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Alcester stands head and shoulders above many places in Warwickshire for its vast amount of archival material. One thinks of its Court Leet records, its Apprentices' Indentures, its property deeds, its wills and inventories and much more We have extracted much information from these things; local trades, family histories, the cost of goods and inflationary pressures etc. We have not tried to list Alcester's commercial contacts over the centuries: but Professor Dyer of Birmingham University has. At least, his research into the town's records for the 15th century has produced a helpful map of Alcester's commercial contacts between 1420 and 1470. The map shows, of course, many places within easy reach of the town, in the valleys of the Arrow and Alne. Further afield are centres like Stratford and Bidford but there are larger centres inside and outside of Warwickshire -Coventry, Solihull, King's Norton, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Camden and Shipston. To us, these places are near enough but the 15th century was before the age of turnpike roads and the highways were often muddy and rotted tracks and wagons and packhorses were the only means of carrying goods. The Alcester area would export such commodities as linen, wool, leather, corn, flour and the occasional glazed product for the few windows requiring windows of glass. Imports, no doubt, included stone from the masons of Camden and metal goods, perhaps from Coventry