The Normans in Norfolk

At the time of the Norman Conquest, England was oriented toward the south and east, with London at its hub, and Norfolk was wealthy and flourishing. Although there were fewer towns in East Anglia than in the Midlands and the west, they were markedly bigger and many were seaports, or were linked to them. Strong local institutions and customs were allowed to continue and Saxon administration survived almost intact, albeit with a new official language and rulers. The 1086 Little Domesday book, a smaller volume covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, describes how William the Conqueror divided up the county among his closest followers – the ‘chief grantees’. Almost one thousand years on, this project documents the county's Norman legacy in the context of the contemporary landscape, illustrating the resulting amalgam of Medieval, Victorian and modern contributions to some of eastern England's most iconic and well-loved features.