On Thursday 4^th April Chris Lunnon presented his talk on “Famine, Fear and Fire”, to the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group, and launched his publication on the same subject. Over the past 3 years or so, Chris has been translating the Bolton Priory Compotus of 14^th Century accounts from the medieval Latin – a huge task in itself – and then extracting and analysing data relating to our two townships of Embsay and Eastby.

What he had revealed is an extraordinary story of the local aspects of the devastating crisis which hit Northern England during the early 14^th century – a generation before the notorious Black Death hit England, a series of crises – poor harvests, bad weather, livestock disease, epidemics, conflict with Scotland resulting in crippling taxes and the ferocity of Scottish raids – had already undermined the stability of social and economic life. 

As Lord of the Manor of several townships in the Craven area, Bolton Priory had to deal with the effects of these events, and their accounts provide an insight into how, long before the Black Death, the entire economy and social structure of villages like Embsay and Eastby were fundamentally altered.