The wealth of documentary material assembled in this volume brings to light the medieval origins of the most famous enclosure of modern Britain, and thereby makes a contribution to our understanding of the making of the English landscape.;The sources include many instruments of land conveyance among a large group of local freeholders, as well as a variety of manorial documents covering Holkham's several manors. Of particular importance is the "Neel Cartulary", an exceptional document of medieval estate management and a key source for the study of the Norfolk landscape.;The introductory chapters use the texts to reconstruct a picture of hamlets, gardens, closes, arable farms, a busy fishing port and a teeming population of peasants, small lords, mariners and merchants - a landscape obliterated by the radical transformations of the 18th/19th centuries. The appendices include a prosopography and a detailed topography.