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Nexus resource
Medieval towns
Comparing rich and poor
Subject:
Age groups:
Topic:
History
8 – 11, 12 - 14
Middle ages
Licence information | This resource is free to use for educational purposes. ©British Council 2014
Source | This resource was originally developed by Samira Moradi and has been adapted by EAL
Nexus.
Rich and poor people in medieval times
Choose whether the words and phrases in the box are describing rich
people or poor people in medieval times:
nobleman
powerless
castle
Lord and Lady
worked hard
powerful
poor farmer
wattle and daub cottage
house made of sticks and straw
peasant
landowner
half-timbered house
worked for the Lord
Put the words and phrases from the box into the correct column in the
table:
Poor people
2
Rich people
True or false?
T or F?
Peasants had to work for Lord who owned the land
Landowners were rich and powerful
Peasants could earn a lot of money
Peasants were free
Rich people sometimes lived in castles
Peasants sometimes lived in castles
Rich people lived in houses with one room
Peasants were rich and powerful
Peasants usually lived in wattle and daub cottages
Rich people had servants living in their houses
Poor people usually slept in the same room as their animals
Some Lords and Ladies lived in houses made of sticks and straw
Fill the gaps using the words in the box below:
How a peasant could become a free man
To become a free man, a ___________ had to run away from the
____________ where he lived and go to a ___________. After that he
had to ____________ in that town for one year. If no one found him, he
would become a ___________ of that town.
freeman
work
peasant
town
3
village
Answers
Poor people
Rich people
 peasant
 nobleman
 powerless
 Lord and Lady
 worked hard
 powerful
 poor farmer
 landowner
 wattle and daub cottage
 castle
 house made of sticks and
 half-timbered house
straw
 worked for the Lord
True or false?
Peasants had to work for Lord who owned the land
Landowners were rich and powerful
Peasants could earn a lot of money
Peasants were free
Rich people sometimes lived in castles
Peasants sometimes lived in castles
Rich people lived in houses with one room
Peasants were rich and powerful
4
T or F?
T
T
F
F
T
F
F
F
Peasants usually lived in wattle and daub cottages
Rich people had servants living in their houses
Poor people usually slept in the same room as their animals
Some Lords and Ladies lived in houses made of sticks and straw
Fill the gaps using the words in the box below:
T
T
T
F
How a peasant could become a free man
To become a free man, a peasant had to run away from the village
where he lived and go to a town. After that he had to work in that town
for one year. If no one found him, he would become a freeman of that
town.
5