Lords of the Manor

'The Lords of the Manor of Nocton and their Times'

Happy New Year to you all - may I wish you a healthy and fruitful year.

I thought I would open 2013 with a flourish. As many of you will know, I have been cataloguing all of Mrs Sheila Redshaw's historical material appertaining to our village of Nocton. As one of the final tasks, I decided to record electronically the handwritten draft of a book that has never been published before. It has taken many months to type up the work, but the finished item can now be located here: 'The Lords of the Manor of Nocton and their Times' by John Eagle.

The handwritten draft has been in the possession of the Ireson family for many years and latterly was donated to Mrs Redshaw (in order for this to be added to her collection).

All of Sheila’s archive material has since been donated to the Parish Council for the benefit of the residents of Nocton in perpetuity. The manuscript book is now catalogued under Ref. No.66 should you wish to view the original.

Somewhat appropriately, the following text was discovered in what appear to be the author's working papers – and I feel this is a super introduction, should you choose to read the book:

“Except upon a very limited, and, I think, unsatisfactory scale, there is not enough authenticated material available to make a complete survey of the biographies of the Lords of the Manor of Nocton possible. Therefore, in order to gain the end I desire, I have employed duly accredited documentary evidence principally as a guide, and adapted to suit the plan upon which I based this story, so that it has become partly factual and partly fictitious.

I have tried to limit the influence of my imagination so that it remains within the strict confines of what is possible and what is probable. Thus I have endeavoured to be scrupulous in first observing the facts, and then studying the implications arising from the facts, and from those resources I have drawn my own interpretation of events. In doing so I have continuously recognised the unmistakeable fact that I could be wrong”

Finally, I believe the author would have liked to see his draft being made available for others to read, rather than being left stored in a box, never to see the light of day. Enjoy, I hope you find it interesting, I did.