A division of a cantref/cantred: the optimum administrative unit in medieval Wales. In Welsh law a commote was an area which contained fifty small townships or villages.

Also known as a truck shop, i.e. shops run by employing companies, for example, ironworks, where workers could redeem the tokens in which they had been paid. This system was open to abuse by the owners.

Castles went through various stages of development from simple ‘motte and bailey’ constructions to the vast stone edifices constructed in Wales during the thirteenth century. The concentric plan in the great Welsh castles involved the principle of successive lines of defence so that each ‘ward’ or section of the castle was placed wholly within another. The outermost defence was the curtain wall, surrounding the whole castle, studded with protective towers. The entrance to the castle was protected by moat, ditch, drawbridge and portcullis. The portcullis was operated within a massive gatehouse, which was flanked by great stone towers and could house troops.

Christian Nonconformist denomination particularly characterised by its democratic government.

See Independents.

A form of manorial tenure.

See Anti-Corn Law League.

Administrative and judicial body created in 1471 and given statutory existence by the Act of Union, Second (1543). From 1473 it was based at Ludlow Castle. See March, The.

Commonly used collective term for the magistrates or justices of the peace for a county.

The 1918 election in which approved candidates from both Liberal and Conservative parties were given a letter of endorsement — the coupon.