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Cornhill Ward

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Introduction

Cornhill Ward is west of Bishopsgate Ward and south of Broad Street Ward. According to Stow, the ward and its principle street, Cornhill, are named after a corne Market once held there (Stow 1603).
Note: Cornhill and Cornhill Ward are nearly synonymous in terms of location and nomenclature—thus, it can be a challenge to tell one from the other. Toponymic decisions have been made to the best of our knowledge and ability.
1720: Blome’s Map of Cornhill Ward and Broad Street Ward. Image courtesy of British Library Crace Collection. © British Library Board; Maps Crace Port. 8.12
1720: Blome’s Map of Cornhill Ward and Broad Street Ward. Image courtesy of British Library Crace Collection. © British Library Board; Maps Crace Port. 8.12

Links to Chapters in the Survey of London

1603 Description of Ward Boundaries

The following diplomatic transcription of the opening paragraph(s) of the 1603 chapter on this ward will eventually be subsumed into the MoEML edition of the 1603 Survey.1 Each ward chapter opens with a narrative circumnavigation of the ward—a verbal beating of the bounds that MoEML first transcribed in 2004 and later used to facilitate the drawing of approximate ward boundaries on our edition of the Agas map. Source: John Stow, A Survey of London (London, 1603; STC #23343).
The next warde towards the ſouth, is Cornehill warde, ſo called of a corne Market, time out of minde there holden, and is part of the principall high ſtreete, beginning at the weſt end of Leaden hall, ſtretching downe weſt on both the ſides by the ſouth end of Finks lane, on the right hand, and by the North ende of Birchouers lane, on the left part, of which lanes, to wit, to the middle of them, is of this warde, and ſo downe to the Stockes market, and this is the bounds.

Note on Ward boundaries on Agas Map

Ward boundaries drawn on the Agas map are approximate. The Agas map does not lend itself well to georeferencing or georectification, which means that we have not been able to import the raster-based or vector-based shapes that have been generously offered to us by other projects. We have therefore used our drawing tools to draw polygons on the map surface that follow the lines traced verbally in the opening paragraph(s) of each ward chapter in the Survey. Read more about the cartographic genres of the Agas map.

Notes

  1. The 1603 Survey is widely available in reprints of C.L. Kingsford’s two-volume 1908 edition (Kingsford) and also in the British History Online transcription of the Kingsford edition (BHO). MoEML is completing its editions of all four texts in the following order: 1598, 1633, 1618, and 1603. (JJ)↑

References