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.