Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Marchin and I'll be your history teacher for today.

I'm really looking forward to starting our learning journey together, and my role will be to make sure that you can meet today's learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on mediaeval Norwich, a case study, thinking about what different lives were like in mediaeval cities.

In today's lesson, we are gonna be working towards explaining how trade impacted life in mediaeval Norwich.

So that means in today's lesson our focus is really gonna be lasered into those groups whose lives were heavily involved in trading.

There are five keywords which are gonna help us to navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are trade, industry, merchant, textiles, and weaver.

Trade involves the buying and selling of different goods.

An industry is a type of business or work.

A merchant is a person whose job is to buy and sell goods.

Textiles are made by weaving materials like wool and cotton.

And a weaver makes textiles from materials like wool.

Our lesson today is gonna be split up into free parts, and we are gonna begin by making sure that we can locate Norwich.

On the screen, you can see an image of the UK, and on it we've highlighted the location of Norwich in Britain.

From this, we can see clearly that Norwich is located in East Anglia, a part of the east of England.

Mediaeval Norwich was the second biggest city in England, only coming after London.

As a city, mediaeval Norwich held regular markets.

Norwich was the biggest city in East Anglia.

And as a result, people from across East Anglia came to Norwich to trade goods.

Okay, so let's just check our understanding of some of that early information we've taken on.

I want you to identify which line a, b, c, or d points to the location of Norwich in England.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that it is line d, which correctly points to the location of Norwich in England.

It's important we remember that Norwich was a city located in the east of England.

And let's try another question.

Write the missing word from this sentence.

Norwich was the, blank, city in East Anglia.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody for your hard work on that question.

The correct answer was that Norwich was the biggest or you may have said, largest city in East Anglia.

In fact, in the entire country, only London was bigger than Norwich in mediaeval England.

So let's think a little bit more about how we can locate mediaeval Norwich.

There is a river which flows through the centre of Norwich.

That river was big enough for boats to travel along.

Rivers linked Norwich to the North Sea.

You can see in the map that the location in the North Sea has been highlighted clearly laying between Britain and the rest of Europe.

Many countries of mediaeval Europe traded with each other across the North Sea.

Norwich's location was excellent for trade with Europe because its rivers allowed traders from the city to travel to the coast and from the coast across the North Sea those same traders could easily get to the rest of Europe.

So let's just check our understanding of some of that extra information we've taken on.

Which two of these were reasons why mediaeval Norwich was in a good location for trade? Is it because it was close to London, a big city with lots of customers for herring and wool? Because Norwich was close to the North Sea, which meant trade with many European countries? Or is it because it was the biggest city in its region, which meant people travelled there to trade? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct two answers.

Okay, really well done to everybody who said that statement B was one of our correct reasons.

The one reason why Norwich was in a good location for trade is because it was close to the North Sea, which meant it could trade with many European countries.

But another reason why Norwich was well located for trade is because it was the biggest city in its region.

It was the biggest city anywhere in East Anglia and the second biggest city in the country.

And that meant that lots of people travelled from other places to work and sell their goods in Norwich.

Now, we are in a good position to put our new knowledge about Norwich and its place in mediaeval England into practise.

I want you to describe two reasons why mediaeval Norwich was in a good location for trade.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your two answers.

Okay, really well done for all of your hard work on that task.

I asked you to describe two reasons why mediaeval Norwich was in a good location for trade.

So your answer may have included that mediaeval Norwich was the biggest city in East Anglia.

This meant many people travelled to Norwich from other areas to trade.

You may also said that Norwich was linked to the coast by large well located rivers.

This allowed Norwich to trade with places in Europe.

So really well done for all your hard work on that task, especially if your answers look like the models we've just seen.

So now we are ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we are gonna talk about the industries in Norwich.

People in mediaeval Norwich were involved in a wide range of trades and industries.

Many of the street names in the city were influenced by the types of businesses which had been found in those locations.

Street names like Pottergate and Fishergate tell historians that potters and fishermen used to work in those areas in Norwich.

In fact, herring fish had been an important part of Norwich's trade since the early mediaeval period.

And English monarchs recognises by requiring the city to provide 24 herring pies to the king each year.

Historical city documents from 1285 to 1311 record some of the trades that people in Norwich worked in.

For the 966 people who appear in these documents, 247 are recorded as being churchman.

So having jobs like being priests.

173 were recorded as leather workers, 144 as textile workers, 97 as merchants, 60 as metal workers, and 43 as bakers.

By 1345 city records list 68 different trades existing in Norwich.

This makes it clear that people in a city worked in a wide range of industries.

So let's just check our understanding of some of that new information we've taken on about industries in Norwich.

I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence.

Street names like something-gate show historians that fishing used to be an important industry in Norwich.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done for your hard work on that task, especially if you wrote the missing word as Fisher.

Street names like Fishergate show historians that fishing used to be an important industry in Norwich.

Remember, we know that mediaeval kings even required Norwich to provide 24 herring fish pies every year, which clearly recognised the city had a big fishing industry.

And let's try another question just to really make sure we are confident in our understanding of mediaeval Norwich's industries.

Starting with the most common, I want you to sort the jobs according to how many people worked in them in Norwich between 1285 and 1311.

The jobs that we are gonna think about are baker, churchman, merchant, leather worker, metal worker, and textile worker.

To indicate your answers, you need to arrange the letters A to E.

You may use the table, which is also shown on the screen to help you.

So pause the video here and press play when you are ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done for your hard work on that task.

Quite a few things for you to think about at the same time.

So the correct order, which you should have written for this task was B, D, F, C, E, and then A.

To be more specific, that meant the most common type of job in mediaeval Norwich was being a churchman.

That was followed by being a leather worker, then textile workers with the next biggest group followed by merchants, metal workers, and bakers.

So really well done for your hard work on that task, especially if you got all of those jobs in the correct order.

And now we are in a great position to put our understanding about Norwich industries into practise.

You can see on the screen that we've got a statement.

It says, all people in mediaeval Norwich did the same type of work.

Based on what you've learned about Norwich industries so far, is this statement accurate? I want you to support your answer with some historical evidence.

You can use the following sentence starters to help you.

The statement is / is not accurate.

And I can tell this because.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, really well done for all your hard work on that task.

So we had the statement, all people in mediaeval Norwich did the same type of work.

And I asked you based on what we've learned about Norwich industries, was this statement accurate? So your answer may have included: The statement is not accurate.

I can tell this because historical records show that people had a wide range of jobs in mediaeval Norwich, including as churchman, leather workers and bakers.

It was really important that your answer included some specific detail like we could see in the second part of our model on the screen.

So well done for all your hard work on that task.

And now we are ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson today where we are going to talk about Norwich and wool.

By 1300, Norwich had already become a major location for the sale of wool.

In the centre of the city, wool merchants had their own stalls next to one of the largest churches.

However, in the 14th century, the textiles industry, especially woollen textiles, grew further to become the most important part of Norwich's trade.

Weavers made textiles from the wool produced around Norwich.

By 1329 weavers in Norwich were producing a type of textile known as worsteds.

Worsteds were very popular.

Richly decorated worsteds were made for King Edward III, and merchants from Norwich also sold many worsteds in Europe.

Women such as Elizabeth Baret, as well as men were able to make a lot of money as worsted weavers.

Other popular textiles such as dorinx were also produced by weavers in Norwich by the end of the 15th century.

So let's just check our understanding of this first bit of information we've heard about mediaeval Norwich and wool.

Which industry became the most important for Norwich's trade in the 14th century? Was it the fishing industry, the leather industry, the metal industry, or the textile industry? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was the textile industry.

Textiles are cloth materials made from things like wool and cotton.

And so the importance of wool in Norwich's trade meant that textile industry became its most important one by the 14th century.

And let's try another question just to make sure we're really securing our knowledge.

True or false? Only men worked as weavers in mediaeval Norwich.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody, who said that that statement was false.

But we want to be able to justify our answers as well.

So we have two statements which are now visible on the screen.

The first says, Elizabeth Baret worked as a weaver and made a lot of money.

The second says Elizabeth Baret worked as a merchant and made lots of money.

Which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody on that task, especially if you said that justification A was our correct one.

Elizabeth Baret worked as a weaver and made quite a lot of money from it.

To be even more specific, Elizabeth Baret was a worsted weaver, and we've seen that worsteds were the most popular type of textile made in mediaeval Norwich after 1329.

So let's try one more question.

We've got another statement on the screen.

Is it true or false that Norwich textiles were only popular in the city itself? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we wanna be able to justify our answers.

So two statements have just appeared on the screen.

The first says, different types of textiles like worsteds and dorinx were popular.

The second statement says, worsteds were produced for King Edward II and also sold to Europe.

Which one of those two justifications best demonstrates that our original statement was false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that statement B was the better justification.

Statement A is correct.

Different types of textiles like worsteds and dorinx were popular and were made in Norwich, but that doesn't tell us about the popularity of Norwich's produce outside of the city.

So really well done to everybody for your hard work on that question.

Textile merchants working for Norwich became very wealthy in this period as they traded textiles in the city across England and even abroad.

For example, Robert Toppes grew very wealthy as a merchant.

Toppes traded items such as timber, spices, and pottery, but he made most of his money from selling textiles.

One of the places Toppes sold textiles to was Flanders in Northern Europe.

Toppes was able to make enough money to build a large hall on Norwich's main road, King Street, in 1427.

The Hall Toppes built was so large that it required wood from a thousand trees to build it.

The hall also included many impressive decorations such as wooden carvings of dragons, which is why the building is known as Dragon Hall today.

You can see an image of Dragon Hall, which still stands in Norwich today, on the screen.

The hall also had a garden, which you can't see in that image with easy access to the river behind.

This river access was important for a merchant like Robert Toppes because it meant he could easily load and unload the goods he was trading.

Other merchants also use their wealth to help develop Norwich.

Between 1430 and 1455, St Peter Mancroft Church in the centre of the city was rebuilt.

This was mostly funded by donations from wealthy merchant families.

For example, the merchant Robert Pert left 20 pounds worth 13,000 pounds today to help pay for the construction of some of St.

Peter Mancroft Wall and Roof.

Like Dragon Hall, St.

Peter Mancroft Church still stands in Norwich today, and you can also see an image of that on the screen.

So let's check our understanding of the relationship between Norwich and wool.

I want you to write the missing word in the following statement.

Robert Toppes became very wealthy by working as a textile.

And I want you to write the missing word.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the missing word was merchant.

Robert Toppes became very wealthy by working as a textile merchant.

And let's try a second question.

How did merchants in Norwich help the church of St.

Peter Mancroft? Did they donate money to help rebuild it? Did they help churchmen make money from trade? Or did they volunteer to help run church services? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was A.

Merchant families were responsible for donating a lot of the money that helped to rebuild St.

Peter Mancroft Church between 1430 and 1455.

So now we're in an excellent position to put our knowledge into practise.

I want you to explain how we can tell the textile industry was important in mediaeval Norwich.

You might consider: how the industry linked Norwich to other places or you might think about how the industry benefited Norwich itself.

So pause a video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, really well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to explain how we can tell the textile industry was important in mediaeval Norwich.

Your answer may have included the following: That the textile industry was important in mediaeval Norwich because it helped the city to trade with other places.

For example, worsteds was sold from Norwich to Europe.

You might also have said, the textile industry was important in mediaeval Norwich because it helped some merchants to become very wealthy.

For example, Robert Pert made enough money that he was able to donate 20 pounds to help rebuild St.

Peter Mancroft Church in the centre of Norwich.

So really well done for all of your effort on that task, especially if your responses looked quite similar to the model answers we've just seen.

So now we've reached the end of our lesson for today, which means we're in a good position to summarise our learning.

We've seen that Norwich was in a good location to trade with other places in England and Europe, that mediaeval Norwich had a range of industries, including textile work, leather work, fishing, and baking.

In the 14th century, wool became the most important part of Norwich's trade and some textile merchants became very wealthy and spent some of their money on new buildings in mediaeval Norwich.

So thank you so much for joining me for today's lesson.

It's been great seeing all the hard effort that you've put into it, and I look forward to seeing you again as we think further about mediaeval Norwich and what people's lives were like in the city.