| Description | Joan Thirsk (1922-2013) was an editor of The Agrarian History of England and Wales and this collection contains data collected for volumes 4 (1500-1640) and 5 (1640-1750) of the work.
It includes carefully assembled and meticulously transcribed probate inventories, terriers, manorial records and surveys arranged alphabetically by county. The material, collected from the Public Record Office (now The National Archives) and local record offices throughout the country, was gathered by such well qualified researchers as L.M. Midgley, following a template which enabled comparisons to be made across the country. Much of the material contains information which could be used for new investigations, for example into the layout of houses and the types of farm building, of which only limited use was made in the completed Agarian History volumes. A second accession comprises ongoing research notes, book reviews and ephemera on a range of topics loosely allied to agricultural history
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