Murage

Murage was a medieval toll for the building or repair of town walls in England and Wales.

This was granted by the king by letters patent for a limited term, but the walls were frequently not completed within the term, so that the grant was periodically renewed.

The earliest grant was for Shrewsbury in 1218. Other towns receiving early grants included Bridgnorth, Stafford, Worcester, Oxford, Gloucester, and Bristol. Many of these places were in the west of England, and were particularly at risk from Welsh incursions.

Since the king's writ did not run in Wales, it is perhaps surprising that several Welsh towns also obtained murage grants. The first was for Hay on Wye in 1232, the year after the town was burnt by Llywelyn the Great. Other towns having them included Oswestry, Radnor, Abergavenny, Carmarthen, Monmouth, Knighton, Montgomery, and Clun, the latter is now fully in England and Knighton partly so. However few such grants were made after 1283, after the completion of the Edward I's Conquest of Wales.

Some of the walls were probably enclosing towns for the first time. Others were to extend walls to bring suburbs inside the town (as at Worcester), or to fund the repair of existing walls, as was the case at Canterbury, to which murage was granted in 1378, 1379, 1385, 1399 and 1402.

References

• P. W. King, 'Medieval Turnpikes' Journal of Railway and Canal Historical Society 35(10) (Dec. 2007), 740-1.
• Canterbury's City Walls: http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/1599.html