Catalogue

Going back to the time of a dispute between King Henry III of England and his powerful barons led in 1262 to an uprising known as the Barons’ War. The King emerged victorious. He seized the possessions of two of the rebel leaders: Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby, granting their estates to his son, Edmund Crouchback, in 1266. Edmund received from Simon de Montfort interests in Leicestershire, and from Robert Ferrers estates at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire and the forest of Needwood, together with a castle and land at Tutbury in Staffordshire! It is Tutbury where the connection of the Manor of Newcastle under Lyme when the Manor of Newcastle under Lyme came under the rule of Tutbury known as the Honor of Tutbury as a direct result on the 30 June 1266, Edmund received from his father, the honour, county, town and castle of the manor of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire including Penkhull together other estates.

The document continues with a long list of various lands within Penkhull that are included as part of his Manor of Newcastle under Lyme.

This final folder under the heading of Manorial Records in many cases is the most important as without which manorial court rolls in many cases would just be a number of words in a foreign language.
If the Domesday Book had not been compiled a detailed insight into many hamlets, villages and towns would be denied to us. Domesday records the first documented evidence we have for many places in the UK as well as Penkhull and its importance with regard to its higher recorded monetary value than that of many other villages in North Staffordshire during that period. Penkhull, as we know it today, is a small rural suburb overlooking the town of Stoke, whereas for hundreds of years Penkhull comprised a huge slice of Stoke-on-Trent stretching from Parliament Row, Hanley to Hanford, and incorporated around half of what is today considered the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Without the necessary tools it would be totally impossible to understand just what the entry on 1086 meant. This also applies to all of the manorial court rolls listed on this site. They all use standard terms, that in time become familiar and easier to read and understand t exactly what was meant in the original documents.
Containing five sheets the documents give first illustrations of various documents you could well come across with examples there illustrating the importance of this fundamental tool.