f 2 (1 February 1567/8–31 January 1568/9) (Payments)
| Item on ye tuysday in whytsonday weeke by consente of ye parishyoners that was bestowed vppon spaldinge men commynge with ye baene of a playe ⸢to drynke⸣ | iiij d. |
| ... | |
| Item paid to thandes of Thomas anderson by the lyke consente of the paryshyners that haryed to spaldynge playe | iij s. |
...
For possible play performances originating in Spalding in the mid-1500s, see records included in James Stokes (ed), Lincolnshire, REED, 2 vols (Toronto and Buffalo, 2009), particularly the St Mary's churchwardens' accounts, Long Sutton, vol 1, pp 225, 227, 229 and vol 2, pp 425–6. Stokes notes that 'the many players who cried the banns of their plays in other towns were by definition usually amateur actors (though some might have been companies of professional waits), as in the players of ... Spalding'; these performances would have included 'history, saint, biblical, passion, morality, and (in Lincoln) Pater Noster plays' (Lincolnshire, vol 2, pp 404, 406).
Record title: St Leonard's Churchwardens' Accounts
Repository: Wisbech and Fenland Museum
Shelfmark: LEV/CA/1
Repository location: Wisbech
St Leonard's Church is the parish church of Leverington. Built in the mid-thirteenth century, the lower stages of its tower and part of the south wall and arcading between the chancel and the south chapel date from this period; the south aisle and porch from the fourteenth century, and a fifteenth-century nave and north aisle replaced the original thirteenth-century construction (VCH: Cambridgeshire, vol 4, pp 186–97, British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol4/pp186-197, accessed 18 September 2021).
1487–1620; English; paper; 153 leaves; 290–318mm x 183–215mm; modern pencil foliation (ff 38–83 originally a separate MS and include accounts from 1497–1530); good condition; extensive repairs c 1950, leaves mounted into paper frames, rebound out of chronological order, burgundy cloth over boards; title on spine: LEVERINGTON PARISH BOOK–VOLUME I.