Winchester was given a grant of murage dated 1/2/1451.
This was in the form of:-
This is a grant which may have been used for walls but could have been used for other civic improvements.
Wording
Grant to the mayor, bailiffs and commonalty of Winchester of 40 marks yearly for fifty years from the issues of the ulnage of cloths for sale in the city and the suburbs thereof and the soke there and elsewhere in the county of Southampton. By K. etc.
Granted by Henry VI. (Regnal year 29). Granted at Westminster. Granted by K. etc..
Primary Sources
Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1909,
Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry VI (1446-52) Vol. 5 p. 512
online copy
Secondary Sources
Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 183
Comments
I suspect this replaced the previous similar grant, which had 40 more years to run, rather than being additional to it.
Turner describes this as a long term grant of murage. Nothing in the calendar transcription of the grant mentions walls. In 1389 a similar grant (MG856) for 5 years was expressly for the repair of the city walls. Clearly the money could have been spent on walls and Winchester was claiming it needed money for its walls (MG862) at this time but was also more generally impoverished and interpreting this as exclusively murage may be a 'step to far'.
Record created by Philip Davis. This record created 29/01/2009. Last updated on 03/05/2012. First published online 5/01/2013.
