This chapter examines Willington and its records within the context of two other rural Bedfordshire manors, Blunham Greys (also called Blunham with Girtford) and Eggington. There are translated records, concurrent with Willington, for both these manors.

It is possible to examine Willington in some detail because of the large collection of manorial documents which survive from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries. Characteristics specific to the manor are the limited influence of religious institutions on its history and the fact that it was held by landlords who did not live there, so being managed by a network of friends and relatives who formed the lord's council, or by their officials and employees. The tenants had opportunities to work together, to organise themselves and negotiate lower rents under the leadership of the bailiff who was almost always a local man, 1382–1483.

Manors were territorial units under the administration of a lord and often part of a larger estate. The three manors of Willington, Blunham Greys and Eggington were all lay manors, although the lord of the manor of Willington, Lord Mowbray, was patron of Newnham Priory. Willington was part of the extensive Mowbray estates, and its bailiff held some responsibility for the collection of rents from other smaller properties.

Blunham Greys was adjacent to, and downstream of, Willington on the south bank of the river Great Ouse and was also in the Wixamtree Hundred. It had links with nearby lands in Girtford. Ownership of this manor passed to the de Grey family, of Wrest Park, in 1389, and it was part of their wider estates. The court of the small manor of Eggington, situated in the south-west of Bedfordshire, is presumed to have been part of a larger holding centred on Leighton Buzzard and was held by members of the Chyld (or Child) family until 1433, after which it passed to the Man family.

Willington was a quiet rural settlement of between 1,600–1,700 acres on the south bank of the Great Ouse, east of Bedford. The boundaries of the manor were coterminous with the boundaries of the parish.