Charters and Custumals of the Abbey of Holy Trinity Caen (Records of Social and Economic History, New Series V)

The English estates of the Abbey of Holy Trinity, Caen included manors situated in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, East Anglia, and Wiltshire, which differed greatly in economic organisation and social structure. Among the records of estate administration are surveys describing the rents and services of tenants, the resources of the demesne, and the advance of cultivation in woodland and waste. The present volume contains surveys for the whole estate made in the reigns of Henry I and Henry II, thirteenth century custumals for Minchinhampton, Avening, and Felsted, and twenty-six charters and leases, some of which relate to property in London. They provide valuable evidence of social conditions and changing methods of estate exploitation, and are printed for the first time.