Medieval Life
Medieval  Life

The Medieval Towns

Medieval towns were filthy places where everything was packed tightly together. They were small, dirty and smelly places. Parliament passed laws to clean up the towns. But people did not take much notice of them. They still threw their waste into the streets, it was the perfect place for rats, and that's how the plague spreaded quickly !!! 


The Peasants Year


January
: Work is done, preparing for the year. Hedges and fences are

              mended. Work is done around the house. Tools are fixed and
              Ale is brewed.


February: Ploughing is started. The ground is cold and muddy.


March: Ploughing is finished. Weeding is done.


April/May: The sheep have their lambs, and are turned out to graze in the  
                 fallow field. Weeding continues in the other fields.


June: The hay is harvested. A scythe is used to cut it, and the families  
          help by making little piles of hay. These are turned daily so the 
          grass dries and turns into hay.


July +August: The fallow* field is ploughed. *Left unseeded after ploughing
                       for a period of time, in order to recover natural fertility.
                       The crops in the other fields are harvested. Barley and
                       wheat are cut with a sickle and have to be dried before
                       storing or the grain will go bad. The carts are loaded high
                       and the crops are brought in from the fields and stored in
                       the lofts and in the lord’s grain barn.

November: The pigs are turned into the woods to fatten up on acorns.
                  The grain is threshed (beaten to separate the grain from
                  stalks) in the barns.


December: Most of the pigs and some of the other animals are
                  slaughtered. There is a feast where the peasants eat fresh 
                  meat. The rest of the meat is salted and smoked so that it 
                  will stay edible through the winter months.