Medieval Life Project

Life in Medieval Villages and Towns

Life in a medieval village was hard.  People all had to work for the lord.  They were not allowed to leave the village without the lord’s permission.  They had to work all the time growing crops for the lord.  They gave some of the crops to the lord, and some they got to keep.  Each family had their own farming strip where they could grow crops.  The villages usually had a mill where they would grind grains.  They would have animals eat grass around the mill.

Villagers had to sleep with their animals.  The animals would sleep on one side of their house, and they would sleep on the other.  In the village the villagers’ houses were only one room.  They would have a hole in the roof so that the smoke from fires would go out.  The walls of the houses were made out of dung and mud.  The roof was made out of straw.

Medieval village home, Source

The lord owned all of the people’s land.  They also controlled all of the people.  That is why all the villagers had to work for the lord and give him some of their crops.  During the winter the villagers would have to work hard to stay alive.  Sometimes the villagers would slaughter one of their animals and eat it because they didn’t have lots of food.  They would also use animal skin to make warm underclothes.

In the towns things were different. The streets were covered with people.  The houses had more than one room and were more than a story high because there was not much space. Instead of having wide houses they had tall houses which took up less space and they could fit more people in one area. There were many different kinds of people. There were beggers, rich men, and foreign traders.

Medieval Inn, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Trading goods from far away were brought on horseback.  One of the shops was called the tanner shop.  That is where people made leather. There were also butcher shops where townspeople got meat. All around the towns there were buckets of water in case of fires. There were signs on stores with pictures so people who couldn’t read would know what the shop sold. Those are some of the facts about villages and towns.

Medieval butcher shop sign

Griffin Inn, Rothenburg ob der Tauber

There are six different things that townspeople would look out for when they were going to build a town. The towns were made near castles for protection. They would also build on top of mountains so that intruders would have to climb the mountains and also they could shoot down on the intruders. They would build a wall around the town so intruders couldn’t get in.  Building near rocks was good because they could build houses with the rocks. The rocks could also work as obstacles for intruders. Building near a forest was very smart because they needed wood for weapons, fire, and also for building houses. They needed fire to keep warm and for cooking food. Most towns would build near water so that they had water close for drinking and so that intruders would have to get over the water to attack.

Lucerne, Switzerland, Source

Lucerne, Switzerland is a great example of a town that was built with these six things in mind.  It is near a forest and also has a big river running through it and a lake in front of it. It is also built on a mountain.  Though it does not have a castle near it, it basically was a castle. It once had a wall that surrounded it. One town that still has its medieval wall is Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. Lucerne has a grass plane so that townspeople could build crops. They have a mill that is powered by water. That is why Lucerne is such a good example for a town that is built in a great place.

Town wall, Rothenburg ob der Tauber

As towns became larger more people became more independent.  Fewer people had to work for the lord, and more people got to work for themselves. That happened with the end of the Middle Ages. Now people are free.