Heritage and culture

The National Archives has a database to the manorial documents for Wales and many counties in England. This includes the nature and location of manorial documents for Warwickshire. Visit the National Archives website for more details.

Warwickshire’s manorial documents register was recently updated. This project was funded by the National Archives and completed at Warwickshire County Record office

Many, though not all, of the manorial documents for Warwickshire are available to consult in our searchroom. The register will indicate where the manorial records are held.

We have produced a guide to using the Manorial Documents Register.

What are manorial records?

Manorial records are the administrative documents produced by manor which have statutory protection. They include ‘court rolls, surveys, maps, terriers, documents and books of every description relating to the boundaries, wastes, customs or courts of a manor’.

A manor was a local administrative unit that could comprise a part of a parish, an entire parish or could extend across parish boundaries. Manors often formed part of a landed estate, and so manorial records can be found amongst the papers of a landed family.

Manorial records can be useful for a wide range of research purposes, including the history of land usage and ownership and family history, often for ordinary people who might otherwise go unrecorded.