Parchment Lane, and no more in the High Street and in the East Gate." The street subsequently acquired the name of the Swinesmarket, and is so called, as late as 1828, in Cockshaw's map. The change was not made, however, until long after 1524, for in the Borough rental of 1594 it was still described as Parchment Lane.
The Swinesmarket, the present High Street, running from the High Cross to the East Gate, was throughout the Middle Ages, a very populous and important thoroughfare, and gave its name to the district. Here once stood the King's Horse Mill. About midway down the street on the north side was the large dwelling house purchased by the Earl of Huntingdon in 1569 for £100, and thenceforth known as "Lord's Place." When Parchment Lane became the place of the market for pigs in the 16th century, the old Swinesmarket was rechristened High Street, as it appears in Speed's map of 1610, the former High Street then becoming High Cross Street. It will be remembered that the Swinesmarket was always one of the four "high streets" of the town. It was described, in 1523, as "the Hy Street which is in the Est yate," and in 1587 it was called "High Street, alias Swinesmarket."
II. THE EAST QUARTER.
The greater part of the land in this quarter of the town was occupied by the Saturday Market, which lay at the South-eastern corner, bounded by the town walls, and by the Monastery of the Grey Friars, whose house stood south of Peacock Lane, and whose grounds extended, according to Throsby, from the upper end of the Market Place to the Friar Lane meeting house, that is, within four chains of the old High Street.
The principal mediaeval thoroughfares were Kirk Gate, The Sheepmarket, St. Francis Lane, The Cank, Loseby Lane, and Friar Lane. The road which ran beyond the South wall was known in the middle of the 15th century by its present name of Millstone Lane. In Queen Elizabeth's Charter of 1589 this road, or the Eastern portion of it, is called Horse Fair Lane.
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