The 1379 poll tax returns were compiled by going house-to-house. When the lists were sent to the exchequer, they were sometimes re-compiled so that all tax-payers of the same value were listed together - Selby is an example. However, Howden is in the original format, which gives us the interesting possibility that we might be able to work out were some of the individual tax payers lived, if we could establish a few fixed points.
We can certainly identify one location. The last group of tax-payers in the list is Nicholas of Barnhill, his wife and their four servants. So wherever the tax-assessor started, he finished at Barnhill.
Another possibility is the 4 fisherman found within 12 households - they would surely have lived on or close to the river. This would place them on the riverbank between Skelton/Kilpin Pike and Booth - which was in Knedlington. So it looks like they were living in Howdendyke. This is backed up that 10 taxpayers further on we find John Scotte, miller. We know that Hail mill was working at that time, so it could be the assessors were heading back into Howden from Howdendyke.
Another clue is that at the very start of the list of taxpayers we find craftsmen, servants and traders, with only a few agricultural workers. This suggests we are the centre of town, possibly near the bishops manor, which would have been a logical starting place.
About a third of the way down the list there are a group of 30 farm workers and servants with no other trades, so this must be the outskirts of the town - possibly Flatgate, as we know there were a group of landholders here who had rights in Wallingfen.
I haven't started to plot the names on a map yet, so that's a project for the future.