Manor

A political, economic, and social system by which the peasants of medieval Europe were dependent on their land and on their lord. Its basic unit was the manor, a self-sufficient landed estate, or fief, that was under the control of a lord who enjoyed a variety of rights over it and the peasants who were serfs. It was the focus of the feudal societies that developed in western Europe form the 8th-9th centuries. Well-known examples are 10th-12th-century sites of Goltho in Lincolnshire and Sulgrave in Northamptonshire for the Anglo-Norman period, and Wintringham, Lincolnshire, and Hound Tor, Devon, for the later Middle Ages. Houses of feudal lords from the 11th and 12th centuries in northern and western France have been excavated as well as small castles inside fortified villages, as at Rougiers in Provence or in Renaissance villages in Tuscany.

The focal point of the feudal societies that developed throughout Western Europe from the 8th and 9th centuries. The manor reflects the emphasis upon landholding in feudal society, and the relation of the village workforce to the lord who owned the manor. Very few manors have been excavated. The best-known examples are 10th-12th-century sites such as Goltho in Lincolnshire and Sulgrave in Northamptonshire for the Anglo-Norman period, and Wintringham, Lincolnshire, and Hound Tor, Devon, for the later Middle Ages. These reveal that the lord of the manor’s dwelling and its associated storage buildings were typically constructed within the local vernacular tradition. The earliest Carolingian and Ottonian manors can be expected to be of a similar kind, but none has yet been found. The small ringworks of the 11th and 12th centuries in northern and western France possibly provide some illustration of the houses of feudal lords; small castles inside fortified villages, as at Rougiers in Provence or in Renaissance villages in Tuscany, may be the best examples to be found without detailed archaeological investigations.