Accounts of the Stewards of the Talbot Household at Blakemere, 1392–1425, tr. and ed. Barbara Ross (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Record Soc., 2003; pp. xxiv + 219. £15). Among the randomly surviving records of late-medieval aristocratic households is a cluster of material relating to the establishment maintained at the vanished fortified manor house of Blakemere, near Whitchurch in north Shropshire. Barbara Ross, who first worked on these accounts over thirty years ago, has brought them together in translation as part of the Shropshire record series published by the Centre for Local History at the University of Keele. The documents are a mixed bunch. There are six main steward's accounts, a list of monthly expenses and two lists of ale purchases. The lists of ale purchases, identifying the suppliers, are the remnants of a large number of subsidiary records, some of which are referred to in the main accounts. Of the main steward's accounts all but one are for the standing, or permanent, household maintained at Blakemere; the other is an account of the foreign, or travelling, household of William Neville, Lord Furnival, who was the second husband of the lady of Blakemere, Ankaretta Le Strange, and who spent most of the accounting year 1401–02 based there during the Welsh war. The period covered by the accounts witnessed frequent changes as Blakemere passed from Richard, Lord Talbot, who died in 1396, through his widow Ankaretta, her second husband, her second widowhood, her heir Gilbert, Lord Talbot in 1413, to his widow in 1418 and finally in 1421 to her brother-in-law, John, Lord Talbot, the first earl of Shrewsbury. These changes in the headship of the household are reflected in bewildering changes in the format of the accounts and a high turnover of stewards; for six months in 1417–18 Beatrice Lady Talbot herself shouldered the burden of the office. Over the thirty-three years one can discern how the funding of the household changed. At first the steward was also the receiver of all the Shropshire revenues, which were substantially consumed in paying for the household. By the end, the steward received his funds from the receiver-general of the whole Talbot estate. Throughout, however, the proceeds of the manor of Blakemere and a home farm maintained on the edge of the park were also received by the steward and, it would seem, their managers answered to him. The household thus extended beyond the manor house to incorporate a degree of direct provisioning. This arrangement would seem to reflect the fact that the lady, Ankaretta then Beatrice, was usually in residence. Not long after the succession of John Talbot, the home farm was disbanded and the manor, with all the other parts of the lordship of Whitchurch, came under the supervision of its receiver. Dr Ross calculates from the daily rations that the size of the permanent establishment was some 16 to 24 persons, though slightly larger at the end under John Talbot. The household was divided into the usual departments, and the records provide the usual details about its provisioning, its relationship with the nearby townsmen and other suppliers and visitors. The documents are translated and printed in full, with excellent introductions and useful summaries at the end of each. There is a full glossary, which gives invaluable explanation of all manner of technicalities, including how the assize of bread worked. There is a list of officers and of debtors and a helpful discussion of accounting practice. The volume will be of immense value to historians of the aristocracy, of household economy and of the locality.