Anglo Saxon Guide
Anglo Saxon food
The Anglo-Saxons loved eating and
drinking and would often have feasts in
the Hall. The food was cooked over the
fire in the middle of the house; meat
was roasted and eaten with bread.
They drank ale and mead - a kind of
beer made sweet with honey - from
great goblets and drinking horns.
After the feast a minstrel would play a
harp and sing songs of battles and
heroes. Furthermore Anglo Saxons
loved exotic foods such as potatoes,
tomatoes, bananas, pineapples - fruits
and vegetables of the New World, were
unknown to the Anglo-Saxons.
Drink
Barley was used to make weak beer,
which was drunk instead of water. River
water was often polluted. wine was
imported from the Mediterranean but
only drunk by the very rich.
Did you know ?
Most Saxons were vegetarians and
that to Anglo Saxons pigs were
more important food because they
made more litters
Amazing Facts
• Early Anglo-Saxon buildings were generally
simple, constructed mainly using timber with
thatch for roofing.
• Anglo Saxons were the Germanic hordes who
invaded east and southern England in the
early 5th century AD
• Some Anglo-Saxons built their houses inside
the walls of Roman towns.
Saxon clothes
• Anglo Saxons wore clothes that they made their selves
made from wool and other fabrics such as animal
skins. People wore clothes made from wool cloth or
animal skins. Men wore tunics, with tight trousers or
leggings, wrapped around with strips of cloth or
leather. Women wore long dresses. Women spun the
wool from sheep and goats to make thread. They used
a loom to weave the thread into cloth.
• Clothing styles varied from region to region. For
instance, an Anglian woman fastened her dress with a
long brooch. A Saxon woman used a round brooch.
Clothing also changed over time. The dress in the
pictures is the kind worn by Angles when they first
arrived in Britain.
Saxon houses
• In an Anglo-Saxon family, everyone from babies to old people
shared a home. Anglo-Saxon houses were built of wood and
had thatched roofs also their were hearths in the middle of
the houses to keep warm and cook their food. At West Stow
in Suffolk archaeologists found the remains of an early
Anglo-Saxon village.
• They reconstructed it using Anglo-Saxon methods. They
found that the village was made up of small groups of houses
built around a larger hall. Each family house had one room,
with a hearth with a fire for cooking, heating and light. A
metal cooking pot hung from a chain above the fire.