Cattle were a vital commodity for Anglo-Saxon rulers, not just because of their mighty appetite for meat, but because of their abundant need for leather and hides. Leather in particular was required for a vast array of essential items: shoes and boots, bags and purses, bottles and flasks, as well as all manner of equestrian equipment and war gear – saddles, harnesses, straps, scabbards, armour and tents. There was virtually nothing that could not be improved with leather and a great many things that simply could not be made without it. It was, in the memorable phrase of one historian, ‘the plastic of the Middle Ages’.