Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF MAPS
- AUTHOR'S PREFACE
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- FOREWORD
- I SOUTH SOMERSET IN EARLY AGES
- II SOUTH SOMERSET IN SAXON AND DANISH TIMES
- III COKER IN THE TIME OF THE NORMAN KINGS
- IV COKER IN THE TIME OF THE DE MANDEVILLES (circa 1140–1308)
- V COKER IN THE TIME OF THE FIRST COURTENAYS (1308–1391)
- VI WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE LATER COURTENAYS (1391–1442)
- VII WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE NEW MEN (1556–91)
- VIII WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE PORTMANS (1591–1727)
- IX WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE BERKELEY PORTMANS (1728–1829)
- I Abstract from Domesday Book giving tenure of lands in the neighbourhood of Somerton, T.R.E. and T.R.W.
- II Domesday entry of Coker
- III Extracts from Neustria Pia with reference to the claim of St Stephen's Abbey, Caen, to have been granted the Manor of Coker
- IV A bailiff's account of the Manor of West Coker, 1309
- V Extent of East Coker Manor, 1321
- VI (i) Assessments for a twentieth, 1 Edward III, for East Coker and West Coker
- VII Accounts of West Coker Manor: (i) 1422; (ii) 1425
- VIII Indictment of persons charged with burning down George Middleton's house at West Coker on 1 September 1457
- IX The Coker family out of south Somerset, 1285–1498
- X Abbot Beere's survey of abbey lands in West Coker, 1507
- XI Accounts of West Coker Manor, 1527
- XII (i) Assessments for fifteenths and tenths for East Coker and West Coker, 10 Edw. III to 39 Eliz
- XIII West Coker cases of debt or trespass in the Court of Common Pleas. From Trinity 1597 to Trinity 1604
- XIV (i) Assessments for subsidies 13, 35 and 39 Eliz., 18 Jac. I, 3 and 16 Car. I, 13 and 15 Car. II, for West Coker
- XV Deliveries of West Country canvas, 1634–72
- XVI Numbers and names of fields in West Coker from the Map and Schedule annexed to the Tithe Agreement of 1838, with past variations and probable meanings
- INDEX
- Plate section
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF MAPS
- AUTHOR'S PREFACE
- EDITOR'S PREFACE
- FOREWORD
- I SOUTH SOMERSET IN EARLY AGES
- II SOUTH SOMERSET IN SAXON AND DANISH TIMES
- III COKER IN THE TIME OF THE NORMAN KINGS
- IV COKER IN THE TIME OF THE DE MANDEVILLES (circa 1140–1308)
- V COKER IN THE TIME OF THE FIRST COURTENAYS (1308–1391)
- VI WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE LATER COURTENAYS (1391–1442)
- VII WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE NEW MEN (1556–91)
- VIII WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE PORTMANS (1591–1727)
- IX WEST COKER IN THE TIME OF THE BERKELEY PORTMANS (1728–1829)
- I Abstract from Domesday Book giving tenure of lands in the neighbourhood of Somerton, T.R.E. and T.R.W.
- II Domesday entry of Coker
- III Extracts from Neustria Pia with reference to the claim of St Stephen's Abbey, Caen, to have been granted the Manor of Coker
- IV A bailiff's account of the Manor of West Coker, 1309
- V Extent of East Coker Manor, 1321
- VI (i) Assessments for a twentieth, 1 Edward III, for East Coker and West Coker
- VII Accounts of West Coker Manor: (i) 1422; (ii) 1425
- VIII Indictment of persons charged with burning down George Middleton's house at West Coker on 1 September 1457
- IX The Coker family out of south Somerset, 1285–1498
- X Abbot Beere's survey of abbey lands in West Coker, 1507
- XI Accounts of West Coker Manor, 1527
- XII (i) Assessments for fifteenths and tenths for East Coker and West Coker, 10 Edw. III to 39 Eliz
- XIII West Coker cases of debt or trespass in the Court of Common Pleas. From Trinity 1597 to Trinity 1604
- XIV (i) Assessments for subsidies 13, 35 and 39 Eliz., 18 Jac. I, 3 and 16 Car. I, 13 and 15 Car. II, for West Coker
- XV Deliveries of West Country canvas, 1634–72
- XVI Numbers and names of fields in West Coker from the Map and Schedule annexed to the Tithe Agreement of 1838, with past variations and probable meanings
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
Nothing much ever happened at West Coker. No great man was born or lived or died there. No battle was fought near it nor did any constitutional crisis have its rise in its neighbourhood. It was never the centre of great industry nor the source of widespreading trade. No relic of saint nor monument of art nor scene of natural beauty ever attracted visitors to it.
Its records are scant. Of old inscriptions there are none. The manor and the hundred have left behind them no court rolls. No musters remain from early calling-up of soldiers. The church registers that have been preserved are comparatively late in date and the churchwardens' accounts only begin 220 years ago. Of civil documents pertaining to the parish, no old ones remain. There is no collection of letters written from the village.
The worker who has come to this unpromising field has brought to his task no aptitude or training for historical or economic research. He has no knowledge of dialect nor instinctive appreciation of folklore and has had no special opportunity for collecting facts from records or tradition.
And yet–and yet, the Annals of West Coker have seemed to him worth the compilation. The development of that part of England where the Coker villages lie, though it has followed similar lines to that of other parts, has had differences due to the antecedents, heredity and environments of the people and to the climate, soil and surface of the land.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Annals of West Coker , pp. ix - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1957