The Village was usually small with only a handful of cottages. A village was large if it had as many as two dozen cottages containing about 100 people. Besides the cottages and the manor house or castle there was usually a mill and a church. There were no shops in the village, although several villagers were part-time carpenters, smiths or wheelwrights. In some villages there was an ale-house. The ale was thin and watery and not a strong drink.
Most peasants had simple meals. For breakfast they might have had bread and ale and the same again at midda.y with a lump of cheese. In the evening they had the same basic food of bread, cheese and ale but it might have been supplemented (if they were lucky) with meat, salt bacon, fish, rabbit, eggs, vegetables, poultry, la
rks, thrushes, peas, oatcakes or beans. But for most peasants bacon, meat, milk and eggs were the chief extras.
Village life was hard because the peasants were not free and could be unjustly punished by the lord of the manor in the manorial court. All the village disputes were settled in this court and the decision of the lord of the manor was final.
The villager could not claim all the corn he grew for his own use as the Church took about 1/10th of what he had grown. This was usually collected in the fields and taken to the tithe barn near the Church. The priest was also a farmer with his own strips of land. Even on Sundays the peasant was sometimes expected to do labour services for the manor. Sunday was a holy day or holiday. The other main holidays in the year were at Easter, on May Day (maypole dancing), and at Christmas. Since Christmas was usually a period when there was little to do in the fields, the peasant had more chance to enjoy himself. If he was very lucky, he might have been able to share in some of the festivities at the manor with yule log fires, holly, games, pranks and a feast. What spare time he had in winter might have been devoted to wood carving in the gloom of his hut-making handles for spades, baskets, shepherd's crooks, stools and flails for threshing.
Discuss all these questions on the History Forum
1. Why do you think the villages were usually small?
2. What animals and crops were needed by the villager to produce his main foods?
3. Why do you think the peasants may have looked forward to Harvest time?
4. How is Harvest time still celebrated today?
England History : Village Life in Middle Ages written by Monique Barb for FamousWhy.com
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