Feet of Fines have long been one of the standard sources used by local historians, affording often unparalleled detail about the ownership of land. With this volume, Gloucestershire now has in print abstracts of all known Feet of Fines for three centuries, from 1186 (32 Henry II) to 1508 (24 Henry VII).
Volume 16 (2003) in this series contains Feet of Fines to 1299, and Volume 20 (2006) those to 1359. This, the third set of abstracts to be published by this Society, was like its predecessors prepared by the late Christopher Elrington, who died in 2009. He had left the edition ready for publication in this Series, of which he was the longest-serving General Editor, and the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society is pleased now to fulfil his intentions. Extensive indexes provide ready access to all aspects of the abstracts.
Comments from reviews of the first two parts:
- 'a wealth of local topographical and genealogical evidence'
- 'the standard of editing is very high'
- 'a very useful volume, from which much is to be learnt both about the history of both landed society in Gloucestershire and conveyancing'
- 'a veritable mine for the students of personal and place-names'
The edition is completed with a full Bibliography of Christopher Elrington's works, spanning a scholarly career of some 55 years.