ABSTRACT
The early medieval village was a largely self-sufficient community but if it wished to obtain such goods as salt, fish, wine, millstones and metal imple ments it had to find the money required for payment. As regular markets for food emerged in the towns and at fairs, so food exports from the villages were encouraged, thus involving an occupation of carters taking goods from place to place. A national pattern developed in which the 600 towns of England were typically supplied from an area reaching up to eight miles outside their boundaries. A study of late medieval Colchester shows a catchment area for local foodstuffs of 7 to 8 miles.1 The result was a local delivery service which could handle food, materials and messages from markets that were usually held weekly.
