Author

Chris King (Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the University of Nottingham)

Publisher

Boydell Press (October 2020)

ISBN

9781783275540

Description

First full archaeological study of the urban environment of Norwich when its power was at its height.

Norwich was second only to London in size and economic significance from the late Middle Ages through to the mid-seventeenth century. This book brings together, for the first time, the rich archaeological evidence for urban households and domestic life in Norwich, using surviving buildings, excavated sites, and material culture. It offers a broad overview of the changing forms, construction and spatial organisation of urban houses during the period, ranging across the social spectrum from the large courtyard mansions occupied by members of the mercantile and civic elite, to the homes of the urban "middling sort" and the small two- and three-roomed cottages of the city's weavers andartisans.

The so-called "age of transition" witnessed profound social and economic changes and religious and political upheavals, which Norwich, as a major provincial capital, experienced with particular force and intensity; domestic life was also transformed. The author examines the twin themes of continuity and change in the material world and the role of the domestic sphere in the expression and negotiation of shifting power relationships, economic structures and social identities in the medieval and early modern city.

Contents

Chapter 1: Urban rebuildings, urban transitions

Chapter 2: Norwich, 1350-1660: continuity and change in an English provincial city

Chapter 3: Medieval merchants' houses, c.1350-1540

Chapter 4: Early modern merchants' houses, c.1540-1660

Chapter 5: The urban elite: domestic space, social identity and civic authority

Chapter 6: Medieval houses and the urban 'great rebuilding'

Chapter 7: Houses of the 'middling sort': buildings and the use of space

Chapter 8: Housing the urban poor and immigrant communities

Conclusions