Wakefield Manor Today: Co-creating Research in the Modern Communities of the Medieval Court Rolls

Start date: 19 November 2024
End date: 31 July 2025
Funder: Internally funded
Primary investigator: Dr Iona McCleery
External co-investigators: Vicky Shearman (Wakefield Council)

Description

The Manor of Wakefield was one of the largest in England. Its series of manorial records or Court Rolls survives almost intact from the thirteenth to the twentieth century. These rolls are owned by the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society (YAHS) and held in Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds. Although many of the oldest rolls are available in modern translated editions online, they are not well-known in Wakefield and not written in accessible language. Some of the villages mentioned in the rolls are now suburbs of Wakefield, such as Stanley, Lupset, Alverthorpe or Thornes. Young people of Wakefield Museum’s Youth Forum chose the format of the creative outputs and the stories to be researched from fourteenth-century source materials, and co-produced them with the support of museum, university staff and students, and media specialists.

Project objectives

Producing public history by and for Young People

The participants in the workshop made their own decisions about the stories to be told and created their own outputs based on historical figures in the manorial court rolls

Demonstrating the role of Young People as knowledge producers

The choices of the Young People and their interpretation of the stories are a form of knowledge production, particularly useful for investigating court cases that are difficult to understand

Demonstrating the role of creativity (film and story-telling) in historical research

Story-telling in various media can help historians pose new questions, bring new material to light, and capture the imaginations of young people in schools, museums and higher education.

Making the Wakefield Court Rolls more widely known

This project fits closely with the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society’s aims for their collection and will enhance their funding bids for further conservation work.

Promoting the medieval collections of Wakefield Museums & Castles

The Youth Forum’s work is closely connected to the collections of Wakefield Museum & Castles. The project allowed the Young People to see these collections in a new light, and in particular to think differently about the geography, history and culture of Wakefield over the centuries.

Project team

Iona McCleery: Associate Professor in Medieval History

Vicky Shearman: Museums and Castles Development Manager, Wakefield Council

Suzie Cross and Nick Singleton: Artists

Elias Uitman and Orlen Crawford: Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society student assistants

Juliet Scott: Laidlaw Scholar

Wakefield Museum Youth Forum

The Wakefield Museum Youth Forum is open to Young People aged 16-24 who are connected by their interest in museums and heritage. They all want to make a positive difference to Wakefield’s museum service. Quite a few of them are interested in working in museums in the future.

‘through linking place-based research to personal stories, the project will help ground the participants in Wakefield, enhancing belonging. Providing our Youth Forum with new experiences which we would be unable to deliver on our own helps shape our museums offer. It provides new perspectives and feedback, enabling us to make our service more relevant, engaging and representative to Young People.’

Vicky Shearman

Project outputs

The Runaway Girl

In June 1307, Alice wife of John Kyde of Thornes, Wakefield, was abducted at night by the servant of Nicholas, the parish chaplain of Wakefield, on the chaplain’s horse and by his command, and with the woman’s consent. She was taken to Aylesbury near Oxford with goods belonging to her husband: 11 pence taken from her husband’s purse; 3 gold rings, worth 18 pence; a cup, worth 12 pence; a napkin worth 12 pence; a towel, worth 6 pence; a gown, worth six shillings and 8 pence; and a new hood taken from her husband’s pack worth 12 pence. Afterwards Alice returned to her husband.

Coming soon: The Runaway Girl video

Ricardo Don’t Care

In 1315, the villagers of Stanley, Wakefield, complained not for the first time, that Richard del Ker was living an immoral life amongst them, and had allowed the woman he was living with (not his wife), to return again, even though this had been forbidden by the lord’s steward. They wanted to fine him the huge amount of 40 shillings. He was made to come to court. He said it was true the woman lived in the house with him, to bring up his children, but he had no relations with her. There was an inquiry, but the villagers decided they did not believe him. He paid 6 shillings, 8 pence of the above penalty at once, and the remainder was held over to see how he conducted himself.

Richard del Ker appears in the Court Rolls over many years from 1285 until his death in 1324. In 1298 he killed a horse that he claimed trespassed on his land. He frequently sued people and was often in conflict with them over land and animals. He was the bailiff of Stanley in 1323.

Coming soon: Ricard Don’t Care video

Behind-the-scenes short documentary

One Young Person produced a short documentary showing the making of these films.

Watch the documentary on Instagram.

Creative writing

Level 1-student Juliet Scott (who is from the region of Wakefield Manor) secured a Laidlaw fellowship to work on her own creative writing project inspired by the rolls. Her original story relates to a court case from 1332 that unfortunately ended in a man being hanged for theft. Watch this space for more news on that aspect of this project!

Funding acknowledgement

This project was made possible by the Sapling Fund, which is jointly delivered by the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute and the University of Leeds Cultural Institute.