arable

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 […]

Temple Bulstrode: cheese, butter and tallysticks

Posted on 15 January 2016 by Helen Nicholson

The Templars' manor of Temple Bulstrode was in Hedgerley parish in Buckinghamshire. Today the site is part of Bulstrode Park, open to the public only once a year, and famous […]

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 […]

Calculating acreages: the problems of working from manuscripts

Posted on 30 September 2015 by Helen Nicholson

I have been blogging again about the Templars' estates at Gislingham: here. The two copies of the estate accounts for 1308 differ in the acreages sown with grain: one gives 35 acres […]