The following is an abridgment of the ordinances, said to have been issued in 1189 and ascribed by John Carpenter to Henry Fitz Aylwin, first Mayor “for the allaying of the contentions that from time to time arise touching boundaries, etc.”
The said “provision and ordinance” was called an Assize.
1. The Mayor to be assisted by committee, or jury, or twelve men elected in full Hustings.
2. If any one demands the Assize, i.e. appeals to the Mayor in case of a dispute, he must do so in full Hustings. And if no Hustings are sitting, then he may ask it of the Mayor and Aldermen.
3. Thickness and height of a party wall of stone.
It is to be three feet wide and sixteen feet high. Either, or both, may make a gutter to carry off the rain into the street.
Arches one foot deep may be made in the wall for aumbries, or cupboards.
4. If one of two neighbours wishes to build a party wall of stone, and the other is too poor to join him, then the latter shall give the former three feet of his own land to build upon. But not for the purpose of narrowing or stopping any doorway, inlet, outlet, or shop.
5. If a man build a stone wall, at his own expense, sixteen feet high, his neighbour must make a gutter under the eaves of the house and so carry off the rain water.
6. A party wall must not be taken down or lessened in thickness without the consent of both parties.
7. Cesspools, etc., shall not be constructed at a less distance from a party wall than 2½ feet if they are lined with stone. If they are not so lined, they shall not be constructed within three feet.
8. “Ancient Lights,” as we now call them, need not be respected unless provision has been made by writing against their obstruction.
9. Corbels must not be removed except by common consent.
10. If any person builds to the injury of a neighbour’s tenement, the latter may stop the building until the decision of the Mayor after he has visited the place.
11. The award to be carried into effect within 40 days.
There are other ordinances chiefly concerned with the construction of gutters for the rain water.