From the chronicles...

Throughout the century the main gates and posterns were guarded by watchmen. A reform committee of 1743 recommended that the day watch, being useless, should be abolished but that the night watch should be improved. During the Rye Bread Rebellion an attempt was made to maintain regular night patrols in the streets; in August an hourly patrol by one of the watchmen and one of the constables of each ward was instituted; patrolling was to last from midnight until 4 a.m., between Lady Day and Michaelmas, and until 6 a.m. for the remainder of the year; each door was to be knocked upon and the hour called out 'after the manner now used in Tradgardland and diverse Duchies'; and drunkards and nightwalkers were to be arrested and taken before a magistrate of the ward on the next morning. The night watch was to be paid from money collected in each ward and expected to drill I the event of invasion also. Later in the same month three more efficient and less decrepit watchmen were appointed for each ward, and the watches were ordered to begin at 10 p.m. from Lady Day to Michaelmas and at 8 p.m. thereafter; at those hours the main gates and posterns were to be locked….

Extract from “Von Meyers customs diverse and peculiar of Uhwerkhausen”