Paper, Parchment And Vellum
Our forebears used a number of writing materials
Parchment, a very durable writing material, was used for most legal documents. It was made from sheepskin or goatskin that was scraped and dried on a frame after the wool was removed. It was an expensive material because it was a laborious process to dehair the skin, whiten it and smooth it with pumice stone. As a result handwriting tended to be small to save space, with words crammed on the page and many abbreviations used. There was always the possibility of holes in the parchment due to the stretching process, or because of the bites of warble flies. Scribes would therefore write to the edge of the hole and then continue onto the other side, although in time it became more usual to patch the parchment.
The highest-quality material, and therefore the most expensive and prestigious, was vellum, which was made from calfskin in a similar process. Paper, commonly made from old rags, was mainly used for personal correspondence. Although more widely available, paper was inferior in quality compared with parchment and vellum, and not as durable. In 1598 it was decreed that all paper parish registers should be replaced by parchment ones to ensure their longevity.