The Coucher Book of Kirkstall Abbey
edited by W. T. Lancaster and W. Paley Baildon
The Coucher Book of Kirkstall Abbey is an ancient volume now containing 115 leaves of parchment enclosed in a brown leather cover with a flap. Its size is 8¼ inches by 6 ¾ inches. It has been deposited in the Public Record Office, now The National Archive in 1868; previously it was preserved among the evidences of the Duchy of Lancaster in Lancaster Place, and its official designation is now ‘Duchy of Lancaster Miscellaneous Books, No. 7.’ It is not known how it came to be with the Duchy records. It was already among them in the time of Roger Dodsworth, a century after the dissolution.
It contains the grants of land to Kirkstall Abbey but unfortunately is incomplete. The full Latin text with marginal notes in English was published by the Thoresby Society in 1904. W. T. Lancaster and W. Paley Baildon were the editors.