The roll of the manor court of Chaigrave, here printed, is 20 feet long and consists of thirteen membranes of parchment of an average width of 6 inches but of varying lengths, stitched together end to end by contemporary stitching. This width, usual for skins at that date, was probably decided by the smallness of the sheep : during the fourteenth century the skins used were considerably larger. The condition of the roll is good except for the first and third membranes where the right-hand edge has been torn away. Small tabs of parchment or pieces of string are attached against a number of the more important items for special reference, as, for example, an exchange of land or a summons to do homage and fealty, but the precise reasons for these selections are not clear.

The courts appear to have been written up within a short time of the events recorded and show very few later additions in the form of marginal or other notes. There are, however, a regrettable number of gaps so that we have information of fifty courts only for the thirtyfive years covered by the roll. The courts do not follow consecutively on the face and on the dorse of the roll, but are entered for periods first on the face and then on the dorse, showing that the writer used up his available space before attaching another skin. On one occasion he inserted a court several years back to make use of a gap on the dorse. Sometimes he began using a new skin without attaching it and hence its loss, for gaps of several years occur (1281-87 ; 1290-93 ; 1306-10) where the dating recommences on the face of the roll. The first two of these gaps also coincide with a change of handwriting.

Little can be said of the four, or perhaps five, scribes who were responsible in turn for keeping this record of the manor courts. It is only possible to note a change in handwriting and even this is sometimes uncertain when a new quill pen might have resulted in much finer strokes to the confounding of the future investigator.