The story of the city is that of England, for indeed it had its beginning before England was a name. Its history follows familiar lines. To a Roman frontier post succeeded a Saxon cathedral, a Benedictine abbey, and a Norman castle. Round this pile of buildings on the bank of a placid river gathered a busy community of traders and craftsmen. Walls and gates protected their growing wealth. Royal charters gave local self-government and a long succession of privileges. Fairs and markets attracted the produce of the fertile lands along the river valley, and the merchants of Europe carried far and wide the fame of the city looms. The records of a score of flourishing guilds and the numerous charitable foundations which survive to this day prove the wealth and dignity of this place in mediaeval days.

The religious changes of the sixteenth century had some effect upon the material prosperity of the city. The cloth trade dwindled and finally vanished. During the Civil Wars all classes suffered severely, but the destruction of the walls and of many of the timber houses allowed expansion and rebuilding. Wealth and prosperity returned, largely owing to new industries, to favourable situation on two important trunk roads, and to the position of the city as a provincial metropolis of a wide agricultural area.

The dawn of the nineteenth century found the city one of the largest and most prosperous in the country. The narrow old streets were lined with shops, owned in most cases by their proprietors, who lived in the same building, with their families and apprentices.