End of Europe's Middle Ages
Description of a Manor House
This description of a manor house at Chingford, Essex in England was recorded in a document for the Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral when it was granted to Robert Le Moyne in 1265.
He received also a sufficient and handsome hall well ceiled with oak. On
the western side is a worthy bed, on the ground, a stone chimney, a wardrobe
and a certain other small chamber; at the eastern end is a pantry and a
buttery. Between the hall and the chapel is a sideroom. There is a decent
chapel covered with tiles, a portable altar, and a small cross. In the hall
are four tables on trestles. There are likewise a good kitchen covered with
tiles, with a furnace and ovens, one large, the other small, for cakes, two
tables, and alongside the kitchen a small house for baking. Also a new
granary covered with oak shingles, and a building in which the dairy is
contained, though it is divided. Likewise a chamber suited for clergymen and
a necessary chamber. Also a hen-house. These are within the inner gate.
Likewise outside of that gate are an old house for the servants, a good
table, long and divided, and to the east of the principle building, beyond
the smaller stable, a solar for the use of the servants. Also a building in
which is contained a bed, also two barns, one for wheat and one for oats.
These buildings are enclosed with a moat, a wall, and a hedge. Also beyond
the middle gate is a good barn, and a stable of cows, and another for oxen,
these old and ruinous. Also beyond the outer gate is a pigstye.
From J.H. Robinson, trans.,
University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints (1897)
in Middle Ages Volume I: p283-284.
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