Records of the *exchequer, the financial section of the * curia regis; yearly accounts of the royal income from *county sheriffs and other financial officials. The account of each shire (or other district) was entered on both sides of a single membrane made of two sheets of parchment sewn end to end; the membranes were then sewn together at the top, like a modern calendar, and rolled up, so that, as the *Dialogus de Scaccario says, 'they look like a pipe'. The earliest Pipe Roll dates from 1130; the continuous sequence begins in 1155-6. -
Cf. Tally stick
Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases. Christopher Coredon with Ann Williams.