The capital of Northumbria is York. Many crafts are represented there: leather-working including a large tannery, the working of jet, amber, iron, lead, copper alloy, gold and silver; also of glass, bone and antler; and turning wooden bowls and cups. It is also a center of clothmaking and dyeing. Our looms at Fairhall weave cloth for household use in autumn and winter, but once a year in late spring we make the five-day journey to sell and buy in York. We sell our finest wool to their clothmakers and also to the merchants who sail to wool markets in Flanders. We buy pottery at York for the household. I could buy buy salted herring too for it is plentiful in York, but I cannot stomach them so it is not worth their buying. York also offers belts from girdlers and bucklers, embroiderers, tailors, and jewelry makers.

I also arm my fighting men from York weaponsmiths since troops and raiders from Scotland commonly travel Dere Street through the hills. This is an old Roman road still in use that passes not far from Fairhall. We are a fortified farm but our fields and hills are unwalled, and the raiders would gladly take our sheep and cattle back to Scotland with them if we did not guard them well.