| In this authoritative new book the author entertainingly explains how grazing marshes were drained and reedbeds cut for thatching, while the courses of rivers were changed to reduce flooding or to improve transport. It is often assumed that the great Broadland abbeys, like St Benet-at-Holm, were built in the marches to give the monks seclusion. The truth is very different; they were set beside the main highways of trade, the rivers, and were the centres of extensive estates whose administration sometimes kept the brethren from their religious duties. - Foreign/Ethnic - England - |
