This is a study of the manor of Alrewas, Staffordshire, in the fourteenth century. Manorial court rolls, lay subsidies, a rental, inquisitions post-mortem, and poll tax listings have been utilised to study the nature of the lordship of this manor in the west midlands for the years 1327-1375. The peasant community and society has also been studied to identify social and economic differentiation between the peasantry, ways in which there was communal organisation and cooperation; and, cooperation and conflict with the lord. In addressing these issues, village by-laws, the crafts and trades, and the peasant land market have all been closely analysed. Finally, peasant society at the family and household level has been studied to assess whether there was a correlation between household/family size and landed wealth. Throughout all areas of investigation, a comparison has been made between the pre and post Black Death periods.

This main body of this work consists of a gazetteer of all of the main, and many of the minor, place-names of Staffordshire (meaning any places which are or were at any time known to have been in what was, or became, Staffordshire), with early spellings, and observations on the likely or possible derivation of those names, often in a rather more discursive form than standard works on place-names, particularly where uncertainty exists as to the derivation. Early place-name spellings have been collected from many sources, primarily the volumes of the Staffordshire Historical Collections, but also the volumes of archive indexes at Staffordshire Record Office, supplemented by Staffordshire place-names extracted from other sources, such as the Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society and the printed Cartularies of Haughmond and Lilleshall Abbeys, both in Shropshire, and from the editorial notes produced during research by the Victoria County History of Staffordshire team. Those slips often contain early place-name spellings. The Staffordshire Encyclopaedia, a monumental compilation of material on the history and folk-lore of Staffordshire published in 2000, has provided a valuable key to material relating indirectly to place-name research, such as topographical and archaeological features. Other material has been extracted from early work on the place-names of Staffordshire and adjoining counties by W. H. Duignan and from other volumes on place-name research and the journals of The English Place-Name Society and The Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland. The analysis considers the early history of the county of Stafford, and reviews the place-name evidence under various headings, including the relationship of particular elements to Roman roads, the ancient boundaries, the Hundred meeting-places, and discussions on Scandinavian and French names and those considered to provide evidence of pagan religion. The analysis incorporates a list of personal names found in Staffordshire place-names, and of topographical and other elements.