Medieval Living

Well, it’s August, and I said in July that this is when I would get back to blogging and developing programs for Medieval Living. So . . .here I am.
I enjoyed a recent article in the Rio Rancho Observer about David Andrews. David is a 52-year-old author from Rio Rancho who recently published a book about 18th century Scotland. According to the article, Catching the Stone “is about men who are willing to die for their integrity, their honor, and their way of life. It is about the evil men do and the good which they’re capable of doing. And it is about men who value their heritage as a living thing they only wish to see passed on to others when they go.” What a wonderful story line – especially for us here at Medieval Living, as we are very much interested in promoting the spirit of chivalry and civility in our world.

I plan on heading down to the local Barnes and Noble and picking up a copy – the online price is under $20, so the in-store price shouldn’t be too much more. I will post a book review after I’ve given it a read.

So . . . tomorrow I will begin scheduling some activities for Medieval Living – looks like my schedule will force most classes to be held in the first part of the week, as I’m obligated during Thursday and Friday. What am I obligated with? Well, I’ve been moonlighting over at The Saint James Tea Room, working in the kitchen doing a varity of things – mostly baking, which I seem to have a natural knack for. What I enjoy most about the “tea room” is . . well, actually there are several things . . . the concept for the “tea room” is to recreate a sense of civility, to create an environment where people can eat in a relaxed, peaceful, and elegant manner. I like that! They also are extremely supportive of homeschool students – in fact, many of the servers are from homeschool families. It is a great place for them to develop some employment skills and to learn how to interact with people in a professional setting. I like that too! It’s very refreshing to have a business that is truly intersted in social responsibility while at the same time providing a wonderful dining experience for the community. Actually, it’s a four-star dining experience – I would encourage any of my readers to contact the Saint James Tea Room and make a reservation for a wonderful meal.

In my last post I mentioned the work of Frances and Joseph Gies, who have written several books regarding life in Medieval times. I also found an online resource that might be of interest to homeschool families. Also in Cambridgeshire is the village of Grantchester. Professor Frans ven Liere of Calvin College of Grand Rapids Michigan, has taken Grantchester and used it as a backdrop for a quick study in the manorial system during the 12th and 13th centuries. While not very detailed, Grantchester Medieval Village does give an overview of the role of the manor, the church, and the fields as they pertain to life in the Medieval era.
There is also a link to the modern day Grantchester, which includes a digital version of the British A to Z road map – I had not seen this yet, so for me, its a great find.

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.

Each fall here in Albuquerque, one of the local farms near the Rio Grande creates a maze in one of their corn fields. It’s always a popular attraction – people seem to enjoy being perplexed by the puzzle – kids scream and giggle, teens hold hands and try to find a “secluded” spot, parents search frantically for missing kids, and old folks either meander joyfully along the pathway or scoff at having agreed to participate in such foolishness! It’s a well known fact that mazes have been around for a few years . . . generation after generation have enjoyed solving them. I remember as a child, the story of the Minotaur living in the Cretan Labyrinth. The purpose of the labyrinth was to contain the Minotaur so that it would not pose any threat in the world. Later in the story, Theseus, the son of Poseidon, dispatches the Minotaur. But the use of the word “labyrinth” always puzzled me, as I thought it was somehow different then a “maze”.

I found an excellent site that deals with that very subject . . . entitled “Labyrinthos“, the site serves as a labyrinth and maze resource center . . . never knew there was such a thing! Anyway, it seems that the difference between a maze and a labyrinth is that, “to qualify as a maze, a design must have choices in the pathway,” while “labyrinths have one pathway that leads inexorably from the entrance to the goal, albeit often by the most complex and winding of routes.” So, now I know the difference.
I think making a maze or a labyrinth would be a fun summer project for the homeschool groups – maybe just use stones or some other “marker” to delineate the path. Maybe we could hold a competition between groups of students to see who can devise the most complicated maze. Then make the other teams walk through the maze to see who can solve them the fastest. Sounds fun!

While I was digging around the internet on my previous post, Medieval Fishing, I took a closer look at the online source of the original research. Now this is a little more academic then I tend to get on my posts, but for those who are interested and don’t know about this, I found that the ArchSearch website has volumes 1 through 50 of Medieval Archaeology available online in PDF format. Funded by the Society for Medieval Archaeological, there are additional documents, such as Medieval Britain and Ireland (from 1956 to 2006) also in PDF format.

Like I said, this stuff isn’t found on my usual reading list, but for anyone doing some serious research, the sources may be of value.

It’s supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow . . . if there’s enough to cancel school, I’ll spend part of the day researching some new blogs, as well as working on the monk’s benches for my daughter, my newest nine-men morris board, and the rigid heddle for my tapestry loom. I won’t lie . . . hope it snows like Hell!

When I was a historian with the U.S. Air Force at RAF Alconbury, England, my family lived in a large village to the north of the base. My children were enrolled in the village C of E school, which was actually a very decent school inspite of some cultural differences. One of the things I enjoyed most about the school’s approach to learning was its hands-on curriculum. One of the many activities that my children were able to participate in was a week long stay at the Jorvik Viking Center in York. During their stay, which involved tours of the museum and dig, they learned about daily Viking life and had the opportunity to experience it – living and working in a mock-up of a Viking village! Very cool! I also had the chance to visit the museum and dig – worth visiting if you find yourself in York, England.

Not far from the Jorvik facility, a new “find” was being explored . . . a 14/15th century timber framed house, complete with a courtyard, great hall, “great chamber” and more – Barley Hall. Unfortunately for me, the refurbishment of this building, which had been hid behind an office building facade, would not be complete until several years after my return to the states. I hope some day that I can visit again. Here is a description of the struture, “borrowed” from the Barley Hall website:

The building has now been lovingly restored to its original splendour with stunning high ceilings, beautiful exposed timber frames, and possibly the only horn window in England. It has been decorated to replicate what it would have looked like as the Snawsell home around 1483 and boasts a magnificent Great Hall. Visitors to Barley Hall can make themselves at home and sit on the chairs and handle the objects and experience what it would have been like to live in Medieval England.

Oh my – as we develop our plans here at Medieval Living for a living history museum, I can picture having such a building in which to hold classes and perhaps allow students to experience a little of Medieval life.

My daughter, Melissa, and her family are planning a trip to England this summer – I have put Barley Hall on their “must see” list – and expect brochures, photos, notes and sketches!!! Wish I could sneak into one of her suitcases!

One of the goals we have for Medieval Living is to create a living village for students to visit and learn about crafts and trades common to the Medieval era. Well just yesterday I came upon an interesting website – while not a physical Medieval living village, it still has some very interesting eduational applications! Referred to as the “Yalding Project“, it is a large scale lesson on life in Medieval England during the 14th century. Yalding sounds like the typical Medieval village, with church, a bridge, manor houses and courts, hop farms and more. Some 29 lessons are available, along with supporting documents, lesson guides and reference works. I hope to spend more time reading through this very interesting set of lessons – anyone interested in teaching Medieval history, whether high school, college, home school or otherwise, should find this site interesting and beneficial!!!

Oh so very nice! Stumbled upon this very nice collection of Medieval documents at The John Rylands University Library of the University of Manchester. Apparently they have been working diligently to digitize their entire collection – some 5,500 images! Now it appears that you need to download a client viewer, and you need a user name and password to view; however, the page linked above includes these for visitors – thank you! I will spend more time reviewing this site – but dinner is served so best not to upset the cook!

Now this is something that I find very interesting and appealing – the Medieval village. Camlann Medieval Village is a non-profit educational organization which provides a wide variety of activities, from Medieval artisans to dinner theatres and banquets. They also have a library and research center that houses a nice collection of texts, both primary and secondary. Schools are invited to do field trips to the site.

One of their web pages gives a very concise statement of why it is important to learn about Medieval history:
“Not only colorful and fascinating, the accomplishments of the middle ages are the bedrock foundations of western society. Our language, values, customs, religions, governments, legal systems, calendars, astronomy, mathematics, tools, music, literature, art, fashions, architecture, even our personalities, are deeply rooted in European and Middle Eastern traditions in those formative times.”

Camlann Medieval Village

From their site, I gather that although historical accuracy is of concern, Camlann Medieval Village is also entertaining, as witnessed by the many plays and dramatizations performed there. Having fun while learning – what a novel idea!!! I think some of my students will be reminding me of that statement later this year . . . like right before I give them an exam! At any rate, visit the Camlann Medieval Village site . . . and if you find yourself in Washington state, stop by their facilities there and pay them a visit. (And send me a report of what you did there – would love to hear about it!!!)

I admit I had not heard of this group before. I happened upon their website while researching for living history groups. This particular group, Regia Anglorum, is a serious Medieval history organization – emphasis on authenticity! With a focus on the period from 950AD to 1066AD, Regia Anglorum takes a hard-nose approach to Medieval reenactment. If it isn’t documentable, it isn’t allowed. Period.

Now while I enjoy the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), I realized that the “anachronism” part allows for drifts from historical accuracy. An encampment item might look like a wooden chest, but inside one will find a Coleman ice chest. Practical, yes; authentic, no! Such a contrivance would not be allowed with Regia Anglorum.

Wychurst - Regia Anglorum's longhall

One of the items of interest was the construction of a late Anglo-Saxon period manor house. Within a one acre ditch-and-bank enclosure is a historically accurate longhall. Measuring some 20 meters by 10 meters by 10 meters high, this construction project spanned 6 to 7 years in site develpment and erection of the timbers and trusses. Using primarily dovetail joinery to hold it together, the structure is made from locally grown oak trees. I am going to borrow a picture from their site – I hope they don’t mind.

Anyway – a very cool site – lots of pictures and informative articles and links.