Medieval Villages: Agriculture
and Work
Classic Three Field System/Open Fields Manor
Artist’s rendition of an English village (East Meon in
Hampshire) c. 1086
Weald and Down Open-Air Museum (Wales)
Eleventh-Century Manor House
Manor house (Leicestershire, England)
Madron Church, Cornwall (14th century)
Wharram Percy: Deserted medieval village in Yorkshire (village
plan c. 1400)
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Each peasant house at Wharram Percy had
a small "yard" surrounding it called a toft
(red on the map) and a croft (green on the
map) which served as a small "garden" to
supply the family with root crops, legumes
and, perhaps, grain. The houses were
spread out on the western edge of the
valley from south to north interrupted by the
two manor house enclosures (blue on the
map). In the floor of the valley -- north of
the church -- there is a row of smaller
tofts/crofts. There is also a group of house
sites across the "head" of the village; these
houses run east and west. At its largest the
village was made up of about 37 houses.
Using an arbitrarily chosen number of 5
persons per house, the population could
never have been much over 185 souls.
This arrangement -- houses on both sides of
the central street with a group heading the
village -- is not unlike many other English
villages with a central grassy common.
The map shows the village at its largest
about 1400.
Prof. Ken Tompkins.
http://loki.stockton.edu/~ken/wharram/hou
ses.htm
English Village: Cowley Bewley (surviving medieval
layout)
Medieval farmstead and fields
Wharram Percy: Peasant’s House (interior)
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The basic peasant house in the
13th century was about 15 feet
wide and might be twice the
length; houses of the 14th
century were about 20 feet
wide and 80 feet in length. This
latter type -- the long house -had an attached "byre" or barn
which might have housed farm
animals or could have been
used for storage. The central
room was long and open with
no partitions. There would have
been an open fire pit with a
smokehole in the roof above. At
the end, farthest from the byre,
there frequently was a separate
half-height room used,
probably, for sleeping. An
artists conception is shown
below.
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Ken Tompkins
http://loki.stockton.edu/~ken/w
harram/peasant.htm
Peasant’s House: construction
• Peasant houses had low
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foundations of chalk blocks;
indeed, at House Site 6 the
chalk had been quarried in
the croft of the house site
itself -- out of the peasant's
front yard, so to speak. The
crucks rested on large
padstones built into the
foundations. Between the
crucks, the walls were
generally "wattle and daub";
daub was a mizture of mud
and straw. Another possible
wall covering was called
"cob" which was 3 parts
chalk and 1 part clay mixed
with straw. Basically, the wall
was a frame with small
vertical posts woven with
smaller, flexible sticks to
form a base for the daub.
This woven frame is the
wattle. The daub was then
plastered on the wattle,
inside and out.
Ken Tompkins
http://loki.stockton.edu/~ken
/wharram/peasant.htm
Carolingian calendar: images of work
Heavy plow (Anglo-Saxon calendar, ca. 1030)
Plowing of fallow field would begin in late March or
early April
Plowing from the Luttrell Psalter
1320s
Broadcast sowing:
Duc de Berry’s Belles Heures c. 1400)
Spring crops (barley, oats, beans, vetches) were typically sown in April
Winter crops (wheat and rye) sown in the fall
Harrowing from Luttrell Psalter
1320s
Shepherds with flock: Anglo-Saxon calendar
(May), Wincester c. 1030s
Cutting and loading wood: Anglo-Saxon calendar
(July), Wincester c. 1030s
Anglo-Saxon calendar (Sept): men feeding hogs;
huntsman with dogs (Winchester, c. 1030s)
Pruning vines from an Anglo-Saxon calendar
from Winchester, c.1030s
Harvesting from an Anglo-Saxon calendar
(August) from Winchester, c. 1030s
Harvesting from St. Mary’s Book of Hours
(August) 1310-1320
Stacking Barley from Luttrell Psalter
1320s
Threshing with flails (September):
separating individual grains from the ear
Medieval Water Mill c. 1230
18th-century watermill (Lugashall)
Windmill from Luttrell Psalter 1320s
November: stacking fire wood
Belles Heures of Duc de Berry (c. 1400): winter
(February)