Medieval Britain and the people's health, c.1250-c.1500 - OCR BLiving conditions in medieval Britain - towns

Living conditions were somewhat different in the towns compared to the countryside. Broadly, they were less healthy places to live, as people lived closer together. However, there were some health benefits to living in towns.

Food

Diet depended on wealth, although living in a town opened up more variety for people.

Health benefits

• The market was the centre of town life. People with regular access to the market probably had a more varied diet.
• Street vendors sold hot food as well as herbs and spices.
• Taverns brewed ale and cider, which were cleaner than the water.

Dangers to health

• The same carts used to collect rubbish from the middens were also used to bring food to market.
• Vendors and taverns often made pies from meat that was rancid. Rancid food smelled and tasted unpleasant because it was stale and old.
• Drunkenness was a common problem.

Water

As in the countryside, people in medieval towns had water supplies nearby. However, this water was not necessarily clean, and that could have a negative impact on health.

Health benefits

• The Church supplied water through a conduit. This was a pipe leading to a water fountain, which everyone could access. By 1500, as towns grew and became wealthier, town councils started to organise this themselves.
• Water carriers also sold water from door to door.

Dangers to health

• Waste was often thrown in streams, so all water was likely to be contaminated. Water-borne illnesses such as dysentery - which caused severe diarrhoea - were common.
• No one had pipes to bring water to their houses although this was the case in the countryside too.

Homes

Houses in towns tended to be more tightly packed together than those in rural areas. Only the wealthy had their own gardens.

Health benefits

• Richer people did what they could to limit health problems, such as paying for drains and streets to be cleaned. This benefitted everyone, rich and poor alike.

Dangers to health

• Houses had thatched roofs where mice, insects and rats lived although this was the case in the countryside too.
• Houses were close together. In order to provide more floor space, upper floors were often wider than lower floors. This meant they hung over the street, shutting out light.

Waste

Towns had ways of dealing with household waste, but human waste was a bigger challenge. The lack of proper sanitation posed a significant threat to health in the towns.

Health benefits

• Many towns provided public toilets around the market.
• By 1500, most towns employed rakers and carters to dispose of rubbish outside the town walls.
• Also by 1500, most butchers and fishmongers were ordered to do their cutting on the edge of the town.
• People were fined for keeping rubbish outside their house for more than four days.
• Some cesspits were made from stone and watertight, which made them more effective, although these were expensive.
• Gongfermers took cesspit waste away at night to sell to farmers.

Dangers to health

• Traders such as brewers, butchers, fishmongers and tanners caused pollution in the streets and rivers.
• At the end of a market day, the streets were full of food waste and animal dung.
• Most people shared cesspits. Many cesspits had no lining and excrement would leak into other houses’ cellars.
• Some gongfermers emptied waste into local streams.