Catalogue description WORKS.

These are the accounts, with supporting documentation, of the Clerk of the King's Works, the Surveyors of Works and the constables of castles and other officials, and relate to building works and repairs to royal properties and parks. The accounts provide very detailed evidence of the type and cost of building materials used for new works or repairs to existing buildings, along with the costs of the work and the transport required. Included in the accounts are significant groups of documents relating to Clarendon, Clipstone, Dover, Havering, Langley, Leeds, Nottingham, Odham and Rochester. There are a large number of accounts relating to the Tower of London, Westminster, Windsor, Woodstock, the Scottish Marches and Welsh castles.

For Castle repairs see C 47, E 164/66 for St Paul's Cathedral, E 407/159 Tower of London and Hampton Court. E 36/235-245 and E 36/250-252 for Hampton Court, Oatlands, Westminster Palace. E 101/325/1-E 101/329/17 prests to officials, other ministers' accounts, SC 6. Other works accounts in E 372, E 352, E 364, and E 351.

The E 101 Works accounts have been widely used by historians and many individual accounts have been published. Much of the content of the accounts has been digested in The history of the King's works, ed H Colvin, vols 1-4 (London, 1966-1983). See also S Thurley, The royal palaces of Tudor England: architecture and court life 1460-1547 (New Haven and London, 1993).

A detailed list of the documents is in PRO Lists and Indexes, vol 35 (London, 1912), pp 272-305, where the documents are sorted into alphabetical order by name of property, and then chronologically within each property.