Life In The Middle Ages
Towns grew strong, merchants and tradesmen flooded in from
across Europe bringing with them increased trading opportunities,
new skills and technologies, which in turn increased wealth and
created more opportunities for raising taxes. The leading
townspeople were created 'burgesses' and it was these men who set
up trades guilds and monopolised markets, in a sense they created
the first rules regulating trade. Growth was rapid and trade
international, pottery, foodstuffs and textiles from across the
continent and beyond have all been excavated on archaeological digs
across Lowland Scotland.
Street patterns usually took the form of a street linking church
and castle or castle and harbour with a centrally located
market with permanent stalls. Businesses and homes ran off this in
plots with some businesses such as blacksmiths located just outside
of the main settlement to avoid the risk of fire spreading (which
was common). Other businesses were also located on the outskirts
such as tanneries and brothels. Churches, hospitals (most
towns had a church run hospital by the 15th century as the influx
of pilgrims and returning crusaders had brought leprosy into
Scotland), hostels and cemeteries were located on roads leading
into towns and mills were situated next to the water source which
drove their wheels.
Streets were sometimes maintained and gravelled. Most houses would
have been simple, single story affairs made of wattle and timber
and clad with turf, clay or dung. Houses would also double as byres
as the inhabitants often shared them with their livestock although
by the 14th century many were fitted with sleeping quarters
partitioned off from the animals. Heating came from a central fire
and the floor was simply beaten earth with mats woven from bracken
or reeds or piles of heather used for sleeping on. Roofs were
thatched with straw, reeds or heather. Most homes would have little
in the way of furniture, perhaps a bench, some stools or a chest.
Some of the rich merchants and burgesses would have had grander
timber or stone buildings as their homes. The towns also controlled
huge stretches of arable land which surrounded them which was
ploughed and used for horticulture or used to graze
animals.
Trade
Scotland's trade was based on the export of wool, cattle, hides
and cured fish mainly to the Low Countries. Scotland had healthy
industries and did a booming trade with her neighbours until the
13th century which saw unstable times for Scotland's economy due to
an effective English blockade of trade, by sea and road, leaving or
entering Scotland.
Trades
Common trades in Scottish towns included
tanners, leatherworkers, fleshers, candlemakers,
millers, weavers, metalworkers, potters and labourers. Other
more specialist traders and craftsmen were evident though,
goldsmiths, merchants who dealt in exotic overseas goods and even
artists.
Food, Medicine and other useful
Crops
Ordinary people ate a mostly cereal based diet with oats and
barley being the staple crops. Flax was grown though to produce
linen and linseed oil. Other plants were cultivated or
collected for use in dying with bright yellows and reds being
popular colours. Also plants like opium poppies and deadly
nightshade were cultivated for use as painkillers. Hemp was grown
for rope and mosses were collected and used in various medicines
and also as a form of medieval toilet paper!
Although cattle were the most common type of livestock,
people also kept sheep, pigs, and goats, meat would be salted or
smoked to preserve it. Animals were valuable though and would not
have made up a large part of the diet of ordinary people. They
would rely on porridge, broth, rough barley bread (bannocks) and
ale. By far the most commonly grown vegetable was kail but others
were available such as onions, leeks, peas and beans. Commonly
picked plants such as sweet violets, wild garlic, parsley,
primroses and borage were used as herbs and flavourings. Hazelnuts
and berries such as elderberries, rowanberries, apples, cherries,
raspberries, blueberries and brambles were also plentiful and would
have been collected seasonally. Wild harvests were often a patchy
affair especially around c.1300 when like today Scotland was
undergoing a rapid climatic change and became colder, windier and
wetter, the subsequent deterioration in crop regularity brought
with it famine and disease.
The milk from cattle, sheep and goats could be made into
cheese and butter. Domestic geese and chickens provided eggs
although seabird or pigeon eggs too were eaten. Birds such as
gulls, puffins and curlews were also trapped for food. Bees were
kept for honey which was used to sweeten food. Being surrounded by
the sea a large part of the diet for many people was of
course fish and shellfish, with most types of both sea
and fresh water species being eaten fresh or smoked or salted for
later consumption. The sea also provided another resource; salt.
Salt was used not solely to flavour food as it is today but also to
preserve meat and fish and was therefore used in much larger
quantities than today. The town in south west Scotland which is
most associated with this marine industry is 'Saltcoats'. Kelp was
also collected by coastal communities for use as fuel or winter
feed for livestock.