Adam initially joined the monastery of St Leonard's just outside Norwich, almost certainly as a young boy. The priory of St Leonard was to be found on top of the cliffs overlooking the river Wensum just a mile outside of the city of Norwich; it has long since been destroyed and there are today no more than a few stones to remind us of its presence. In Adam's time the whole of the riverbank opposite Norwich was heavily wooded and the forest came right up to the doors of the priory of St Leonard. 

The central plank of a novice's life was meant to be his education and if some of the other facets of monastic life are less clear, we can get a good clue as to the richness of his education from two surviving inventories which give details of all the books available in the priory. Although they are from a period one hundred years after Adam lived there, they still give us a feel for the range of books from which he would be expected to study. However as we glance down the list of books, we can only conclude that the library of St Leonard's was not a well stocked one!