York had a merchant guild from about 1200 AD, but the expansion of the industrial
life of the city made it impossible for the merchant guild to carry out its supervisory
functions. Therefore, societies of craftsmen emerged for the purpose of protection
and industrial control. This had taken place from the beginning of the fourteenth
century. The development of these craft guilds, of which more than forty existed
in York in the fourteenth century, weakened the merchant guild which eventually died
out. The oversight of civic matters, including those economic was then in the hands
of the mayor and council, the economic control of each trade or occupation was managed
by the appropriate guild.
The first incorporated guild of craftsmen to be found in York was that of the weavers but there were many others, some associated with food, some with metal working and some with building. Among those dealing with clothing were glovers, skinners, cobblers and shoemakers or cordwainers.
The primary function of the craft guild was to establish a complete system of industrial control over all who were associated together in pursuit of a common calling. It enveloped the medieval craftsmen in 'a network of restriction and did not suffer the minutest details to escape its rigid scrutiny and observation' (Lamb, 1951, 8). It embodied in its regulations 'a complete social system into which the individual was completely absorbed by the force of public opinion and the pressure of social and moral conditions' (Lamb, 1951, 8). Its scope covered not only the strictly technical but also the religious, artistic and economic activities of medieval society. The guilds controlled the industry, its standards, regulating conditions of work, entry into and progress in the guild, the regulating of wages and of prices and social and religious matters, in fact, the religious duty of the guild was often regarded as its primary function (Lamb, 1951, 26). The guilds too, often looked after the well-being of their members who were suffering ill health, ill luck or were aged. Legacies were often left by prosperous members to support this work (Lamb, 1951, 27).
The Cordwainers' Company, like other guilds, had as its objectives the support of established religion, the maintenance of standards in craft and trade, the performance of charity and the control of apprenticeship. All persons engaged in a particular trade were required to be members of an appropriate craft guild. Such membership was compulsory (Lamb, 1951, 23). As this was the case the guilds exercised considerable influence over the affairs of the community as their power developed, but never the less the municipal authority was never fully absorbed by the guilds as is shown by the frequent amendment and annulment of guild ordinances by the municipal courts (Lamb, 1951, 3). The ordinances of the cordwainers describe not only the rules accepted by the trade covering the way in leather was to be prepared and sold, but also the local regulations agreed by the masters of the Craft with the Lord Mayor from time to time (Margetts, 1983). As leather, both raw and tanned, ranked with cloth as a leading article of trade, both locally and overseas, there were stringent regulations as to the method of tanning and the quality of the shoes.
In the twelfth century there were three terms used for the makers of medieval shoes: cordwainers (cordwanarii), corvesers (corvesarii) and cobblers (sutores). Both the cordwainer and the corveser made new shoes, while the cobbler either repaired old shoes or remade old shoes for sale. The term cordwainer comes from the use of leather brought from Cordova in Spain. In London in the late thirteenth century cordwainers joined together to buy leather from Spanish merchants but the term became applied later to makers of better shoes regardless of the source of the leather. There were frequent disputes about the division of work between the cobblers and the cordwainers.
The leather trades were very prominent in the Middle Ages. They were the most important trades in York in the late thirteenth century. The admissions to the freedom of the city in the reign of Edward I indicate that the leather trades were numerically the most important group in the city, representing 30% of the freemen. During the reign of Edward III the Freedom list of the city names 220 cordwainers, 150 tanner, and 200 pelters and skinners (Margetts, 1983).
The cordwainers constructed their fifteenth century hall in Hungate (between Haver Lane and Pond Lane), close to the Carmelite Friary in which they had traditionally met, and where their fraternity of the Virgin Mary continued to be based (Giles, 2000, 57). There were also two Maisons Dieu in that part of medieval Fishergate that lay inside Fishergate Bar; one of which was maintained by the cordwainers (Raine, 1955, 101). Giles suggests that there was a 'very strong connection between the occupational 'zones' of particular crafts, and the devotional foci of their guild, or craft fraternity' (Giles, 2000, 57). She also points out that patterns suggest that not only craft workshops but also their associated households tended to congregate in particular areas of the city. 'This linked the basic units of production and consumption - the household - with the wider communal identity of the craft at the level of the neighbourhood or parish' (Giles, 2000, 57). It is therefore possible that as well as the cordwainers' guildhall, individual houses and workshops of cordwainers were situated in the Hungate area.
The excavations done in Hungate in 1949 found a number of shoes from the medieval period and they were identified as the refuse from a cobbler's workshop (Richardson, 1961, 87). However, as the excavation took place within the area of the cordwainers' Hall, it is conceivable that these finds may be attributed to the cordwainers and not the cobblers, there being a clear distinction between the two in the medieval period.
The Cordwainers' Company was dissolved in 1808 or 9, after the 26 surviving members had previously sold all the property, including the Cordwainers' Hall in Hungate (Raine, 1955, 423).