October 2009
Map of the Manor of Eakring, 1604
Reference: DD/SR/227/17
Today we often see manor houses and hear of 'lords of the manor', and think of large estates in the Middle Ages that would have been a little bit like nineteenth-century stately homes. In fact, manors were more complex than that.
The manor was a 'territorial unit of lordship'. There would be a lord of the manor who would usually have a private residence (a manor house) and his own land. There would also be tenants who 'held' their homes and land from the lord, and would usually pay a rent to do so. The main aspect of the manor, however, was that the lord had customary and legal rights over the land and its resources. The lord would express these rights through the manor court. It is the manor court which is the primary defining feature of the manor.
At the manor court, all the different customs of the manor would be regulated. For example, tenants might be required to help out with the lord's harvest in the autumn; or pay a sum of money to the lord if one of his children wanted to get married. Sometimes tenants had to use the lord's mill or sheepfold. These customary payments would be paid at the court. Also, the court resolved disputes such as trespass and damage, and if a tenant wanted to buy, sell or inherit property, this would have to take place through the court as well.
Manor court records are valuable resources because they tell us all about the history of a particular area and the sorts of activities that went on there. They tell us about people who lived in the manor, family relationships, children and heirs, and the buying and selling of property.
Other manorial records include accounts and surveys. Maps are less common but where they do survive they can show where the manor was and what land it included. This is a map for the manor of Eakring, a village in Nottinghamshire. It was produced in 1604 for the Earl of Rutland, who was the lord of the manor. It shows the lord's own property and that of a tenant, which was next to the lord's. Most of the tenants, however, lived in the town itself so they do not appear on the map. This highlights that manors often spread across several parishes and included bits of land that were not always connected with one another.
See the map of the manor in more detail here [PDF 2118KB] 
Read a transcript of the map's caption here [PDF 19KB]
Nottinghamshire Archives holds many manorial records. Find out about some of them on our online catalogue.
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