Heaton will take a step back in time tomorrow when courtiers and tenants of the Lord of the Manor are invited to a traditional rent dinner.

Lord of the Manor, Councillor Stanley King (Cons, Heaton) will host what he hopes will become an annual celebration when tenants and freemen of the Manor of Heaton get together to celebrate an ancient tradition going back to the 18th century.

Councillor King has been Lord of the Manor since 1963 when he bought the title, which dates back to the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066.

Since then he has set up his own mock 'court', consisting of a Steward, the Grave of Frizinghall and a Jury made up of the good residents of Heaton.

In fact, the only position he has not filled at the moment is the post of Ale Taster!

On Friday, 32 tenants will be dining at the Fountain Inn, in what was a traditional meal given by the Lord in return for payment of rent.

Coun King said: "The event was a regular thing and records of the dinner go back to 1870, although it probably went back even further than that.

"In return for paying rent, tenants were given a dinner of goose and jugged hare as a way of saying thank you for paying.

"The last dinner held dates back to just before the outbreak of the First World War. At that time there were around 30 tenants on the Manor, so at Friday's dinner there will be 30 people who will pay 17 guineas a head - the equivalent to the rent they would have paid at the turn of the century."

According to Steward Wilfred Shaw, when the last dinner was held the Field family had just stepped down from their position of Lordship of the Manor - which they had held between 1635 and 1839 - after their daughter, Mary Field, married Lord Oxmanton, who later became the Earl of Rosse.

To recapture the atmosphere of the last dinner, all those invited on Friday will wear Edwardian dress.

"We held a similar dinner last year, but now it's something we want to make into an annual event," added Coun King.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.