The land market of a Pennine manor: Slaidburn, 1650-1780

This article pioneers the use of a new source for the study of post-medieva l land markets. Copyhold transactions for the extensive manor of Slaidburn (Lancashire) survive in an unbroken series from 1520 to the early twentieth century. The transactions have been entered into a database which allows t he landholding history of individuals (and so of families) and of individua l units of landholding to be traced, and aggregative figures for changes in the size of the land market over time to be produced. The database can als o produce rentals for any date, allowing for a detailed analysis of the cha nging distribution of land within the manor. Preliminary figures are presen ted which reveal, for instance, that the mean size of units of land sold in ter-vivos was persistently smaller than those inherited. Using both documen tary rentals and database-generated rentals, a strong tendency towards cons olidation after 1650 is demonstrated, but the land market in each of the fo ur townships proves to have been different in character. Marked variations in the price of land are described and the place of mortgages in the land m arket are discussed at length.