The
perpetuality of towns was recognized by statutes of 1391, which
compared town-held property to church-held property. The right of
London to pass ordinances was confirmed by charter. Some towns had
a town clerk, who was chief of full-time salaried officers. There
was a guildhall to maintain, a weigh-house, prison, and other
public buildings, municipal water supplies, wharves, cranes,
quays, wash-houses, and public lavatories.

After the experience of the black death, some sanitary measures
were taken. The notorious offenders in matters of public hygiene
in the towns, such as the butchers, the fishmongers, and the
leather tanners were assigned specific localities where their
trades would do least harm. The smiths and potters were excluded
from the more densely populated areas because they were fire
risks. In the town of Salisbury, there was Butcher Row, Ox Row,
Fish Row, Ironmongers' Row, Wheelwrights' Row, Smiths' Row, Pot
Row, Silver Street, Cheese Market, and Wool Market.

For water, most communities depended on rivers that ran near by
or on public wells that were dug to reach the water underground.
Some towns had water public water supply systems. Fresh water was
brought into the town from a spring or pond above the town by wood
or lead pipes or open conduits. Sometimes tree trunks were hollowed
out and tapered at the ends to fit into the funnel-shaped end of
another. But they leaked a lot. In London, a conduit piped water
underground to a lead tank, from which it was delivered to the
public by means of pipes and brass taps in the stone framework.
This was London's chief water supply. Water carriers carried water
in wooden devices on their backs to houses.

The paving and proper drainage of the streets became a town
concern. Building contracts began specifying the provision of
adequate cesspits for the privies at town houses, whether the
latrines were built into the house or as an outhouse. Also, in the
better houses, there grew a practice of carting human and animal
fecal matter at night to dung heaps outside the city walls. There
was one public latrine in each ward and about twelve dung carts
for the whole city. Country manor houses had latrines on the
ground floor and/or the basement level. Stairwells between floors
had narrow and winding steps.

In London, the Goldsmiths, Merchant Taylors [Tailors], Skinners,
and Girdlers bought royal charters, which recognized their power
of self-government as a compan