Life in Early Medieval Chesham
What was life like in Chesham in 1257? This was the year in which King Henry III granted Hugh de Vere, Earl of Oxford and Lord of the Manor of Chesham Higham, the right to hold an annual fair and a weekly market in Chesham. Hugh, like the King's other Lords, was obliged to provide men and equipment for military campaigns - in 1257 this would most likely be against the Welsh or in local disputes. Hugh's tenants, the inhabitants of the Manor of Chesham Higham, were obliged to fight on his behalf when called upon. They also paid taxes to him in money, goods or labour and had to work on his land as well as their own holding. Corn (wheat) had to be ground at Hugh's mill - the Lord's Mill - a service paid for with a portion of the tenant's corn. Men with daughters paid a tax to the Lord on the occasion of her marriage.
The majority of people, even those who lived in the town, worked in the fields surrounding Chesham. Town Field,
roughly where Chesham Cottage Hospital was until recently, was one of several large fields. Each field was divided
into long narrow strips and each strip was held by a tenant. The tenants agreed which fields would be planted with
crops and which left as grass for animals to feed on. Each year, the fields' use was changed so that manure from
animals grazed on the land fertilized the following year's crop. Some fields might be left fallow (unused) to help the
soil recover and provide good pasture for animals to eat the next year.
When not working in the fields, the people of Chesham enjoyed socialising with their neighbours just as we do today. Social as well as religious life centred on St Mary's Church, probably the only stone building in the town. The Catholic Church calendar marked the changing seasons and saints' days with fast days and holy days (holidays). No-one was allowed to eat meat on fast days, although fish was permitted. Local traders took advantage of the crowds taking part in the festivities to set up stalls in the church yard. When the charter for the three-day fair was granted in 1257 it was timed to coincide with the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Chesham's patron saint, and one of the most important annual events in Chesham at the time.
Walking from the Church towards the new market place in 1257 you would have passed low timber-framed buildings with walls made of wattle and daub (a mixture of straw, clay, hair and dung stuck to a framework of sticks) and roofs of thatch. As you passed by the houses you would have been able to smell wood smoke given off by cooking fires, animals in the yards and cesspits mingled with odours from tanneries, dyer's vats and breweries. The dwellings of ordinary people were small and by today's standards cramped. Whole families lived in one or two rooms so there was not much privacy and most people would have had to share a bed with other family members. The better off would have had a mattress stuffed with wool on a wooden bed frame, the poorer people had to make do with a sack of prickly straw for a bed.
If you looked inside a house you would see a hearth in the centre of the main living room. There was no chimney and the smoke from the fire drifted up through the roof, perhaps helping to smoke and preserve strips of pork or fish hanging there. The floors were beaten earth covered with rushes (or rush matting), which might be replaced once or twice a year. The rushes must have accumulated a considerable amount of food and other debris and the good housewife sprinkled sweet-smelling herbs like lavender over the floors regularly. Only the very wealthy had tiled floors and glass windows - everyone else kept the wind and the rain out with a cloth made waterproof with resin or tallow (animal fat) or with wooden shutters. On winter evenings the only light would have been from the flickering fire or tallow candles.
Sitting down to a meal with a medieval Chesham family you would probably be served a piece of course, gritty bread and some hard cheese or a shared bowl of stew made from barley grains, beans, root vegetables and perhaps some green vegetables. On feast days you might be lucky enough to have a dish made with eggs or some meat. Diners used their fingers and brought their own utensils to the meal - a knife to cut food up and a spoon for soups - and a piece of stale bread served as a plate. The 'plate' (called a trencher) was eaten at the end of the meal - very eco-friendly! If there was any food left over that could not be used in the next meal it would be offered to any beggars that called at the house or fed to the household's pigs and chickens.
You would be surprised to see everyone, children and adults, drinking ale. Although weak, the alcohol in the ale made it a safer drink than water drawn straight from wells or from the streams that flowed in and around the town, which, at times, must have been badly polluted with effluent from industrial activities like tanning leather or dying cloth. Animals and people lived close together, sometimes under the same roof, and the inhabitants of Chesham must have been tempted to dispose of domestic and animal waste in the easiest way possible - by throwing it in the nearest stream.
Resuming your walk down Church Street towards the Market Square you would have to take care to avoid horse dung and other animal droppings as well as rubbish thrown out from the houses. Streets were not paved and were dusty in summer and muddy in wet weather when the deep ruts made by the wheels of passing carts filled with water. Both 1256 and 1257 were bad years for rain and damaged crops led to famine in some parts of the country. Nevertheless, the newly granted Market was located on the banks of the Chess close to where Church Street meets the stream that flows from Higham Mead. The Market Square must have been very wet after heavy rain when the stream flooded - as it still does from time to time even though it now runs through a brick culvert.
On reaching the Market you would be able to walk among the stalls and the street vendors selling animals, pots, trinkets, cloth, shoes and all manner of goods. Some probably sold beer and food to eat in the street. There would have been few buildings in the Market Square at this time - the market traders' stalls gradually became more substantial until their premises became permanent. As people came from further away inns became established to accommodate the visitors overnight. By the 19th century no less than six inns and public houses surrounded Chesham's Market Place.
Copyright
Chesham Museum - The Stables website and its contents are protected by copyright.
You are welcome to access, download and print pages from the site for non-commercial personal
or educational uses. If you wish to discuss commercial use of the material on this site please
contact Chesham Museum - The Stables via the Guestbook for advice.
© Chesham Museum - The Stables 2004, 2005, 2006