At the Henley Archaeological and Historical Group’s first meeting of the new year on 7th January, members enjoyed a talk by Peter Brown on Londoners in Henley before the Black Death. Peter concentrated on the period between 1280 and 1348 when corn merchants from London played a significant role in Henley’s development.
The Henley area was an important producer of corn and the main customers for this corn were in London. The population of London at the time was around 80-100,000 and each inhabitant needed at least two quarters (of a ton) per year to live. Records survive for the village of Cuxham, near Watlington; 60% of the surplus grain produced here was taken on the half-day journey to Henley for shipping down river to London.
Henley was preferred over Reading as the entrepot because the shipping costs from Reading were twice as expensive. The sale of the grain took place in Henley in lots of 30-60 quarters and were loaded into boats called ‘shouts’ for the 3-4 day journey down the Thames to Queenhithe in London. This was a difficult and dangerous journey involving passage through flash locks on the river.
The cornmongers, or corn dealers, who operated the trade were members of a London guild and enjoyed a monopoly. They naturally became very rich and owned properties in Henley as well as in London. With the arrival of the Black Death and the resulting sharp fall in the population of London, the merchants experienced a decline in their prosperity. Times were never the same for them again.
What did these merchants do for Henley? Not a lot. None of their buildings survive and the Black Death which they brought with them decimated the population of the Town.