Countryside Flashcards
What was housing like?
Most peasants lived in one room huts with walls from wattle and daub(animal waste,clay and sticky mud)
What other houses were there?
Some other peasants lived in slightly larger houses made from large timber but these were a lot harder to heat in the winter
What was heating like?
Some peasants had an empty hearth or fire for cooking and heating, no chimney and smoke would have billowed around the house
What happened to farm animals?
Their animals would be brought inside to keep them safe and warm as they were valuable
What was water like?
Every village was near a stream or spring which provided water however people would bathe themselves and their animals in this
What did peasants drink?
They would have drank more water but there was other options like cider , mead and ale but most peasants drank small beer(weakly brewed)
What happened with harvests?
The harvests were central and very dependent on many things, famines happened and disease managed to kill cattle and sheep, 10% of the population died
What were the beliefs with diseases?
For example with ergotism many believed this disease was cause by demons however it was a fungus on rye
What happened with meat?
Any meat villagers had would have been smoke to preserve it and they would hang raw meat inside their houses and smoke from their fire would preserve it , they had a more varied diet
How was waste managed?
Each garden had a waste tip or midden, floor sweepings and animal dung would go onto this, toilets were called privy’s and were a hole in the ground, the waste from cesspits and middens were used to fertilise feilds however these would also contaminate drinking water
