Page:Mediaevalleicest00billrich.djvu/29

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

the old word "canch," which is used in Yorkshire and Norfolk to denote "a sloping trench, a water channel, cut on a road." In Leicestershire this word is generally used in the form "kench," e.g., to "kench" potatoes is to make a pit for them to lie in, to camp them. But there seems to be no evidence of an artificial conduit in the Cank. The conduit in the market-place was not put up till 1612.

Loseby Lane, the short street still so called, is said to date from the 13th century, and to derive its name from John de Loseby. It is perhaps more likely that it was named after Henry of Loseby, a Leicester burgess, who held a considerable quantity of land in the Parish of St. Martin and elsewhere in the Eastern quarter of Leicester about 1300. Loseby Lane bounded one of the 1484 Wards. In the days of Throsby and Nichols it was called the "Pig-market."

Friar Lane, as it is still called, ran east out of the old High Street, by the south side of the gate and walls of the Grey Friars' precincts into the Saturday Market. It was so named in 1392, when a messuage was described as being " at the corner opposite the gate of the Friars Preachers," and bounded on the north side by "a lane called Frere Lane." In 1484 it seems to have been known as the Grey Friars' Lane.

III. THE SOUTH QUARTER.

The South quarter of the mediaeval town was bounded on the North by the Hot Gate and Apple Gate leading to the West Gate and Bridge; and on the West by the river. On the East lay the old High Street, and on the South, until the middle of the 14th century, the South wall of the town, and after that time the Newarke.

There were few roads and few houses in this quarter, which comprised chiefly the Castle and its precincts, with St. Mary's Church, beyond which lay the 14th century Newarke, the whole enclosed by strong walls. Here too were butchers' shambles and bakers' ovens.

11