MANORS MAKETH MAN EXHIBITION

Hereford Cathedral Library & Archives team have unveiled their latest Manors Maketh Man Exhibition within the Mappa Mundi & Chained Library Exhibition which explores Hereford Cathedral’s Manors in the Middle Ages and Beyond.

Hereford Cathedral’s main source of income previously came from manors, and preserved in the Cathedral Archives is a treasure trove of manorial records that are only just beginning to be explored. Manors Maketh Man delves into these records, from medieval times onwards, and presents some of the fascinating human stories found within them.

The manor in England and Wales touched the lives of people of all walks of life, from before the Norman Conquest to the twentieth century. The records it produced are a fantastic but underused source for understanding the lives of ordinary people. This exhibition looks at what a manor was, what records can tell us about land, family, community, law and order, and life and death in Herefordshire over the centuries.

One of the pieces within the exhibition is the cathedral’s oldest book, the Hereford Gospels, which written around the year 800. It also includes records added in the first half of the 11^th century confirming the rights of an unnamed woman to grant land to her kinswoman rather than to her own son, whom she disowned.

All the images in the exhibition are taken from the Hereford Cathedral collections, and enhanced by objects kindly loaned by the Herefordshire Museums Service.

Manors Maketh Man exhibition is open Monday 17 September – Monday 31 December , Monday to Saturday, 10 am – 5 pm. Normal admission charges apply and more information can be found at www.herefordcathedral.org

Image credit: Map of Upper Brainton Farm, 1776 c. Gordon Taylor, Hereford Cathedral.