Agricultural History Review, Volume 60 Part 2 (2012), p. 312

This volume is the fifteenth in the modern series of calendars of a source whose importance was recognized in 2011 when it was enrolled on the Memory of the World Register (administered by UNESCO). This series, established in 1977, builds upon the work of earlier scholars whose editions were published as part of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society’s Record Series. The continuity within the project is illustrated by the fact that the editor of the newest volume, Caroline Fraser, was also one of the editors (with Kenneth Emsley) of the first.

Dr Fraser acknowledges in her introduction that the choice of years for this volume was a somewhat random one, but her choice fits neatly between earlier volumes which covered the 1530s and 1330s. This volume represents the series’ first foray into the fifteenth century. The span of years covers the death of the manor’s owner Joan, Duchess of York, and its transfer to Richard Plantagenet, grandson of her first husband. This change of ownership (the new owner was fully occupied defending English-held lands in France) appears to have mattered little to the workings of the court: only one minor change of procedure was instituted.

Like the others in the series, this volume contains a wealth of information for a range of historians, including local and family historians as well as those interested in particular aspects of fifteenth-century agriculture, social relationships, court procedure, crime, tenant–landlord relationships and debt. The people and places index will be useful to many (although there is a small printing error in the B section of the index). The small special subject index only hints at the richness of the court rolls’ information, and it is a shame that it is rather limited in size and scope. However, such indices do take considerable time to compile. One small point about the transcription occurs: in several parts of the volume the place names are in capitals rather than the usual lower case italics and it is unclear if this change means anything or if these are printing errors.

As the editor points out, land transfers made up only a small portion of the courts’ business. One such transfer records a holding to be sold by the vicar (if there are no heirs) with the profits going to benefit the service of the Virgin Mary in Sandal church. The next entry shows that the church was unlikely to benefit for some time as two members of the family had acquired life interests in the holding. As well as the standard record of the manor court, these rolls also contain the records of the sheriff’s tourn, a rich source of information about the assize of bread and ale, forestalling and other misdemeanours. The ordinary business of the manor court was itself varied, and the descriptions make good reading simply for the picture that they paint of a community going about its business. There is the usual level of low-grade violent disputes, although the fights between members of the clergy always stand out from the crowd. The varied roles of women are apparent, including one who was the grave or bailiff and two others charged with felling green wood. In this volume one is struck by the numerous references to the care and exploitation of the areas of woodland, and in the later stages of the volume the leasing of waste land to various people. There are reminders too that everything in the medieval landscape had a value; several people were fined up to 2s. for cutting wood and thorns without permission.