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Normandy Manor

This impressive manor or "manoir" located at Archelles, Normandy clearly belonged to a wealthy family. The manor was built to resemble a small castle. It has decorative turrets and the driveway passes through a gate into the inner court yard. Based on the decorative stonework it is unlikely that this building was actually meant for defense.

One interesting thing is that there are piles of hay stacked right up to the walls of the manor house. This means that every bit of land was worked; there was no decorative lawn around this farmhouse. This picture was taken some time in the late 1800's. The hay piled on the front lawn would have been cut by hand, by labourers using a scythe. Cutting the lawn was not just for aesthetic reasons; the grass would likely have been fed to the manor's cattle.

In contrast to more primitive farmhouses, this building was more the manor house of a wealthy landowner. There are few windos, likely because the manor was built for defence and so it must have been dark and gloomy inside, especially before electric lighting.

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Normandy Farmhouse Gallery

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