Medieval Towns

During the Middle Ages most of the population in Europe lived in the countryside as farmers, because farming methods were inefficient and many people were needed to work on the land. As these methods improved, fewer people were needed, so more of them were able to leave their farms to practice another profession, trade, etc. As these people got together, they formed towns. The inhabitants of towns were free. They owed no obedience to the lord as farmers did, but had to pay taxes to the lord who owned the land were the town stood. The town government was led by a lord mayor and a council, whom usually were among the wealthiest of the tradesmen and craftsmen. A town was usually surrounded by big stone walls. People lived in tall, narrow wooden houses, usually with more than one floor. The ground floor normally was used as the owner’s shop or area to practice his profession. The other floors were the living spaces of the household, and also the place where they kept their animals. Roads in the towns were narrow and long. Before the 13th century, streets were the responsibility of each household. Later on when the council started taking more responsibility, new roads were often built over the previous ones, without bothering to clean them. In London ancient Roman ruins are found at 20 feet below today’s street level. Even though people were supposed to be responsible for the part of the street in front of their house, they never showed much concern and never tried to keep it clean. The only exceptions were during an outbreak of the plague or a royal visit. This wasn’t the only problem for sanitation in the medieval cities. Main drains ran along the side of the streets and people threw dirty water out in their general direction. Stables opened into the streets and livestock like pigs were left to roam. Many people had pigs because they were cheap and a good source of food, but of course they had nowhere to keep them, so they were left to wander. Most houses were made out of wood and were built close to one another, with roofs made of flammable material and beds of straw. All these factors made fires very common. During the summer each householder was obliged to keep a full vessel of water outside of his home in case of an emergency.