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

Wakefield Court Roll for 1274-5, University of Leeds Special Collections, Records of the Manor of Wakefield YAS/MD225/1/1. Photograph taken by Iona McCleery at an Institute for Medieval Studies talk by Sylvia Thomas of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society in Special Collections on 19 November 2024.
Project team
Dr Iona McCleery (School of History)
Vicky Shearman, Museums and Castles Development Manager, Wakefield Council
Project overview
The Manor of Wakefield was one of the largest in England. The records or Rolls of its regular courts survive from the thirteenth to the twentieth century. They are owned by the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society and held in Brotherton Library Special Collections at the University of Leeds. This project will work with Wakefield Museums Youth Forum to co-create imaginative outputs such as stories or films on the places and peoples in the medieval rolls. Some of the towns and villages are now absorbed into Wakefield and its wider district, such as Lupset, Alverthorpe, Agbrigg and Normanton. The project will make the rolls meaningful to present-day Young People. The Youth Forum’s stories will include local knowledge, insights and memories to create deeper histories. The project will conclude with pop-up exhibitions in those same communities, thereby reaching more people and demonstrating the role of Young People as knowledge producers.