History (The medieval peasant - pg 38, 39)

Question 1

Describe a medieval peasant’s home.
(What did it look like and how many rooms were there? What was inside?)

Answer 1

• usually a long, low building with just one large room. The peasant kept his animals at one end of the room.
• He and his family lived at the other.
• The house had mud or sometimes stone walls, and a roof of straw.
• There was a small window but without any glass in it. There was a piece of wood to put across the window at night and in bad weather.
• The floor was earth covered with rushes.
• The fire was on a stone in the centre of the room. The smoke went out through a hole in the roof.
• The peasants had very little furniture. There were some stools and a box to keep spare clothing and other important items in.
• The bed was a kind of box on the floor with a mattress filed with straw.
• There was a loft over the animals’ part of the room, used for hay and storage but sometimes the children slept up there

Question 2

Describe the work of the peasant’s family

Answer 2

Everyone - similar work. Children began work at three, doing simple jobs like scaring birds away from the crops. Women worked in fields, looked after the home, collected wild herbs and fruits, made medicines and preserved food for winter. They did the spinning and taught the girls their jobs. The men often did weaving and taught the boys their work

Question 3

Describe the peasant’s year in the spring

Answer 3

In the spring, the peasants were busy clearing up after winter. They ploughed the land, sowed the corn, planted vegetables, cleared out water ditches, and looked after baby animals.

Question 4

Describe the peasant’s year in the summer

Answer 4

In the summer, the peasants cut grass to make hay, pulled weeds from the fields and gardens, drove birds away, and put up fences to keep the animals from wandering.

Question 5

Describe the peasant’s year in the autumn

Answer 5

In the autumn, they harvested the corn, collected wild fruits and herbs, killed animals and preserved them in salt/smoke for the winter. Lastly, they got ready for winter.

Question 6

Describe the peasant’s year in the winter

Answer 6

In the winter, they chopped down trees, mended houses, sheds and tools, got food for the animals and did spinning and weaving.