Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

England’s markets and fairs underpinned one of the densest networks of trade in medieval Europe. The spread of those market institutions, which in England were well established by the eleventh century and then proliferated up to the fourteenth, is a key indicator of the development of a commercial society, and also throws light on patterns of settlement, economic specialisation, and the exercise of power. Yet no comprehensive catalogue of markets and fairs has been compiled. The project collected from various primary printed sources all evidence of enrolled grants and also identified prescriptive markets and fairs to create a gazetteer of markets and fairs for England and Wales up to 1516. This well-recorded set of markets and fairs provides an ideal test-bed for exploring more general issues concerning the interaction between public authority, law, and the growth (or otherwise) of trade. Such issues are currently of central importance for the study of society and economy in both the medieval and the modern world.
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The data collection consists of details of all markets and fairs found in the sources (see below) up to 1516. For England, it contains information for 2254 places, 2466 markets and 2768 fairs; for Wales 141 places, 138 markets and 166 fairs. It aims to provide as much information as possible regarding the establishment and operation of markets and fairs from c.900 onwards.

Details include: modern name of the place, 8 figure Ordnance Survey grid reference, whether or not the place was a borough and/or mint, valuation in the lay subsidy of 1334 and any other relevant information about the place; for each market or fair: the type of market/fair; days held, date granted or first recorded, grantor, grantee, together with source references and any other relevant information regarding the market or fair.