Medieval Living

A few days ago, I was writing to a homeschool parent, and I mentioned that one of our future goals here at Medieval Living is to create a Medieval living village. While not set in stone, we are focusing on 13th and 14th centuruy England for our inspiration.
Now anyone who has spent a little time in England would know that there are any number of villages to use as a model. One village of particular note is Elton. Elton is in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, west of the A1 near Peterborough. Now I know a little about this village, as I lived not far from there while serving as a historian for the US Air Force at nearby RAF Mildenhall. Actually, I live on the east side of the A1 in Yaxley – another village with an ancient past. But Elton has a well documented and researched past, due to some excellent records from nearby Ramsey Abbey. Also, it has been the subject of much scholarly research by Frances and Joseph Gies, who wrote the book Life in a Medieval Village, which is an account of the village of Elton. (The authors have also written several other Medieval era texts, most recently Daily Life in Medieval Times.)
Elton has existed for nearly 1000 years, having undergone numerous changes over the years. As technology changed, so did the village. The Romans certainly left their mark on the area even before the village was settled, as the nearby A1 highway is founded on one of great Roman roads built during the Roman occupation somewhere around 300 to 400 AD. By the time of the 13th century, the manor had become central to village life. This was an era of population growth and prosperity (at least for the lord of the manor).
So will we model our village after Elton? It certainly would be a good starting place, considering the descriptive information available. But we still have a long way to go before we make an firm decisions . . . after all, we’re still going through the initial growing pains of chainmail weaving and pennywhistle classes.