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medieval farmworkers

Cider

Posted on 10 February 2016 by Helen Nicholson

On my 'Gawainsmum' blog I have been commenting on the cider produced on the former Templar estates.

Women workers on the Templars’ estates

Posted on 19 January 2016 by Helen Nicholson

A quick glance through the accounts of the Templars' estates while they were in King Edward II's hands suggests that there were very few women employed. The cook who made […]

Whatever happened to the Templars’ treasure?

Posted on 18 January 2016 by Helen Nicholson

... in England, at any rate, the king took it. Or at least he took some of it. At Temple Bulstrode in Buckinghamshire, the Templars had a 'tabula' (a wooden […]

Salving the sheep at Cowley and Horspath in 1308

Posted on 13 January 2016 by Helen Nicholson

On Wattpad you can find the ingredients for the sheep's salve used on the Templars' sheep at Cowley and Horspath in Oxfordshire in spring 1308: white grease, quicksilver (the metal […]

Paying the rent: the Templars’ tenants in Horspath

Posted on 7 January 2016 by Helen Nicholson

TNA E 142-13 Horspath translation only Horspath corrected without translation Horspath is a village in south Oxfordshire, east of the city of Oxford. The Templars held a manor here, adjoining their […]

No porridge for visitors

Posted on 16 November 2015 by Helen Nicholson

When the royal custodians of the Templars' estates presented their annual accounts at the exchequer, the accounts were checked, summarised and copied into the rolls which formed a permanent record of […]

The accounts for the Templars’ estates in Shropshire and Staffordshire, 1308-9 and 1311-13

Posted on 3 November 2015 by Helen Nicholson

Shrops and Staffs years 1 to 2 -- TNA E 358-20 rot 5 agreed to E 358-18 rot 4  Shrops and Staffs years 5 to 7 --TNA E 358-19 rot […]

Feeding the workers: potage and mixture

Posted on 6 October 2015 by Helen Nicholson

Let them eat porridge! In her study Temple Balsall, The Warwickshire preceptory of the Templars and their Fate (Chichester: Phillimore, 1995), Eileen Gooder discussed the payments to farm workers: cash […]