Monastic studies have traditionally focused upon the post-Conquest period, utilising plentiful house cartularies and account rolls, and exploring the architecture and ground-plans of buildings. This tendency has stressed the economic and art-historical dimension to monasteries, to the detriment of smaller, less wealthy, institutions. It has also concentrated upon the monastic experience of particular religious orders, notably the Cistercians.

In this ground-breaking study, the place of the monastery in wider landscapes - topographical, social, economic and political - is considered. By 1215, the Diocese of Norwich contained about a tenth of all English monasteries. This remarkable richness of patronage was no sudden flush of enthusiasm, but a manifestation of religious devotion that had been evolving in East Anglia since the seventh-century Conversion. By integrating archaeological and historical sources, this book presents an in-depth examination of where and how communal religious life developed in the region over half a millennium. In so doing, it demonstrates how the more visible and better-evidenced post-Conquest monastic landscape was typically structured by its Anglo-Saxon past. In turn, the role of the founder as participant in, and creator of, monastic life is reassessed, and shown to be pivotal.