Towns Flashcards
(12 cards)
Tell me about the medieval towns
Towns in the middle ages were much smaller than towns today.
Most were built on rivers or on a coast that people could make money from trade.
Most had only 1000 people and the largest had only about 5000 people.
A town needed a charter from the king.
This was a contract where the town was granted freedom to have its own affairs but had to pay taxes to the king.
House in the towns
The average person’s house in a town was made of wood.
They were usually several stories high.
The higher floor is usually stuck out over the streets which blocked the Sun and made the street very dark.
Only important buildings the church or the town hall and richer peoples homes were made of stone.
Craftsmen in towns
Craftsman had their shops or workshops on the ground floor. With their family living on the floor above and the bathrooms on the floor above that.
Gardens in the towns
Many houses have back gardens where people grew vegetables and kept animals such as pigs, hands and cows.
People kept dung keeps in their gardens.
Fire was a constant danger, due to all the wooden buildings.
Towns imposed curfew, which meant people had to extinguish their fires at sundown.
Tell me about houses in the middle ages
The person’s house was made of wood. They were usually several stories high. Behind your floors usually stuck out over the street which block the street is very dark. Only important building is like the church or town hall and rich peoples homes were made of stone. Many houses had back gardens where people grew vegetables and kept animals such as pigs, hens and cows. People kept dung keeps in our gardens where they threw some of their waist, especially food waste. Fire was a constant danger due to all the wooden buildings so sometimes post curfew which when people had to extinguish their fire at sundown
Tell me about craftsman’s houses
Craftsman had their shops or workshops on the ground floor with their family living on the floor as above. Houses had no toilet toilets instead people used chamber plots.
Streets Medieval towns
The streets were a little more the mud tracks with an open drain in the middle. They were incredibly dirty as people emptied the contents of their chamber outside each morning. Animals often roamed the streets. Life generally was very cramped and people lived very close together. This meant that disease could spread very easily.
Tell me about the guilds
The craftsmen of each town formed guilds organisations of people who worked in the same trade. Guilt charged a fee for membership. A guilt set standards for the quality of members work you could be fined for substandard work they set prices in wages and decided who could trade in the town and cared for the old and sick members and for the families of dead members.
Tell me about craftsman
Craftsman produced the everyday goods that the town needed from food to tools to close examples include butchers bakers blacksmith carpenters stonemasons Coopers Weavers and Tanners (leather makers). Across them would open the shop in the ground floor of his house. As most people could not read his shop sign was a picture not words for example a fishmonger might use a fish as a symbol. Shops of the same trade for usually often found on the same street.
How to become a master craftsman
At around 12 a boy became an apprentice who lived with a master craftsman slept in the workshop receive no pay and was often treated harshly. After seven years he became a journeyman. Now he could be paid for his work I could travel to different workshops in towns for work and experience. Eventually he applied to become a master craftsman. He created a masterpiece the best example of his work and if the guild decided it was good enough he was accepted and could open his own workshop train apprentices and sell his work
Tell me about the girls and boys of the town
Girls were taught by their mothers to cook clean make clothes and look after a household. They were often married out of the age of 12 to a man their father had chosen. Some girls did train with their father to become a craft woman but this was very very rare in the middle ages.
But we usually tuck up their father’s trade having begun his father‘s workshop a boy became a craftsman
Tell me about the clothes
Women were full length tunics and men were tunics with trousers.
