Life in a medieval manor village Farming in the Middle Ages Peasants in the Middle Ages
A manor village
peasants’ houses
peasants working in the fi elds
mill
The vast majority of people in the Middle Ages lived in the countryside. Most were peasants (people who worked on a lord’s land) and lived in villages called manors that were owned by a lord or knight. Each manor was quite small, usually made up of about fi fty houses for the peasants, as well as the manor house of the lord or knight and the church of the local priest.
A manor usually had a mill for grinding the wheat to make bread, a blacksmith’s forge to make tools and weapons and a house for the bailiff, the man who ran the manor in the lord’s absence. He was responsible for collecting taxes and keeping law and order in the village.
Most manors had woodland around them. The peasants could collect wood here to build their homes and make fi res. However, they were strictly forbidden to hunt the animals in the forest and they would face very harsh punishments – such as losing a hand – if they were caught! Only the lord was allowed to hunt in the forests.
Farming on the manor
Farming was the main occupation of the peasants on a medieval manor. They used the open fi eld system of farming:
• The land for crops was divided into three huge fi elds. Each fi eld was divided into long strips of land and tended by different families. Each family had strips in each of the three fi elds.
• They practised crop rotation – in other words, the crop planted in each fi eld changed each year. 67
