Houses and furniture

Peasant families lived in one-room or two-room shacks. The shacks were made of wood, turf, and clay. The roofs were thatched. Fires burned in the centre of the earth floors. There were no chimneys, and there was no glass in the windows. In winter, the animals lived under the same roof as the people.

In the twelfth century, lords' houses were the same as peasants', only bigger. But by the year 1450, the manor house had become much grander. It was built of stone, and had tiled floors and glass windows. There were extra rooms for the lord and his family, and there was a separate kitchen, with a stone chimney.

Town houses were built in streets, and they were quite narrow. Rich merchants and master-craftsmen built extra storeys. The shop was on the ground floor, the family lived upstairs, and the servants slept in the attics. Often, the upper floors hung over the street.

Peasants' furniture was as simple as their houses. They had a trestle table, a few stools, and a chest to keep things in. They slept on straw mattresses on the floor. Even manor houses had only one chair. But lords and merchants had wooden beds with curtains, and tapestries to hang on the walls.

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 81