day "could break the helmet or smash the armour of an opponent, as one would crack the shell of a lobster with a hammer." Other weapons of offence and defensive armour were also kept in the Guildhall. Ever since the days of Edward the Confessor it had been the duty of the town of Leicester to send twelve burgesses to fight by land with the King's army. Thus, in 1322, twelve foot-soldiers were sent to fight in the Scotch war. In 1346 the contribution was reduced by the King's Council to six. For the use of these levies arms and equipment were bought from time to time by the Guild Merchant and kept in repair on their premises. In 1521 the town undertook to keep 10 able archers in harness with bows and arrows, swords and bucklers, "with other able harness for their bodies," to be ready for the King's use at a day's notice.
Inventories were sometimes made of the armour belonging to the town. In 1549, for instance, a list was set out of all the harness delivered by the Mayor to certain of the brethren, "to be safely kept for the town's use till it be needful to be occupied." Again, in 1551, an Inventory was taken of the plate and other property which was to be handed down from Mayor to Mayor, from which we learn that there were at that time "in the towne hall to the townes use these parcelles followyng:—
Itm. xxt alman revyttes" (i.e., corslets rivetted in the German fashion) "with splentes, sallytes and gorgetes.
Itm. xixt shef of arrowys with caces and gyrdelles.
Itm. on byll, tow bowys, viiit swordes, three daggers."
In the lane outside the Guild Hall stood a pair of stocks.
The first Hall had been known as the "Guild House" (messuagium communitatis gildæ, or messuagium gildæ, or donius gildæ). The second was called the Leicester Hall (aula Leycestriae), or the Guild Hall (aula gildas), and afterwards the Moot Hall, the Mayor's Hall, the Hall of the Community, or the Common Hall. The name Town Hall did not come into use until the 15th century. It appears first in the Borough Records in the year 1452; and, on September 20th, 1462, the Mayor and Community leased to their Town Clerk a house and garden, which were described as adjoining the "Town Hall."
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