Chancellor of the Exchequer Lords, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown respectively, swapped apartments, as the Chancellor's apartment in No. 11 was bigger and thus better suited to the needs of Blair (who had children living with him, including one born during his tenure) than Brown who was at that stage unmarried. Dorneywood is the summer residence that is traditionally made available to the chancellor, though it is the prime minister who ultimately decides who may use it. Gordon Brown, on becoming chancellor in 1997, refused to use it and the house, which is set in of parkland, was allocated to Deputy Prime Minister John
Exchequer of Pleas was held in York, London and Northampton at various times. By the late 12th century it had taken to sitting in a fixed location (the one body of government in England to do so), and by the 1170s it was possible to distinguish the Exchequer's work from that of the other parts of the "curia regis", although the king of the time considered the Exchequer to simply be an element of the "curia"; indeed, it was referred to as the "Curia Regis ad Scaccarium", or King's Court at Exchequer. The word "Exchequer" derives from the chequered cloth laid on a