Vintry Ward

1603 Description of Ward Boundaries

The following diplomatic transcription of the opening paragraph(s) of the 1603 chapter on this ward will eventually be subsumed into the MoEML edition of the 1603 Survey.The 1603 Survey is widely available in reprints of C.L. Kingsford’s two-volume 1908 edition (Kingsford) and also in the British History Online transcription of the Kingsford edition (BHO). MoEML is completing its editions of all four texts in the following order: 1598, 1633, 1618, and 1603. Each ward chapter opens with a narrative circumnavigation of the ward—a verbal beating of the bounds that MoEML first transcribed in 2004 and later used to facilitate the drawing of approximate ward boundaries on our edition of the Agas map. Source: John Stow, A Survey of London (London, 1603; STC #23343).

[A]nd firſt of the Uintry ward, ſo called of Uintners, and of the Uintrie, a part of the banks of the Riuer of Thames, where the marchants of Burdeaux craned their wines out of Lighters, and other ueſſels, & there landed and made ſale of them within forty daies after, vntil the 28. of Edward the firſt, at which time the ſaid marchants complained that they could not ſell their wines, paying poundage, neither hire houſes or ſellers to lay them in, and it was redreſſed by virtue of the kings writ, directed to the Maior and ſhiriffes of London, dated at Carlaueroke (or Carlile) ſince the which time many faire and large houſes with vaults and cellers for ſtowage of wines and lodging of the Burdeaux marchants haue been builded in place, where before time were Cookes houſes: for Fitzſtephen in the raigne of Henrie the 2. writeth that vpon the riuers ſide betweene the wine in ſhips, and the wine to be ſold in tauerns, was a common cookerie or Cookes row, &c. as in another place I haue ſet downe: whereby it appeareth that in thoſe dayes (and till of late time) euery man liued by his profeſſed trade, not any one interrupting an other. The cookes dreſſed meate, and ſold no wine, and the Tauerner ſold wine, but dreſſed no meate for ſale, &c.

This warde beginneth in the Eaſt, at the weſt end of Downegate ward, at the water courſe of Walbrooke parteth them, to wit at Granthams lane on the Thames ſide, and at Elbow lane on the land ſide: it runneth along in Thames ſtreete weſt, ſome three houſes beyond the olde Swanne a Brewhouſe, and on the lande ſide ſome three houſes weſt, beyond Saint Iames at Garlicke Hith. In bredth this ward ſtretcheth from the Uintry north to the wall of the Weſt Gate of the Tower Royall: the other North part is of Cordwayner ſtreete warde. Out of this Royall ſtréete by the South gate of Tower Royall runneth a ſmall ſtreete, Eaſt to S. Iohns upon Walbrooke, which ſtreete is called Horſhewbridge, of ſuch a bridge ſometime ouer the brooke there, which is now uaulted ouer. Then from the ſayd ſouthgate weſt, runneth one other ſtreete, called Knight riders ſtreete, by S. Thomas Apoſtles church, on the north ſide, and Wringwren lane, by the ſaid Church, at the weſt end thereof, and to the Eaſt end of the Trinitie Church in the ſaid knightriders ſtreete, where this ward endeth on that ſouth ſide the ſtreet: but on the north ſide it runneth no farther then the corner againſt the new builded Tauerne, and other houſes, in a plot of ground, where ſometime ſtood Ormond place, yet haue yee one other lane lower downe in Royall ſtreete, ſtretching from ouer againſt S. Michaels church, to, and by the North ſide of S. Iames church by Garlicke Hith, this is called Kerion lane, and thus much for the bounds of Uintrie Ward.