What was the role of English Inns ?

Abstract

Inns had developed as institution in the later Middle Ages, and had supplanted hospitality in the abbey gatehouse or hospitium. Of all countries, England is richest in associations of this kind and abounds in many types of inns and different houses, like those on lonely countryside, or fronting village greens. Over the centuries, inns gradually took different roles, from the simple house for drink and sleep to a real place of social life.