New Street is first mentioned as "novus vicus" in the surviving borough rental records of 1296, at which point it was partly built upon with burgage plots, but was also the site of most of the few open fields remaining within the borough, including "Barlycroft", "Stoctonesfeld" and "Wodegrene". It is mentioned again, this time as "le Newestret" in the rentals of 1344–45. The street may have been created at the time of the establishment of Birmingham's market in 1166, as a more direct route from the centre of the new town at the Bull Ring to the home of the de Birmingham family's feudal overlords at Dudley Castle.