Page:Mediaevalleicest00billrich.djvu/160

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There was a common pinfold in the Place, which stood on the site of the present Fishmarket. All cattle found straying were driven into it, and kept there until compensation had been paid for any damage.

The little octagonal "Conduit," which was nearly opposite to the Victoria Parade, dated from the beginning of the 17th century, although a scheme for bringing water to the town had been in existence long before. It was mended in 1689, at which time "Widow Brooks" was receiving 15s. a year "for opening and shutting the conduit doors daily."

The Grain Market is mentioned in 1314, when six posts were purchased by the Mayor, for the purpose of staking out its boundaries. It adjoined the Bean Market, for the two sites were in that year cleaned together, at an expense of 9d. The Sheep Market lay north of the Saturday Market, where Silver Street now runs, until the year 1506. It was then resolved by the Corporation that the Sheepmarket should be kept in the Saturday Market from May to Michaelmas, and that the profits should be for the use of the town. So successful was this experiment that two years later, it was enacted that the Sheepmarket should be "thenceforth holden still in the Market Place, and the profits be to behoof of the town." In future the profits of the Sheepmarket were let out for terms of years to private persons, the first rental fixed in 1508 being, £3. In 1710 the rent had risen to £16, "and the parish levies." The sheep continued to be sold in the Market Place until the market for them was moved, sometime in the 19th century, to the site of the present Town Hall: thence it migrated to the new Cattle Market outside the town.

Beyond the earliest Sheep Market lay the Swinesmarket, which was held at first in what is now called High Street and the East Gate. But as that thoroughfare grew in importance, the presence of swine became undesirable, and they were removed, in 1524, to Parchment Lane, the modern Bond Street. Afterwards the mart migrated to Loseby Lane, which, in Nichols' time, was named The Pigmarket. In days yet later it was held in Free School Lane and West Bond Street, until the obnoxious

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