Warram Percy: P.

126-127

What is Warram Percy? Town/village/City

Where is Warram Percy Located? Toulouse-France/Madrid-Spain/Yorkshire-England

How did people earn their living? (See map p.126-127)

a. Farming Fields/Growing Crops

1. Hay
2. wheat
3. Fruits
b. Shepherding/Raising animals
i. Goats, sheep, cows, chickens, Pigs
c. Oxen: To plough fields
d. The bigger the house the richer the person i.e. more income and more of the above resources.
e. Animals might be used for their skin/fur/wool
f. Artisans (seamstress’s/Shoe maker): making clothes, shoes

What materials where the houses built from?

[Link], 2. Wood, 3. Stones, 4. Hay/Thatch, 5. Roots, 6. Mud, 7. Bricks

What do you think Each of the buildings was used for?
Circular: Storage room for hay/crops/grains
Other Buildings: Taverns, Inns, Meeting places, armoury, forgery (where steel made to weapons), bakery
Does life look comfortable or harsh?

Evidence for Comfortable:

 Lots of houses and farms i.e. organised shelter

 Lots of different buildings for food storage and supply
 Buildings in good condition
 No Fortifications i.e. no barrier walls surrounding the village suggests they are not at war and live in peace.
 Adequate food supply i.e. evidence of farms and fields as well as the presence of animals suggest a good
food supply.
 Protection from a rich ‘Lord’ who might look after them (the villagers)

Evidence for Harsh:

 Harsh Lord i.e. serfs (slave farmers) might suffer working long hard hours with no pay under poor conditions.
 Working in bad weather i.e. cold, wet, windy, dark
 Small houses i.e. cramped living conditions
 No Fortifications i.e. No wall could leave the village exposed and vulnerable to invaders
 Farming community i.e. farmers are often poor and work long hard hours
 No opportunity for fun/leisure activities (hard working community)
 High potential for crime since there were no police back then (14th century or 1300)
 No Sanitation
 No easy access to clean water leading to illnesses
 Limited medicines and medical care back then i.e. more people suffered and died from untreated diseases
 Unreliable food Supply I.e. Animal diseases = not meat/eggs/diary, bad harvests = no grain/vegetable/fruit.
People would starve because they had nothing to eat and nothing to trade if they made money from
their animals and crops.
 Underdeveloped road network i.e. roads became muddy and dangerous and bad weather
What are The differences between life today and life in 14th century Warram Percy?

1. Small populations
2. Mainly Farmers/labourers
3. Larger plant variety
4. More contact with nature
5. No Sanitation
6. No running water
7. Less variety of food
8. No cars
9. Manual farming i.e. no heavy machinery
10. No Electricity
11. No internet
12. Limited access to education
13. Limited medical services i.e. little knowledge of medicines, no or limited doctors, no medical centres
(hospitals)
14. Bad roads

How good were their roads (transportation infrastructure)?

Not Good

1. Soil/mud roads
2. Bumpy and uneven
3. Horses and carriages often got stuck in mud
4. Stones causing accidents
5. Rain causing flooding and closing access

Who would have lived in the larger house?

The Lord of the village who would have owned most of the land and the rest of the villagers would work for him.
Medieval Life – True or False P.128-129

Write T or F next to each Sentence

1. Football was banned by law T

2. All men had to practice archery to keep them ready for war. T
3. People were really clean and used shampoo and soap. F
4. People had reading glasses. T
5. Surgeries were common practice and there was a low mortality rate. F
6. Dick Whittington, Lord and Mayor of London Built a 128-seat public toilet. T
7. Doctors tasted urine to determine illness. T
8. People always had food to eat even when crops where bad. F
9. Throwing rubbish in the streets was recommended. F
10. People ate healthier and where much taller than people today. F
11. People left their village freely and, married whoever they wanted. F
12. Kings kept strange pets like polar bears and leopards. T
13. There were plenty of wolves and bears in Britain. T
14. In the middle ages people had lots of days off because of religion. T
15. Holidays comes from the word Holy-day i.e. a religious celebration. T
16. By the 1500, most people in towns could still not read. F
17. Only the poor could afford to hunt. F
18. For a rich person hunting equipment included owning a hawk. T
19. Only poor people drank wine. F
20. Only rich people drank Ale (week bear). F
21. Poor people drank Ale because they knew the drinking water was dirty. T
22. Football had not been invented in the Middle ages. F
23. Men preferred to play football over archery. T
Fun in The Middle Ages P.134-135

List 7 ways in which a person from the Middle ages might have ‘fun’.

1. Holy-Days (Holidays)
People had more days off work than today because they celebrated all significant Christian based religious
figures and rested on Sunday as written to do so in the bible. Days off: Sundays, Christmas, Easter, all Saints
name days. The word holiday comes from the word Holy-Day.
2. Archery v. Football
By law all men had to practice archery so that they were ready in the event of war. However, the men
preferred to play football because it was more fun. Kings kept on making laws to ban football but it didn’t
work.
3. Keeping Unusual Animals
Kings were often gifted strange exotic animal from other parts of the world. Henry III kept leopards, an
elephant and a polar bear in the Tower of London. These animals were sometimes displayed to the public
who had to pay to see them. i.e. the beginnings of what we know as a zoo, or owning pets.

4. Reading Books
By the 1500 the number of people who could read had increased, especially in large towns such as London
where around half the people there could read. The invention of spectacles (reading glasses) made reading
even more accessible and popular.

5. Drinking Alcohol: Ale or Wine

Only the rich could afford to drink wine as it was often imported from other countries and expensive. The
poor drank Ale (a week form of beer), often because drinking water was dirty. Ale was made from grain
(easily accessible) and brewed by the women of the village.

6. Travelling Entertainers
These people would perform to the villagers. There were dancers, singers, wrestlers, acrobats, jugglers, and
storytellers.

7. Hunting with Hawks

Only the rich could afford their own hawks. Hawks and hunting equipment were often given as gifts.
Homes in the 1000’s Vs the 1500’s P.136-137

Were Homes uncomfortable in the beginning of the Middle Ages?

Yes, homes were very uncomfortable.

When did homes begin to be more ‘comfortable’?

Towards the end of the Middle Ages i.e. 1500’s

What are the main differences between houses of the 1000’s and houses of the 1500’s?

Thatched = made of hay

Reeds = καλαμι

1000 1500
What was the roof Thatch/reeds Tiles/bricks
made of?

Did animals share the yes No, animals stayed in

house with humans? barns

Where did people Outside/shared Separate rooms for

cook? cookhouse cooking and eating

What did they use as a Hole in the ground or Separate toilet in the
toilet? bucket house (garde-robe)
Where did people Straw on the ground or Separate bedroom, on a
sleep? raised platform bed. Herbs were placed
in the bed to keep insects
away
What did people own? People owned work Colourful clothes,
tools, cooking pottery, jugs, tablecloths,
equipment, animals, oil lamps
clothes
Where did they get Water was carried from a well
water from? nearby stream or a well
Name 3 features of houses in 1500 that houses in 1000 lacked:
1. Their animals are kept in a barn
2. Better hygiene than before = toilets in the house
3. Separate rooms for sleeping and eating
4. Wooden floor
5. Beds
6. Houses made by carpenters and builders
7. Houses are more weather able/durable
What Extra Features did wealthy/rich homes have?
1. They were built of stone or brick (durable)
2. Had fireplaces and chimneys (heated)
3. Toilets (separate covered sanitation)
4. Glass windows instead of wooden shutters. (light comes in and more insulation)
5. Tiled floors (waterproof)
6. Two floors (more living space)
7. Separate bedrooms
 Farming in the Middle Ages p. 138-139
Decide whether these statements are true by adding evidence from the book:
feudalism

Statement True Evidence to support your opinion

or
False
Work on the farm false Everyone worked on the farm including women and children
was only done by
men

Farmers had to False

work only with
their hands They used tools such as the scythe, the mallet and the
(manual work) plough. They also used oxen

Farming was True If the harvest was bad due to the weather people could
sometimes life- starve. They depended on it for food.
threatening

Farming included true They had to take care of oxen which were used for ploughing
looking after
animals

They made sure true They collected everything because they knew that when the
that they harvest was bad they could starve so they wasted nothing
collected every
piece of food
produced
Did Farmers Have a Hard Life?

Farmers had an awful life.

What factors made life awful compared to today?

1. Life or death and the weather

90% of farmers depended on how good the harvest was each summer. If it was too cold and wet for 2 or
three years in a row poor people starved to death.
Today we can import food from other countries if we run out.

2. Women’s Work
All women whether rich or poor had a spinning wheel in her home to spin wool from sheep into thread
to weave cloth for clothes and blankets. They had to do this in addition to other work.
Women have rights nowadays.

3. The Lord’s Work

As well as farming their own land the poor also had to farm the Lord’s land at least twice a week. witch
meant long hard work.
This cannot be imposed today.

4. Harvest Time
Everyone worked during harvest time – men, women and children on their hands and knees. Corn was
cut with a scythe and after cutting, women and children picked up every last piece of corn – nothing was
wasted.
5. Tools and Machines
There were no farming machines. The plough, pulled by oxen was the most advanced ‘machine’ they
had. The plough was pulled by an ox and steered by hand.
The seed was planted one by one by hand and the soil was broken up and turned by hitting them with
mallets (rounded broad hammers) called clod-breaking. This was exhausting work.
Today we have machines to do all this.
6. Wages
The wage rates went up during the middle ages because of population decline. The Black death killed off
50% of the population which meant there was no enough people to farm so others died from starvation.
Those who survived earned higher wages which meant ordinary people could afford better food and
clothing and could educate their children.
p.140-141 From Villages to towns (read and answer)

How did the population of England change?

The population increased between the 1000’s and the 1300’s and therefore villages turned into towns,
towns increases and more people lived in towns – a 10% increase from the 1000’s.

How are towns different from villages?

Towns had special privileges like holding markets that meant towns people could make more money but
the townspeople had to pay taxes to the king for these privileges. Populations where small.

A village had to apply to the king for the right to become a town and did not have easy access to
clothing, pottery, metal tools/weapons, bakers, butchers etc. like towns usually had.

Describe Lincoln in 1100 vs 1500.

1100
Lincoln town looked like a large village but had no markets. The towns people grew their crops nearby
and the population was below 5000.

1500
Population was over 5000. Lincoln town had 3 markets a week and a huge fair once a year. There were
lots of people as other people visited from neighbouring small towns and villages to sell their extra food
and to buy goods such as clothes, shoes, weapons, bread, sugar, spices, fish and pottery.