In the 14th century the
main occupation of local farmers in the East Grinstead area
was rearing animals. This ensured a plentiful supply of animal skins
and it is therefore not surprising that many local people were involved
in the leather trade. Leather was used to make items such as shoes,
gloves, breeches, jerkins, belts, saddles, harnesses, bottles and
buckets.
There were several tanners
working in East Grinstead and neighbouring villages. Tanners were
men whose task it was to clean and treat the animal skins. Tanners
soaked the hides for as long as a year in pits of lime-water and oak
bark. After tanning, the skins were finished by curriers or leather-dressers.
The hides were dressed with oils. Sometimes the hides needed smoothing
or thinning with knives.
After the leather had
been tanned and dressed it was ready for the craftsmen who produced
the goods. This included shoemakers, glovers, cordwainers, saddlers,
collar-makers and harness-makers.
Other people living in
East Grinstead during the 14th century were skilled workers such as
carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, masons and weavers. There were also
butchers, bakers and fishmongers in the town.
Each of these workers had
a long and narrow strip of land called a portland. In East Grinstead
there were about thirty-six of these strips off the High Street. The
worker's house was built on the land closest to the street. The family
would grow crops and keep animals like pigs on their Portland
People usually made their
goods in a shed behind the house. These goods were then sold from
a room that opened-out onto the high street. Above the shop was a
room called the 'solar'. This is where the family lived and slept
when they were not working.
East Grinstead's High Street
was very wide and there was enough room for traders to display their
goods on portable market stalls outside their homes. This was very
useful when the town held its weekly market and its two annual fairs
in April and September.
Some traders also built
shops in the middle of the road at the top of the High Street near
the church. This area eventually became known as Middle Row.
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