David Yaxley

This fascinating little book is an inventory of eleven of the manor houses owned by the Prior of Norwich in 1352. I am sure that, as a document, the original must have been a real find for historians but, sitting in my reasonably well appointed 21st century home, the thing that immediately strikes me, is the lack of possessions. The manor house in Hemsby had nine rooms but, the inventory covers one and a half sides of A5 paper: I couldn't accommodate a list of my study into such a space. Every item has to really earn its possession.… (mehr)