Wakefield Manor Today project

Wakefield Manor Today project

In 2025 our Youth Forum worked with the University of Leeds to explore the Wakefield Manor Court Rolls. The court rolls are a series of handwritten records dating back to the 1200s.  They cover Wakefield and many of its suburbs. These include Stanley, Lupset, Alverthorpe and Thornes.

Two young adults studying in a library and drawing a poster

The original rolls are not easy to understand for us today. However, there are translated versions in modern English online.

A young adult looking at a bookshelf in a library

The young people worked with staff and students from the University. They selected people from the records whose stories they wanted to explore further.

“It really was a fascinating project looking into the history and discovering things I didn't know about.” - Troy

Two young people holding up a poster and pointing to a character on it

We were lucky enough to be able to visit the University’s Special Collections to see the original documents.

Two young adults looking closely at a medieval manuscript, one is holding a magnifying glass

“I really enjoyed this project because I got to see artefacts that other people wouldn’t be able to see.” - Eleanor

A group of young people being shown a medieval manuscript by a member of staff

The young people produced two short films as creative responses to bring the stories to life. The court rolls only record some details. So, they have used research and imagination to fill in the gaps. 

“I liked brainstorming ideas for the project because we could add our own ideas to gaps in the stories.” - Huma

Two young people and a photographer smiling and giving a thumbs up with filming equipment

Finally, they filmed the videos at the Wakefield Museums and Castles collections store. They used historic objects for their props and set.

A young person in costume being filmed by other young people and a professional videographer

“The filming day was the most fun because we finally got to display our weeks’ worth of work.” - Olivia

Two young people using paper puppets to create a scene

You can see more behind-the-scenes footage in Troy's brilliant short Instagram documentary!

The videos

The following two videos are the Youth Forum's creative responses to stories they uncovered in the Manor Court Rolls.

Films by the Wakefield Museums and Castles Youth Forum with the University of Leeds and artists Suzie Cross and Nick Singleton.

The Runaway Girl: A story from the Wakefield Manor Court Rolls

In June 1307, Alice Kyde of Thornes, Wakefield was abducted by the parish chaplain’s servant. She went with him willingly, taking goods belonging to her husband, John. She later returned home to him.

Our Youth Forum explored Alice’s story and created this short film and original monologue to bring it to life.

Ricardo Don’t Care: A story from the Wakefield Manor Court Rolls

In 1315, the villagers of Stanley, Wakefield complained that Richard del Ker (1285-1324) was living immorally with a woman he wasn’t married to. This had been forbidden by the lord’s steward. The villagers wanted him to pay a huge fine. Despite this scandal and other run ins with the law, Richard later became Stanley’s bailiff.

Our Youth Forum explored Richard’s story and created this short film and original song to bring it to life

The Wakefield Manor Today project was made possible by the Sapling Fund, which is jointly delivered by the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute and the University of Leeds Cultural Institute. 

The Wakefield Manor Court Rolls are owned by the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society (YAHS) and held in Cultural Collections at the University of Leeds. 

With thanks to:

Dr Iona McCleery, Quinty Uitman and Orlen Crawford, University of Leeds

Suzie Cross, artist and creative facilitator

Nick Singleton, film-maker 

Deborah Lough Costumes

Wakefield Museums and Castles