Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to history today with me Mrs Badhan.

We'll be starting a new inquiry of four lessons looking at the question, who held power in the mediaeval towns? In our first lesson of this four part inquiry, we'll be looking at the question, what was it like to live in a mediaeval town? For this lesson today, you will need a pen, a piece of paper and a calm quiet environment.

If you haven't quite got those things, press pause now, get yourself ready and press play once you're ready to get started.

Great, let's make a start.

In front of view now is an image of a sheep pen being tended to.

This image represents mediaeval rural life.

I expect you already know lots about what it was like to live in a rural area during the mediaeval period.

And I'm sure you know much about how the peasants had to work hard farming.

Today and in the next few lessons, we're going to find out what it was like for the small number of people who lived in the mediaeval towns.

Can you guess where this is? The caption of the image should give it away.

It's in York.

York is in the North of England, had a prominent mediaeval town.

And this is where our story will begin.

Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, York was substantially damaged and destroyed by the harrying of the North launch by William the Conqueror in response to regional revolts.

This is when lots of the areas were burnt down and destroyed.

Two castles were therefore put up in the city on either side of the river Ouse.

In time York became an important urban centre.

It was also the seat of where the Archbishop stayed and at times in the later 13th or 14th centuries, it was an alternative area for the Royal government.

York's Minster as you see in front of you, is renowned all around the world and is the largest mediaeval gothic cathedral in Northern Europe.

York prospered during much of the later mediaeval era, and this is reflected in the built environment.

20 mediaeval parish churches survive in a whole or in part that only eight of these are regularly used for worship.

The mediaeval city walls with their entrance gates, also known as bars, encompass virtually the entire city and survived to this day.

Here you can see a map of England and circled in pink is the area of York.

There were very few towns in mediaeval England and those that existed were very small by our standards.

Most people that lived in mediaeval England were village peasants, but religious centres did attract people in many developed into towns or cities.

Outside of London, the largest town in England where the cathedral cities of Lincoln, Canterbury, Chichester, Bath, Hereford and of course York.

These cities attracted all manners of people.

But especially traders and pilgrims. Throughout this inquiry, the time period we will be referring to is a mediaeval period.

And this time period lasts anywhere from the 5th to the 15th century.

This is the time period we will be referring to when we use the term, the mediaeval period.

Of course we know that the Norman invasion took place in 1066.

And this predominantly will be the time in which our story and our focus begins after the Norman invasion.

Going back and looking at York, what can we find out about the mediaeval times from looking at this city.

In the mediaeval period, York was home to great wealth but also great squalor.

It was noisy and crowded and the city was filled with narrow lanes crammed with houses, some had yards where they kept their pigs and other animals.

But then we'll also gardens and orchards within the city, and the open country and farmland was never really far away.

York was quite as smelly place where the butchers offal rotted in the ditches and streets.

Privies were built on the city moat and Ouse Bridge.

But there are lots of accounts which show York to be splendid and beautiful.

Particularly with the completion of the glorious Minster, which you see standing here, in all of its fineness in front of you.

Now before we go any further, I think it's a good idea here to remind ourselves of the structures of the society at this time.

Now, traditionally, in the rural areas we would have a hierarchical structure, which would follow the idea that the king sits at the top, followed by his noble men, his barons, knights and the peasants at the bottom of society.

This system would work by ensuring that you serve those above you in return for their protection.

In the towns the social structure was somewhat different.

This is because there was an emergence of different classes who were neither poor nor rich, but instead were fitting into a new sort of middle class per se.

This is due to the increase in development of trade.

The class system was not so neatly ordered either, as there were peasants who had travelled to the towns and were able to become free men.

The feudal system introduced by the Normans, was designed to govern the rural areas which could easily be controlled by the Lord.

But since this system was based upon exploitation of the labour and produce of the people, the system was unsuited to governing the larger towns where there were more complex economic activities.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, true urban centres were very few in England.

But during the early mediaeval period, a growing population and an increased number of merchants led to an increase in the importance of towns and therefore a new structure was needed.

Instead at the top of this new social scale were the merchants, lawyers and property owners who occupied responsible administrative positions, and below them were craftsmen, traders, and at the bottom of pile were the relatively unskilled workers.

Based on what you've just heard about the new social orders of the towns, I would now like you to press pause and have a go putting the following in a hierarchical order.

Press pause now and press play once you're ready to check your answers.

Okay great you could have gone for the following order.

This was taking into consideration some social groups that weren't so important in the towns.

So at the top we would have had the king and possibly wouldn't have played a prominent role in each town but ultimately the head of society followed by his noblemen.

Then the merchants which we talked about the upcoming class that was considered this new middle class in the towns.

Followed by butchers, who would have been skilled workers, followed by a town dweller who would have been somebody who resided in the town.

And then coming down towards the bottom end of this social hierarchy, we have the female brewer.

Thinking about the dynamics here of female versus male, and then having a lower status in society, which we will look at over the course of this inquiry.

And this last one here was sort of to throw you off a little bit, villeins of course did not live in the towns.

But when it comes to mediaeval society as a whole, they were at the bottom.

And it was just to get you to think about this dynamics between the difference in social status between those that lived in the town, and that those that lived in the countryside.

And of course, there was more status given to those that lived in the town, especially when peasants could leave their rural communities and live in towns and if they manage to reside in the town without being caught for a year and a day, they would become a free man.

So which of the following was not a mediaeval town, York, Lincoln, Canterbury or Milton Keynes? Great it was Milton Keynes was not a mediaeval town remember York Lincoln and Canterbury all had cathedrals.

And this therefore attracted many traders and pilgrims to these particular towns.

Which are the city walls entrance gates, known as, were they known as gates, bars, walls or the portcullis? Fantastic they were known as bars and I said that right at the beginning when we talked about the city walls of York.

Which new class was emerging in the towns, was it merchants, nobles, villeins or knights? Brilliant, it was the merchants.

Great now you have a greater understanding of what mediaeval towns were like, let's dive a bit deeper.

I'd like you to have a look at the source on the next slide and consider the following.

What is it saying and what does it suggest about your York? You go on to the next slide, have a look at the source.

Press pause and then press play once you're ready to discuss what you found.

Super so let's see what more we learned about mediaeval towns.

So the first thing we could learn Was that York was quite smelly.

May have also picked up on this word and the butchers offal rotted.

So that's usually the body parts that have been taken out of the animal which is rotting away in the ditches and the streets.

Privies were built on the city moat and Ouse Bridge, so that privies is talking about toilets that have been built on a city moat.

So it also goes on to talk about the great corruptions and the horrible and pernicious air.

So talking about the crime and the horrible air.

It also talks about the Patrick Pool being so deep in mire that it was unpassable.

So deep in filth, dirt and waste, and at the same time, the street paving was in utter disrepair.

So the street paving was falling apart.

So this starts painting a clear picture for us.

And the things that we should consider from this source so that the towns are not very clean, but trading is taking place.

We find that out because it talks about the butchers.

Crimes are being committed and the town just generally is not being very well looked after.

Super so let's see what more we can learn about the mediaeval towns.

If you press pause now, read the slides on the next page and answer the comprehension questions.

Once you've completed this, you can resume the video once you're finished, and we can go through these together.

So let's find out what you learned about mediaeval towns.

The first question was, how did people have fun in the mediaeval period? The second question was, what were some of the negative aspects of mediaeval life? Your third question was to list the reasons why disease was common in the mediaeval period.

And your fourth question was thinking about why there was a curfew and the word curfew meaning why there was a time limit a time constraint as to why people have to be in at home by a certain time.

Your challenge was then to look at the statements and work out which statements were true about mediaeval towns.

So let's have a look how you did.

Question number one, how did people have fun in mediaeval times? An acceptable answer would have been that they played games and listen to music.

Good answer, people had fun in the mediaeval times by playing games such as hammer throwing, bowling, archery, and wrestling.

They also would enjoy entertainment from minstrels, who would travel through towns playing music for them to listen to.

Question number two, what were some of the negative aspects of mediaeval life? An acceptable answer, negative aspects were that they had poor hygiene and crime was high.

A good answer, some of the negative aspects of life in the mediaeval period, were that they did not have a sewage system to dispose of waste.

This meant that the people at the town would often leave rubbish in the streets or in their gardens, which would be a hazard.

Furthermore, housing was made out of wood, which was highly flammable, especially as town dwellers would carry a naked flame at night to guide their way through the streets.

Lastly, crime rates were high, and there was no real police force to enforce the law and hold criminals accountable.

List the reasons why disease was common in the mediaeval period.

An acceptable answer, people did not dispose of waste correctly.

A good answer, people did not dispose of waste correctly, people lived in overcrowded conditions, water wells could be contaminated from the waste, people would be trading meat and other foods on the street where there was a poor sanitation.

You may have had other things to add to this list, and that's absolutely fine.

Four why was there a curfew? And the word curfew meaning a set time that people had to be back home by.

An acceptable answer, to keep people safe at nighttime.

Good answer, a curfew was imposed as the narrow streets would become dark at night.

During this time criminals would take this opportunity to commit crimes, as it would be hard to see and prevent being attacked, a curfew was imposed to help reduce crime.

Your challenge, which of the following statements are true about mediaeval towns? The statements that you had were, houses were made from brick, most people drank beer, people made whistles from geese leg bone, cows we used to eat the rubbish, there were no hospitals and women worked as brewers.

The correct answers, as you can see are in green.

Most people did drink beer because the water was too dirty and filthy, that it was safer to drink beer.

And yes, people made whistles from geese leg which you found out in the reading.

And it was acceptable for women to work as brewers.

There were hospitals during the mediaeval time, which we will go on to look at into our third lesson.

And it was mainly pigs that were used to eat rubbish.

And houses were mainly made from wood.

Great, now that you have learned so much about mediaeval towns in this lesson, I would like you to write a short description of a mediaeval town.

Think about what you could hear, see, and smell if you are walking through the streets of your mediaeval town.

You can press pause now and press play once you finish your short description.

In this lesson we have learned that there were both many positive and negative aspects of mediaeval towns.

They were the centre of trade and people were able to enjoy their leisure time.

Yet they were filthy ridden with disease and often crime was high in these areas.

we also learnt that the social structures were not so simple as what they were in the more rural locations.

Next lesson we will start looking further at these structures.

And we will consider who was able to come out on top within this new social order.

Thank you for taking part in our lesson on this inquiry, who held power in the mediaeval towns.

I hope to see you in our second lesson where we will start looking at who started to control these towns.

Until then I would absolutely love to see some of your description work.

So please if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram Facebook or Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnWithOak.

See you in lesson two.