Prices from the Durham Obedientiary Account Rolls, 1278–1367

Abstract

Durham Cathedral archives are famously rich in evidence. They include a large number of manorial accounts as well as those of the obedientiaries and cells on which this study relies. The priory was the largest household north of York, and its records enable us to study the economic history of the north-east, to understand the experience of the region in its own right and to see how it fared by comparison with elsewhere. Although there are some valuable sales figures, notably for wool and hides, most of the prices in these records are purchases for the monastic household. Food and drink feature prominently (for a later period this represented half the priory’s expenditure: see Threlfall-Holmes, 2005a, p. 34), but many other supplies were needed too. These included draught animals for the estates; varieties of cloth for the monks and for liveries as well as linen and canvas for a range of domestic uses; materials needed for building, repairs and making implements; and fuel. Prices for a range of commodities are presented in the tables below. The purchases show that the cathedral priory was aristocratic in its tastes and patterns of consumption; and, while it relied on its own estates and its tenants for some goods, many of its requirements were met by its access to commercial markets.