Agricultural History Review, Volume 62 Part 2 (2014), p. 360

One can only approach this edition with sadness. The editor, Richard Britnell, in his acknowledgements thanks Alan Piper for his archival work in identifying and dating the early account rolls of Durham Priory, but regrets that Piper’s premature death meant that he could not contribute to the introduction of this edition. A further note on the same page records that Richard Britnell himself died after taking the text to the proof stage, and that three scholars completed the work of proofreading and indexing. This volume represents the last major contribution to agricultural and economic history by Britnell, and we can only salute his creativity, the fertility of his ideas, and his industry which enabled him to complete more than a dozen volumes as author or editor over a period of 30 years.

The book presents us with a further example of Britnell’s careful scholarship, unselfishly applied for the benefit of other researchers. This is another valuable addition to the primary materials available to historians of the medieval agrarian economy, together with a lengthy introduction that provides background and context. The documents printed here (in Latin) fall into three categories. The first group are the ‘original accounts’, that is, accounts (in cash and kind) from eight individual manors on the Priory estate compiled between 1277 and 1306. Occupying much more space is a series of enrolled accounts which were intended to provide a full summary of the accounts from individual manors for the whole estate. These cover the period 1296–1310, though with some gaps. The third small group of documents comprises miscellaneous items, such as manorial inventories of 1302 (listing seed corn, grain in store, livestock and deadstock), and an inventory of livestock for 1310. The summary records for all manors are a familiar accounting device for large estates, of which the best-known examples are the pipe rolls of the bishopric of Winchester. After such central accounts had been compiled, the accounts of individual manors were often discarded, so the handful of ‘original accounts’ for Durham are a fortunate survival.

The estate economy bore a strong resemblance to that of other large church estates, generating an annual income of about £2,000, partly from tenant rents, and partly from demesnes on which each year about 3000 acres were sown, and which profited from a flock of some 5000 sheep. Much produce was sent to Durham for consumption, and self-sufficiency was practised even in the supply of iron.

The documents have some peculiar characteristics. Whereas conventional accounts include both income from rents and from production, Durham Priory recorded rents separately, so the documents here are focused on demesne agriculture. The local officials could not use money derived from rent to pay expenses such as wages or the cost of equipment – instead cash was sent out to the manors from the central administration in Durham. The administrators did not observe a standard accounting year, so the period covered does not begin and end at the conventional date of 29 September, but often at apparently arbitrary dates between August and November, which varied from manor to manor and from year to year. This would have presented difficulties for any official attempting to calculate the annual rise and fall of profits, but there is no evidence that such profit estimates were made. The measures of corn included, as well as the usual quarters and bushels, such units as chalders, rasers and kennings. Britnell’s introduction guides us through these unusual features, and also explains that the important local officials were the sergeants, who were more substantial men appointed by the priory, with more varied responsibilities than the manorial reeves most often encountered elsewhere. Manors slipped in and out of direct management, though the reasoning behind the decision to lease or not to lease cannot be certainly established.

Historians pursuing particular themes will find valuable data in these records. Those interested in technology will learn much here about choices of crops, the balance between arable and pasture, and yield ratios. Oxen on one manor were fitted not with yokes but with collars. In spite of the emphasis on self-sufficiency, within the estate there is still valuable information on markets, such as the cart acquired ready-made in the town of Darlington, and the horse and cattle bought at Corbridge, the site of a busy livestock fair.

The editor has provided a glossary which is not confined to unusual words, apparently in a move to help those with imperfect Latin. The Surtees Society is thereby recognizing a problem: for how long can they continue to publish documents entirely in Latin and exclude many potential users of their publications?