Dispute between Darnhall and Vale Royal Abbey
In the early fourteenth century, tensions between villagers from
Founded by
The villagers' efforts ranged from appeals to the Abbot, the King's
The dispute was mainly led by the villagers of Darnhall, in conjunction with their neighbours, particularly those from the nearby village of Over. On several occasions they suffered imprisonment when their appeals failed, and they were also often fined. On one occasion, in an attempt to appeal to
Background
The
Vale Royal's abbots were not just local religious leaders; they were also feudal lords and as such not necessarily sympathetic landlords. When their tenants appeared before the manorial court, for example, they were not appearing before an abbot, but before a judge, and common law applied.[8] Historians Christopher Harper-Bill and Carole Rawcliffe have highlighted the ruthlessness of religious landlords in the Middle Ages, noting their skill in "exploiting every source of income"[9] and the unpopularity this brought on them.[9][note 2] As the medievalists Gwilym Dodd and Alison McHardy have emphasised, "a religious house, like any other landlord, depended on the income from its estates as the main source of its economic wellbeing",[11] and from the late twelfth century, monastic institutions were "particularly assiduous in... seeking to tighten the legal definition of servile status and tenure" for its tenantry.[11]
Disputes between religious houses and their tenants were not uncommon. To the south of London, one such feud between the tenants of
Origins and early years of the dispute
The new Abbey was unpopular locally, as locals claimed that both the grants of land its creation required and those for its day-to-day requirements impinged on villagers' customary liberties.
Consequently, relations between the Abbey and its tenantry had been fraught since the monks' arrival. Only a year after the Abbey's foundation, tenants of Darnhall tried to refuse the Abbot the customs and services he demanded,
Although the villeins of Vale Royal's estate owed no labour service for their land, the villagers of Darnhall and those who joined them remained unhappy with their situation. Paul Booth writes: "they were the victims of the transfer of ownership of their manorial estates from the crown to a desperately under-endowed religious corporation".[31] Villagers from nearby Middlewich also complained that the Abbey owed them restitution for the loss of two salt pits which had been part of the Abbey's endowment.[18]
The dispute
1327–1336
The abbot was on his return to his monastery, and a great crowd of the country people of Dernehale came to meet him in the highway on the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, about the ninth hour, at Exton in the county of Rutland; and they attacked him, and slew his groom, William Fynche, with an arrow in a place called Grene Delues. And there was also with them William de Venables of Bradewell, who at that time was suing the aforesaid abbot on account of Thomas de Venables, his brother, which Thomas claimed that he was of right entitled to fish in the stew of Dernehale; and when he saw that the aforesaid William Fynche was slain by his aid and help, he took to flight, and did not dare to stay his foot till he came to the parts of Chestershire, and he contemptibly abandoned those he had brought with him, and never looked behind him. Now Walter Welsh, the cellarer, and John Coton, and others of the abbot's servants were about half a league behind the abbot, having tarried for certain business; and when they saw the fight from afar they came up at full speed, and the said armed bondmen came up against them to assault them; but the aforesaid cellarer (blessed be his memory), like a champion sent from God to protect his house and father, though he was all unarmed, not without enormous bloodshed felled those sacrilegious men to the earth, and left all those whom he found in that place half dead, according to the law of the Lord (in lege d'ni). But certain of them fled, and the said John Coton followed after them and took them. Meanwhile the sound of people running up on all sides was heard, and after all the abbot was ignominiously taken, with all his people, by those bestial men of Rutland, and was brought to the city of Stamford, where the King then was, together with his bondmen; but on the morrow, through the aid of the Mother of Mercy, in whose cause he was acting, the abbot, with all his followers, obtained his rights, and the bondmen were left behind there in chains and in the greatest misery, while the abbot returned in safety to his monastery.[32]
The Ledger Book of Vale Royal Abbey
In 1327 the Abbot drew up a custumal[note 7] for the villages of Darnhall and Over, clearly with the intention of reinforcing and codifying the Abbey's claims.[34] This custumal, suggests historian Richard Hilton, "reveals a harshness of exploitation unparalleled even on the old-established Benedictine houses of the south",[35] and he suggests that by now the villagers "appear to have been fighting against a real social degradation".[36] The monks may have been forced to take harsh measures as landlords—if the Abbey was as poor as it claimed—to ensure a steady income.[6] Ultimately it is impossible to establish whether the Abbey was as tyrannous as the villagers claimed. It is possible that the earls of Chester had been lax in their enforcement of the villagers' serfdom, and that they had therefore become accustomed to a high degree of freedom. It is also possible that it was the monks who had grown lax in their enforcement, and that the villagers of Darnhall and surrounding areas saw an opportunity to take advantage of them.[37] There were at least four occasions of emancipatory manumission (without payment, unusually) in the Vale Royal records between 1329 and 1340,[note 8] and one scholar, Herbert Hewitt, has noted "an element of irony in the fact that the one corporate body which is known to have liberated any native is also the most distinguished for its rigid insistence on its legal rights over bondmen".[23] It would certainly appear the case that the monks approached their landlord duties with zeal,[7] but also that when manumission did occur, it was insufficient to quell the villagers' ire.[29]
Either way, the two villages must have conspired together—and pooled mutual resources, for their campaign would not have been cheap.[39] Both travel and litigation cost money, from the writing of the petition by clerks to their advisement on it by lawyers, let alone the cost of a delegation's upkeep. There was no such thing, says Edward Powell, "as cheap litigation",[40][note 9] although there was plenty of it; Richard Firth Green has commented that "what strikes one... is not the lawlessness of the Abbey's tenants but their touching faith in the legal process".[42]
By 1328 the tenants' methods of resistance included refusing to grind flour at the abbey's mill,[note 10] continuing efforts to prevent restrictions from the Abbot on the leasing of their land,[12] and demanding the concomitant right to lease it out themselves, for up to ten years.[7] This incurred multiple punishments—meted out by the Abbot—in the form of fines and imprisonment, which resulted in their eventual submission.[36] The Ledger Book of Vale Royal Abbey records how the following year—as the monks saw it—the rebellious tenantry "plotted maliciously"[46] against the Abbey's "liberty",[46][note 11] refusing to accept the abbot's right to punish them "for any offence, except by the assessment of their neighbours";[48] in other words, they demanded the right to trial by jury. This was denied, they took up arms, but were once again imprisoned.[29]
The next outbreak of violence took place in 1336. The Darnhall villagers approached the Cheshire Justiciar, claiming to have been granted their freedom by an "aforetime"
Attack on Abbot Peter
In 1336, Abbot Peter denied the villages of Over rights of admission of burgage in the newly chartered borough; this prompted the Over villagers to join again with their Darnhall neighbours against the Abbey,[50] and conflict resurged. They again went to law. As Hilton puts it: "They beset the Justiciar of Cheshire, the King himself, and even Queen Philippa in their search for redress".[46] Indeed, she may have supported them.[51] According to the Abbey record, the peasants still plotted by night against the Abbot.[46] The extent to which he was held personally responsible is indicated by the distances that the villagers were willing to travel to confront him, suggests Hewitt.[23] They went to extreme lengths: on one occasion they travelled as far as Exton, Rutland—a distance of approximately 100 miles—to hunt the Abbot down and ambush him.[39]
This occurred in June 1336. Peter had visited the King at the latter's royal
By 1337, the Abbey had asserted and reasserted its rights over its recalcitrant tenantry in court, always receiving favourable judgements, but the villagers of Darnhall and Over refused to accept their position, refused payment of their customary dues, and this year reignited the feud anew.[51] Again, complained The Ledger, the tenants "conspired against their lords [and] endeavoured to gain their liberty".[46] Recording how the people firstly complained to the Chester justiciar, then petitioned parliament, and finally sent a deputation to present their case to the King at Windsor, the writer concluded they were behaving "like mad dogs".[46] Furthermore, when Abbot Peter attempted to collect the monies owed him by confiscating the villagers' goods, they merely decamped with them before he could do so.[51]
The Abbot had sufficient political connections and influence in central government to frustrate the villagers' lawsuits. The early encouragement that Hilton says they had received from various "royal and official personages",[39] such as the Queen, would appear to have had little effect.[39] The Abbot's legal victory did not assuage a serious undermining of his authority.[34] As with any lord in the Middle Ages, when his authority was questioned by those of lower social strata, the law would almost inherently find for him; but, notes Hewitt, it would also "be idle to identify legality with justice".[8] It is certainly unlikely that the Abbey attained its near-permanent favourable legal position without a fair amount of legal manipulation and chicanery, as well as great expense.[6] The villages resorted to further violence, and in 1339—probably during a raid on the Abbey's crops or outhouses—both Abbot Peter and his cellarer were killed.[53][54][note 14] Although details of the exact circumstances of their deaths are unknown, they may have been the result of a feud with the local gentry rather than the villages. Peter was engaged in a spirited defence of his house's rights and prerogatives against Sir Thomas de Venables, who is known to have launched similar raids.[56][note 15] Before the Abbot's and Welch's deaths, a number of the Abbey's buildings were destroyed, much of the harvest burnt, goods stolen and livestock killed.[52]
Legacy
Despite its assertions of right, the Abbey was never able to fully dominate its own estate or to establish itself as the regional lord from which all
The immediate outcome of the dispute is unknown. Peter's successor, Robert de Cheyneston, was occupied through much of his abbacy with internal disciplinary problems at the abbey and a bitter feud with Shrewsbury Abbey which had begun in Peter's time.[61] The dispute continued[62] with "many allegations of each party",[61] and was not settled until 1343, when de Cheyneston paid the Abbot of Shrewsbury £100.[61] The Abbey's internal affairs were also problematic. The Ledger Book records that in 1340 two monks were charged with murdering two local men, Robert Hykes and John Bulderdog,[63] and that de Cheyneston himself was arraigned and fined for appropriating burgages belonging to Over.[64]
More broadly, serfdom and villeiny were dying out of their own accord. The reasons for this are unknown and much debated among historians.[65] Mark Bailey says, "villein tenures were, in fact, in headlong retreat from the 1350s, and had largely decayed by the 1380s",[66] with what remaining being seasonal work, such as harvest time. He argues that while peasant resistance—such as that which had been seen in Darnhall and Over—continued through the next decade, it was also in decline. This may indicate that it was seen as being less necessary by bondmen.[66] Conversely, Alan Harding argues, albeit on a national level, that the number of commissions of oyer and terminer[note 16]—investigations headed by a assize judge—into the "rebellious"[46] withdrawal of feudal labour by villeins indicates that such conspiracies continued up until the 1381 Rising.[46]
See also
Notes
- ^ The Justiciar of Chester was enjoined to "cause 100 suitable masons experienced in such work as the King is engaged upon at Kaernaruan to be chosen in the town of Chester and in other parts within his bailiwick, and cause them to come with their tools to Kaernaruan without delay, there to do what Edmund the King's brother shall enjoin upon them, as the King needs masons for his works there at once".[4] Kaernaruan was the medieval Latin name for Caernarfon, Wales.[5]
- ^ In the previous century, Peter of Blois had written that, in his view
Further, should he possess any of these things, they should not contribute to the easing of his own burden.[10]It is detestable in a monk that, under any custom of colour, or honour, or title of power, he should possess feudal rights and bondmen and bondwomen, or homages and fealties and allegiances, or that he should lay forced labour upon them, and extra-services and other burdens of public works.[10]
- ^ Held at The National Archives, Kew, as SC 8/309/15406.[16]
- ^ The customs and duties that the abbey deemed Darnhall and Over to owe were codified in The Ledger Book and transcribed and printed by G. G. Coulton in 1925.[21]
- ^ Ploughshares were not just the tools of their everyday trade: Stephen Barney has described them as an example of the "sophisticated symbolization of medieval agricultural equipment",[24] they represented both the two qualities of productivity and penitence.[25] More importantly from the tenants' point of view, they demonstrated their status as freemen.[6]
- ^ A custumal was an early-medieval form of survey but one which, rather than listing the contents of an estate, assessed the customs of one. It thus gave the lord of the manor access to all local customs, often based on "oral testimony and the precedents recorded in other manorial documents (especially court rolls)".[33]
- ^ This was a relatively rare occurrence, mainly due to the sheer cost to the serf of remitting himself to the feudal lord for their freedom (£10-£15 by the fifteenth century).[38]
- ^ As K. B. McFarlane said of the period, "Like gambling, litigation was a rich man's pursuit."[41]
- profit margins of demesne milling could be very tight and particularly dependent on willingness to perform the duty.[45]
- ^ "Be it remembered that in the year 1329, and in the third year of the reign of King Edward [the Third] after the Conquest, the bondmen of the manor of Dernehale plotted maliciously against their lords, the Abbot Peter and the convent of Vale Royal, and they all assembled together at night in a place called Cunbbestyl, and declared against (confringentes) the liberty of the aforesaid house, [saying] that they would not grind at the lord's mill of Dernehale, and that it was not lawful for the abbot to punish them for any offence, except by the assessment of their neighbours." – 'Pleas and evidences: Fos. 7-20', in the Ledger Book.[47]
- ^ Edward III spent much of 1336 in the north, as part of an ongoing invasion Scotland, whether overseeing operations from York, leading a chevauchée into Scotland, or attending parliament at Nottingham.[49]
- ^ The Ledger and its author are naturally writing from the perspective of the Abbot; unsurprisingly, "the villagers of Darnhall have not left us their side of the story".[51]
- ^ Violent expressions of anti-clericalism such as this were not uncommon, and although Peter's is an extreme example, it was not even the only time an ecclesiast was killed. In 1309 a gang assaulted the Abbot of Cobermere, burnt his house down and stole his goods, in which attack another monk was slain.[52] In 1360 a gang armed with "swords, axes and arrows"[54] assaulted the Abbot of Shap. In the 1430s, the Abbot of Folkestone was forcibly removed from his church by local people—in the middle of saying mass—and was taken to a nearby cliff where his assailants threatened to throw him into the sea.[54] And in the 1450s, Abbot Walter Mene of Abbey was repeatedly threatened with assault by a patron of his abbey, Sir Henry Hussey.[55]
- ^ Firth-Green suggests that this final raid may have been in the nature of a joint operation, arguing that "we should not be too quick to assume that the gentry and peasantry would automatically have found themselves on opposite sides of the fence".[57]
- judge of assize sat. These were special appointments designed to investigate specific local issues or individuals, rather than regular courts.[68]
References
- ^ Robinson et al. 1998, p. 192.
- ^ Denton 1992, pp. 124–125.
- ^ Platt 1994, p. 65.
- ^ Brown, Colvin & Taylor 1963, p. 378.
- ^ Taylor 1986, p. 86.
- ^ a b c d e f Firth-Green 1999, p. 166.
- ^ a b c d Morgan 1987, p. 77.
- ^ a b c Hewitt 1929, p. 168.
- ^ a b Harper-Bill & Rawcliffe 2004, p. 97.
- ^ a b Coulton 2010, p. 357.
- ^ a b Dodd & McHardy 2010, p. xxviii.
- ^ a b Hilton 1949, pp. 128–129.
- ^ Cohn 2013, pp. 208–209.
- ^ a b Faith 1987, p. 62.
- ^ a b de Brakelond 1989, p. 108.
- ^ a b c TNA 1277.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, p. vi.
- ^ a b VCH 1980, p. 157.
- ^ a b Freedman 1997, p. 194.
- ^ CCC 1967, p. 89.
- ^ Coulton 2010, pp. 489–491.
- ^ Beresford & Finberg 1973, p. 75.
- ^ a b c d e f Hewitt 1929, p. 166.
- ^ Barney 1973, p. 261.
- ^ Bailey 2014a, pp. 361–362.
- ^ Bennett 1983, p. 92.
- ^ Harding 1993, pp. 74–76.
- ^ Booth 1981, pp. 4–5.
- ^ a b c d VCH 1980, p. 159.
- ^ Axon 1884, p. 165.
- ^ Booth 1981, p. 5.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, p. 20.
- ^ Bailey 2002, p. 61.
- ^ a b Coulton 2010, p. 141.
- ^ Hilton 1949, p. 129 n.1.
- ^ a b Hilton 1949, p. 128.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, p. 186.
- ^ Rigby 2008, p. 77.
- ^ a b c d Hilton 1949, p. 129.
- ^ Ives 1983, pp. 318–320.
- ^ McFarlane 1997, p. 120.
- ^ a b c d e Firth-Green 1999, p. 167.
- ^ Langdon 2004, p. 292.
- ^ Bailey 2014b, p. 56.
- ^ Langdon 2004, p. 27.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Harding 1987, p. 191.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, p. 32.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, p. 34.
- ^ Ormrod 2011, pp. 172–173.
- ^ VCH 1980, pp. 159–160.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Firth-Green 1999, p. 165.
- ^ a b c Hewitt 1929, p. 155.
- ^ a b VCH 1980, p. 160.
- ^ a b c Heale 2016, p. 259.
- ^ VCH 1973, pp. 89–92.
- ^ Heale 2016, p. 260.
- ^ Firth-Green 1999, p. 169.
- ^ Chetham Society 1957, p. 80 n.2.
- ^ Chetham Society 1957, p. 40 n.7.
- ^ Williams 2001, p. 56.
- ^ a b c Fishwick 1874, p. 32.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, pp. 62–83.
- ^ Gillespie 1975, p. 10.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, p. 163.
- ^ Bailey 2014b, pp. 285–286.
- ^ a b Bailey 2014b, pp. 287–289.
- ^ Musson 2001, p. 140.
- ^ Baker 2003, p. 257.
Bibliography
- Axon, W. E. A. (1884). Cheshire Gleanings. London: Tubbs, Brook and Chrystal. OCLC 4445144.
- Bailey, M. (2002). The English Manor c.1200–c.1500. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-71905-229-3.
- Bailey, M. (2014a). "The Ploughman". In S. H. Rigby (ed.). Historians on Chaucer: The 'General Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 352–367. ISBN 978-0-19-968954-5.
- Bailey, M. (2014b). The Decline of Serfdom in Late Medieval England: From Bondage to Freedom. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84383-890-6.
- Baker, J. H. (2003). The Oxford History of the Laws of England: 1483–1558. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19825-817-9.
- Barney, S. A. (1973). "The Plowshare of the Tongue: The Progress of a Symbol from the Bible to Piers Plowman". Mediaeval Studies. 35: 261–93. OCLC 784307197.
- Bennett, M. J. (1983). Community, Class and Careers. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52152-182-6.
- Beresford, M. W.; Finberg, H. P. R. (1973). English Medieval Boroughs: A Handlist. London: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-71535-997-6.
- Booth, P. H. W. (1981). The Financial Administration of the Lordship and County of Chester, 1272–1377. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-71901-337-9.
- Brown, R. A.; Colvin, H.; Taylor, A. J. (1963). The History of the King's Works (1st ed.). London: H. M. Stationery Office. OCLC 489821943.
- Brownbill, J., ed. (1914). The Ledger Book of Vale Royal Abbey. Manchester: Manchester Record Society. OCLC 847690141.
- CCC (1967). A History of Cheshire. Vol. V. Chester: Cheshire Community Council. OCLC 213806870.
- Chetham Society (1957). The Church in Chester 1300–1540. Remains Historical and Literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester. Vol. III. Manchester: Manchester University Press. OCLC 5802902.
- Cohn, S. K. (2013). Popular Protest in Late Medieval English Towns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-10702-780-0.
- Coulton, G. G. (2010). The Medieval Village. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought (repr. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-48615-860-0.
- de Brakelond, J. (1989). Greenway, D. E.; Sayers, J.E. (eds.). Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19283-895-7.
- Denton, J. (1992). "From the Foundation of Vale Royal Abbey to the Statute of Carlisle: Edward I and Ecclesiastical Patronage". In Coss, P. R. (ed.). Thirteenth Century England IV: Proceedings of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Conference 1991. Thirteenth Century England. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 124–138. ISBN 978-0-85115-325-4.
- Dodd, G.; McHardy, A. K. (2010). Petitions to the Crown from English Religious Houses, c.1272–c.1485. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-90723-972-7.
- Faith, R. (1987). "The 'Great Rumour' of 1377 and Peasant Ideology". In Hilton, R. H.; Aston, T. H. (eds.). The English Rising of 1381. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 43–73. ISBN 978-0-52135-930-6.
- Firth-Green, R. (1999). A Crisis of Truth: Literature and Law in Ricardian England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-81221-809-1.
- Fishwick, H. (1874). The History of the Parish of Kirkham: In the County of Lancaster. Manchester: Chetham Society. OCLC 1229211503.
- Freedman, P. (1997). "Peasant Resistance in Medieval Europe: Approaches to the Question of Peasant Resistance". Filozofski Vestnik. 18: 179–211. OCLC 1258296305.
- Gillespie, D. S. (1975). "The Black Death and the Peasants' Revolt: A Reassessment". Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. 2: 4–13. OCLC 1236196287.
- Harding, A. (1987). "The Revolt Against the Justices". In Hilton, R. H.; Aston, T. H. (eds.). The English Rising of 1381. Past and Present Publications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–193. ISBN 978-0-52135-930-6.
- Harding, A. (1993). England in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52131-612-5.
- Harper-Bill, C.; Rawcliffe, C. (2004). "The Religious Houses". In Rawcliffe, C.; Wilson, R. (eds.). Medieval Norwich. London: Hambledon. pp. 73–120. ISBN 978-1-85285-449-2.
- Heale, M. (2016). The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19870-253-5.
- Hewitt, H. J. (1929). Mediaeval Cheshire: An Economic and Social History of Cheshire in the Reigns of the Three Edwards. Manchester: Manchester University Press. OCLC 867859420.
- Hilton, R. H. (1949). "Peasant Movements in England before 1381". The Economic History Review. New Series. 2 (2): 117–136. OCLC 47075644.
- Ives, E. W. (1983). The Common Lawyers of Pre-Reformation England: Thomas Kebell: A Case Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52124-011-6.
- Langdon, J. (2004). Mills in the Medieval Economy: England 1300–1540. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19926-558-9.
- McFarlane, K.B. (1997). Harriss, G. L. (ed.). Letters to Friends, 1940–1966. Oxford: Magdalen College. ISBN 978-0-95137-479-5.
- Morgan, P. (1987). War and Society in Medieval Cheshire, 1277–1403. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-71901-342-3.
- Musson, A. (2001). Medieval Law in Context: The Growth of Legal Consciousness from Magna Carta to The Peasants' Revolt. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-71905-494-5.
- Ormrod, W. M. (2011). Edward III. Padstow: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-75243-320-2.
- Platt, C. (1994). Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology from the Conquest to 1600 AD. London: Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-41512-913-8.
- Rigby, S. H. (2008). A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages. Oxford: John Wiley. ISBN 978-0-47099-877-9.
- Robinson, D.; Burton, J.; Coldstream, N.; Coppack, Glyn; Fawcett, R. (1998). The Cistercian Abbeys of Britain. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0-71348-392-5.
- Taylor, A. (1986). The Welsh Castles of Edward I. London: Hambledon. ISBN 978-0-90762-871-2.
- TNA. "SC 8/309/15406" (1277) [manuscript]. Special Collections: Ancient Petitions, Series: SC 8, File: Petitioners: Men of the manor of Darnhall. Kew: The National Archives.
- VCH (1973). A History of the County of Sussex. The Victoria History of the Counties of England. Vol. II. London: Victoria County History. OCLC 1046037341.
- VCH (1980). A History of the County of Chester. The Victoria History of the Counties of England. Vol. III. Oxford: Victoria County History. ISBN 978-0-19722-754-1.
- Williams, D. H. (2001). The Welsh Cistercians. Leominster: Gracewing Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85244-354-5.