leased a plot from the Lord of the Manor. You may have thought that you had a good business idea, so you would lease two adjacent plots, giving you a frontage of eleven yards. You may even have been ambitious and leased three plots. Once you had taken on these plots, you could set up your business. His Lordship may not have worried too much about what you were doing, just as long as you paid the rent, but you may have had to pay him some part of your profit.

These burgage plots, set up in the early 1200’s, lasted a very long time, and many are still identifiable today. If you walk a short way along the Avenue from Station Road, you will see an old blue gate. This gate still has its old surrounding structure, and you can just make out “Eversfield House”. Eversfield House still exists. Eversfield House is (was) M&Co in Market Place and is three burgage plots wide.

There is another example of these burgage plots in High Street. Corden’s is two burgage plots wide; the Frock Shop is one burgage plot. So, we have an easy measure of one, two and three burgage plots in one place. But walk around our town, and you will identify many of these plots.

Warminster’s market was a success. Salisbury, set up as a market square at about the same time, was also a success. Many other market towns did not do so well.