The court rolls of the vast Yorkshire manor of Wakefield form one of the most remarkable archival sequences in this country, extending in an almost unbroken line from 1274 to 1925. As a result they are inscribed on UNESCO's National Register of the Memory of the World, the documentary equivalent of a world heritage site. Owned by the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society (formerly the Yorkshire Archaeological Society [YAS], renamed in 2016), and held among the special collections of the University of Leeds, the court rolls are a historical resource with tremendous potential because of their longevity, continuity and geographical scope, a fact which has been recognised for well over a century and has produced a major, if sporadic, programme of publication. Five volumes, covering (with gaps) the period from 1274 to 1331 were published by the YAS between 1901 and 1945, and in 1974 a separate section of the society was established specifically for this purpose. It has since produced 18 volumes, each taking a period of between one and three years, spread over almost five centuries from the early 1330s to 1813.
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