Red Book of Worcester

[1][2] The survey provided particularly detailed accounts of four manors in Worcestershire: Kempsey, Bredon, Northwick and Wick.

[4] The original Latin manuscript of the Red Book has been lost but a transcription made by the antiquary William Thomas before 1738 survives.

A version based on Thomas' transcription was published by Marjory Hollings of the Worcestershire Historical Society in 1934.

[5][6] A Doctor of Philosophy thesis by Emma Day in 2011 reviewed the numbers of free tenants and lower classes of peasants (villeins) recorded in the Red Book.

Day found that 41% of the peasants in the manors of Kempsey, Bredon, Northwick and Wick noted in the Red Book were free tenants, who generally paid money rents rather than carrying out labour for their lords.