Blurred Boundaries and Contested Authorities in Two Archenfield Parishes in the Later Middle Ages

This article’s primary aim is to present a highly localised body of evidence from two neighbouring small communities, Garway and Pencoyd, in the Archenfield area of the Welsh March. In Garway’s case, two documents from either end of the long fifteenth century show the local community condemning its parish priest, siding first with one authority and then another, and stressing its Welsh lineage. In Pencoyd, the remarkable survival of the local priest’s manuscripts shows him to have been a diligent pastor and teacher, in tune with diocesan expectations and connected to networks of learning on both sides of the border. Such a local study illuminates evidence of great interest in its own right, but also helps open up the possibility of a wider narrative that attends more fully to local experience in its variety and to the agency of local people.