2.6.2 Food & Seasonal Life

Question 1

Why did food not change much in Norman England from the Anglo-Saxon times?

Answer 1

Nothing major changed in English farming during the period, so people’s diets stayed the same.

Question 2

Pottage

Answer 2

• Pottage was a type of soup. It was a staple food in Norman England.
• It was a really thick soup (or stew) that was made using peas, beans. vegetables, and occasionally meat if the peasants were lucky.

Question 3

The diet of the rich (2)

Answer 3

• The poor may have eaten a healthier diet than the rich, given they mainly drank milk and ate vegetables.
• If the summer was too hot, or the winter too cold, harvests could be bad. This would mean that all the people in the local area would have less food than they would like.

Question 4

The diet of the poor (6)

Answer 4

• Bread was the most common food for peasants, as well as as any vegetables that they could grow on their farmland.
• This made the job of the miller (who made grain or rye) and the baker (who baked bread) some of the most important jobs in the village.
• Meat would have been eaten very rarely. Firstly, it would have been very expensive to buy. Secondly, preserving meat for long periods of time was hard in a time before refrigeration. Salting or smoking the meat preserved it for some time, but not very long.
• Lunch would usually just be rye bread; in the evening they would usually eat a vegetable-based meal.
• Pottage was a type of soup that was made using peas, beans, vegetables, and occasionally meat if the peasants were lucky.
• Clean water was not common and there would not have been running water in Norman England. Instead, peasants often brewed their own beer or drank the milk that they collected from their animals.

Question 5

Subsistence living (3)

Answer 5

• Ordinary people kept their own animals on their farmland. This provided milk, cheese, and eggs.
• Peasants could grow their own veg on their patches of farmland.
• Peasants could fish in local rivers and lakes.

Question 6

What percentage of society in Norman England lived a rural life?

Answer 6

90%

Question 7

Seasonal life in Norman England (4)

Answer 7

• Spring: peasants sow seeds in the fields.
• Summer: when the crops are ready, peasants harvest them.
• Autumn: peasants used oxen to plough the fields before planting next year’s crops.
• Winter: people lived off the food harvested earlier in the year.

Question 8

What did people do during harvest season?

Answer 8

During harvest season, which normally falls in September, peasants would have worked all day and perhaps into the night to gather crops.

Question 9

England remained a largely ________ (farm-based) society during the transition from Anglo-Saxon to Norman England.

Answer 9

agrarian

Question 10

Why were the seasons important? (3)

Answer 10

• 90% of society worked on the land
• Seasons and weather affected the harvests
• When there was a poor harvest, people simply did not have enough to eat