Medieval Living

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.”

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.

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.

This is one of the sites I really have enjoyed, and I wanted to put it back on here. Company of Artisans is a group out of the United Kingdom who make Medieval Tiles, among other things. They do demonstrations at school, fayres, and other events. The style of tiles they make are Encaustic Tiles, like so many of the ones you will see in castles, cathedrals and manor homes. It was quite the industry between the 13th and 16th centuries.

This is one project I might look at doing for my world history classes this next year – if anyone has any experience doing this sort of thing, please leave a comment so I can get in touch with you.

One of my newest contacts on here has a wonderful blog – dealling with a multitude of topics, Steven Till has put together a very nice series of discussions regarding Medieval History. The one that first caught my attention was a discussion of Hedingham Castle. I visited that site almost 20 years ago when I was stationed in England in the US Air Force as a military historian. All that is remaining is a rather austere keep. Steven’s blog gives a very nice history of the site and of those who lived there. I don’t see a reason to recite all of it here, so please, go visit Steven at StevenHill.com.

Rather then just stumble blindly around the internet, I think it would be interesting to find out what other people are interested in reading about. I’d be glad to dig around here and see what I can find that is intersting to me . . . but maybe that’s not so interesting to others. So . . . what do you think? I will do the research . . . tell me what you want to learn about.