Living conditions

COUNTRYSIDE

• Agricultural labour was difficult but in the fresh air and communal

• Poor weather could lead to bad harvest and starvation for example in the Great Famine of 1315-1316, 10 % of the population died

• In damp conditions, dangerous fungi grew on the rye grain which was used to make bread which was eaten by the poor causing painful pustules on the skin, burning sensations and frequent hallucinations striking in the wetter summers

• The medieval population believed that it was caused by devils and so named it St Anthony’s fire

• Every village was near a stream or spring which provided water, feeding a well in the village

• Peasants could bathe in the streams in summer months and eat the fish and eel

• Many peasants lived in huts woven from sticks covered in mud, other lived in larger houses with strong wooden frames with open fires and stone hearth used for cooking pottage

• Animals slept in the houses overnight to keep them safe and the peasants warm

• Kitchen gardens grew vegetables and fruit and people gathered nuts from woods and dairy products from cows

• Human waste was kept in one cesspit close to the house

TOWNS

• There was a conduit in the centre of the market square which was a fountain where spring water flowed for everyone to use supplied by pipes leading to springs in the countryside

• After markets, streets filled with wase and animals dung - rakers were paid to clean the streets and dispose of rubbish outside of town walls to spread on fields

• Butchering animals made a mess and so butchers were asked to do their cuttings on the outskirts of the town to dispose of the mess themselves