Six hundred years ago no parish in Norfolk had more than a part of
its land under tillage. As a rule, the town or village, with its
houses, great and small, consisted of a long street, the church and
parsonage being situated about the middle of the parish. Not far off
stood the manor house, with its hall where the manor courts were
held, and its farm-buildings, dovecote, and usually its mill for
grinding the corn of the tenants. No tenant of the manor might take
his corn to be ground anywhere except at the lord's mill; and it is
easy to see what a grievance this would be felt to be at times, and
how the lord of the manor, if he were needy, unscrupulous, or
extortionate, might grind the faces of the poor while he ground their
corn. Behind most of the houses in the village might be seen a croft
or paddock, an orchard or a small garden. But the contents of the
gardens were very different from the vegetables we see now; there
were, perhaps, a few cabbages, onions, parsnips, or carrots, and
apparently some kind of beet or turnip. The potato had never been
heard of.
As for the houses themselves, they were squalid enough for the most
part. The manor house was often built of stone, when stone was to be
had, or where, as in Norfolk, no stone was to be had, then of flint,
as in so many of our church towers. Usually, however, the manor house
was built in great part of timber.
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