The eyre roll is a major source of information about medieval life, ranging from local courts and land tenure through town customs and the status of women to general neighbourliness. This is especially important for Northumberland, where constant border raiding was detrimental to the accumulation of local records. The survival of the Northumberland Eyre Roll for 1293, recording over eleven hundred law suits, provides a rare glimpse of the county (together with information on Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland) on the eve of the outbreak of the Anglo-Scottish wars; as only brief extracts from the roll have been published previously, this full edition will be warmly welcomed. The text is accompanied by notes and a subject index providing a full guide to topics of special interest.
CONSTANCE FRASER is a retired lecturer.