LIFE IN CELTIC TIMES
About 650 BC the Celts introduced into into England and they made the first swords. Warfare was common during the iron age and many hill forts (fortified settlements) were built at that time. (Although there were also many open villages and farms). The Celts fought from horses or light wooden chariots. They threw spears and fought with swords. The Celts had wooden shields and some wore chain mail.
Most of the Celts were farmers although were also many skilled craftsmen. Some Celts were blacksmiths (working with iron), bronze smiths, carpenters, leather workers and potters. (The potter’s wheel was introduced into Britain c.150 BC). Celtic craftsmen also made elaborate jewellery of gold and precious stones. Furthermore objects like swords and shields were often finely decorated. The Celts decorated metal goods with enamel. The Celts also knew how to make glass and they made glass beads.
Celtic society was hierarchical. At the top was a class of nobles headed by a king or chieftain. Below them were the craftsmen (of whom metalworkers were the most important). Then came the farmers who provided the food supply and also fought for the chief. There was also a class of slaves in Celtic England. However the Celts were divided into tribes. There was no political unity among them and a great deal of fighting.
The Celts grew crops in rectangular fields. They raised pigs, sheep and cattle. They stored grain in pits lined with stone or wicker and sealed with clay. The Celts also brewed beer from barley.
Trade with Europe was common. Metals like copper, tin, iron and lead were exported from England. Wool, cloth, skins and grain were also exported. Luxury goods like fine pottery and expensive metal goods were imported from Europe. At first the Celts used iron bars as a form of currency but by about 50 BC they were using gold coins.
The Celts lived in round houses. They were built around a central pole with horizontal poles radiating outwards from it. They rested on vertical poles. Walls were of wattle and daub and roofs were thatched. Around the walls inside the huts were benches, which also doubled up as beds. The Celts also used low tables.
LIFE IN ROMAN BRITAIN
Roman Towns
After the first century AD the Celts who lived in what is now England were, to a certain extent, Romanised. Many towns appeared. Some were created deliberately. Others grew up by Roman forts as the garrisons provided markets for townspeople's goods. Roman towns were usually laid out in a grid pattern. Streets were often covered in gravel. When people walked on the gravel it became compacted. Very often streets had drains at the sides.
At first Roman towns were unprotected. Then in the late 1st and 2nd centuries fortifications were built. They consisted, at first, of ditches with earth ramparts and wooden palisades. Later many towns had stone walls.
In the centre of Roman towns was a rectangular space called the Forum. It was lined by shops and by a public building called the basilica. Markets were also held on the forum. In the towns another important building was the public baths. In Roman times people went to the baths not just to get clean but also to socialise. Roman Baths consisted of a frigidarium of cold room, a Tepidarium or warm room and a caldarium or hot room. You usually finished with a dip in a cold pool.
To clean themselves Romans rubbed their skin with oil and scraped it off with a tool called a strigil.
Larger towns also had an amphitheatre where 'sports' such as cock fighting were held and sometimes gladiators fought to the death. Some Roman towns also had theatres.
The Romans gambled with dice. They also played board games. Roman children played with wooden or clay dolls. They also played ball games.
In the late 1st and 2nd centuries the Romans practices cremation. However in the 3rd century they began to bury the dead. Citizens were buried in cemeteries outside the walls. Many Roman towns also had public toilets.
Roman towns were small by our standards. It is not known exactly how big they were but London may have had a population of around 35,000. Towns like Colchester and Cirencester probably had between 10,000 and 12,000 inhabitants. Most towns were smaller with only 3,000-5,000 people.
Roman Britain was, of course, an agricultural society where most people made their living from farming (although there were many craftsmen). Only a small minority of the population (probably around 10%) lived in towns.
A Rich Roman's Life
Meanwhile upper class Celts adopted the Roman way of life. They built villas modelled on Roman buildings and they enjoyed luxuries such as mosaics and even a form of central heating called a hypocaust. Wealthy Romans also had wall paintings called murals in their houses. In their windows they had panes of glass. Of course poorer Romans had none of these things. Their houses were simple and plain and the main form of heating was braziers.
For the wealthy furniture was very comfortable. It was upholstered and finely carved. People ate while reclining on couches. Oil lamps were used for light. Furthermore some people had a piped water supply. Water was brought into towns in aqueducts they went along lead pipes to individual houses.
The sons and daughters of well to do Romans went to primary school to learn to read and write and do simple arithmetic. Only boys went to secondary school where they would learn geometry, history, literature and oratory (the art of public speaking).
Roman boys and girls wore a kind of necklace called a bulla. It consisted of a charm inside a pouch. It was worn around the neck. A boy wore his until he reached manhood. A girl discarded hers when she got married. For rich children the bulla might be made of gold.
For the rich luxuries like wine and olive oil were imported.
Food In Roman Britain
The Romans also introduced new foods into Britain, among them celery, cabbages, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, broad beans and walnuts. Romans cooked on charcoal stoves. Olive oil was imported. So were olives, figs and grapes. Wine was also imported (although the Romans attempted to grow vines in Britain).
The Romans were also very fond of fish sauce called liquamen. They also liked oysters, which were exported from Britain.
A Roman dining room was called a triclinium. The Romans ate a breakfast of bread and fruit called the ientaculum. At midday they ate a meal called the prandium of fish, cold meat, bread and vegetables. The main meal was called the cena and was eaten in the evening.
Transport in Roman Britain
The Romans are also famous for the network of roads they built across Britain, which remained centuries after they departed. Rich people travelled by horse or on long journeys by covered wagon. Sometimes they were carried in litters (seats between two long poles).
Poor Romans
However Roman rule probably made little difference to most poor Celts, especially in the north and extreme southwest of England. For them life went on much as it had before. Their houses remained simple huts.
Like the Celts before them and the Saxons after them the Romans kept slaves. A slave's life was, no doubt, horrid. He or she was simply a piece of property and could be bought and sold like an animal. Most people probably treated their slaves reasonably well simply to keep them working efficiently. However, no doubt some masters were cruel. Probably slaves who worked in mines were the worst off. However some slaves managed to gain their freedom or were given their freedom by their masters.
Roman Soldiers
In the first century the Roman legionary wore segmented armour (lorica segmentata). He threw a spear called a pilum and fought with a short sword called a gladius. He was protected by a curved rectangular shield. There were also auxillary soldiers, both infantry and cavalry. When they finished their service they became Roman citizens.
By the third century cavalry had become much more important. The Roman army needed mobility to fight the Saxons who were making 'hit and run' raids on Britain. The Romans built a line of forts along the 'Saxon Shore' from Portsmouth Harbour to the Wash to fight them.
Roman Religion
The Romans were usually tolerant in religion but they destroyed the Druids. The Druids had great political and social influence. The Romans probably saw them as a threat.
However although the Druid priesthood was abolished the Celtic people continued to worship their traditional gods and goddesses. The Romans introduced their own gods but they were often very similar to the Celtic ones. In fact they were so similar temples were often dedicated to both the Celtic god and the Roman equivalent.
The Romans also introduced religions from the east. By the 3rd century Mithraism was popular. It involved the worship of the Persian god Mithras, god of light and the sun.
By the second century there were Christians in Roman Britain. The Romans persecuted Christians but we only the names of three Christian martyrs. St Alban was martyred at a Roman town called Verlamium. (Later in history another town was built by it and named St Albans). We also know the names of Aaron and Julius but little else about them. Persecution of Christians ended in 312 when Constantine converted to the new faith. In 395 Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
LIFE IN SAXON TIMES
Saxon Society
Everyday life in Saxon times was hard and rough even for the rich. Society was divided into three classes. At the top were the thanes, the Saxon upper class. They enjoyed hunting and feasting and they were expected to give their followers gifts like weapons. Below them were the churls. Some churls were reasonably well off. Others were very poor. However at least they were free. Below them were a class of slaves called thralls. Their lives were very hard.
About 650 BC the Celts introduced into into England and they made the first swords. Warfare was common during the iron age and many hill forts (fortified settlements) were built at that time. (Although there were also many open villages and farms). The Celts fought from horses or light wooden chariots. They threw spears and fought with swords. The Celts had wooden shields and some wore chain mail.
Most of the Celts were farmers although were also many skilled craftsmen. Some Celts were blacksmiths (working with iron), bronze smiths, carpenters, leather workers and potters. (The potter’s wheel was introduced into Britain c.150 BC). Celtic craftsmen also made elaborate jewellery of gold and precious stones. Furthermore objects like swords and shields were often finely decorated. The Celts decorated metal goods with enamel. The Celts also knew how to make glass and they made glass beads.
Celtic society was hierarchical. At the top was a class of nobles headed by a king or chieftain. Below them were the craftsmen (of whom metalworkers were the most important). Then came the farmers who provided the food supply and also fought for the chief. There was also a class of slaves in Celtic England. However the Celts were divided into tribes. There was no political unity among them and a great deal of fighting.
The Celts grew crops in rectangular fields. They raised pigs, sheep and cattle. They stored grain in pits lined with stone or wicker and sealed with clay. The Celts also brewed beer from barley.
Trade with Europe was common. Metals like copper, tin, iron and lead were exported from England. Wool, cloth, skins and grain were also exported. Luxury goods like fine pottery and expensive metal goods were imported from Europe. At first the Celts used iron bars as a form of currency but by about 50 BC they were using gold coins.
The Celts lived in round houses. They were built around a central pole with horizontal poles radiating outwards from it. They rested on vertical poles. Walls were of wattle and daub and roofs were thatched. Around the walls inside the huts were benches, which also doubled up as beds. The Celts also used low tables.
LIFE IN ROMAN BRITAIN
Roman TownsAfter the first century AD the Celts who lived in what is now England were, to a certain extent, Romanised. Many towns appeared. Some were created deliberately. Others grew up by Roman forts as the garrisons provided markets for townspeople's goods. Roman towns were usually laid out in a grid pattern. Streets were often covered in gravel. When people walked on the gravel it became compacted. Very often streets had drains at the sides.
At first Roman towns were unprotected. Then in the late 1st and 2nd centuries fortifications were built. They consisted, at first, of ditches with earth ramparts and wooden palisades. Later many towns had stone walls.
In the centre of Roman towns was a rectangular space called the Forum. It was lined by shops and by a public building called the basilica. Markets were also held on the forum. In the towns another important building was the public baths. In Roman times people went to the baths not just to get clean but also to socialise. Roman Baths consisted of a frigidarium of cold room, a Tepidarium or warm room and a caldarium or hot room. You usually finished with a dip in a cold pool.
To clean themselves Romans rubbed their skin with oil and scraped it off with a tool called a strigil.
Larger towns also had an amphitheatre where 'sports' such as cock fighting were held and sometimes gladiators fought to the death. Some Roman towns also had theatres.
The Romans gambled with dice. They also played board games. Roman children played with wooden or clay dolls. They also played ball games.
In the late 1st and 2nd centuries the Romans practices cremation. However in the 3rd century they began to bury the dead. Citizens were buried in cemeteries outside the walls. Many Roman towns also had public toilets.
Roman towns were small by our standards. It is not known exactly how big they were but London may have had a population of around 35,000. Towns like Colchester and Cirencester probably had between 10,000 and 12,000 inhabitants. Most towns were smaller with only 3,000-5,000 people.
Roman Britain was, of course, an agricultural society where most people made their living from farming (although there were many craftsmen). Only a small minority of the population (probably around 10%) lived in towns.
A Rich Roman's Life
Meanwhile upper class Celts adopted the Roman way of life. They built villas modelled on Roman buildings and they enjoyed luxuries such as mosaics and even a form of central heating called a hypocaust. Wealthy Romans also had wall paintings called murals in their houses. In their windows they had panes of glass. Of course poorer Romans had none of these things. Their houses were simple and plain and the main form of heating was braziers.
For the wealthy furniture was very comfortable. It was upholstered and finely carved. People ate while reclining on couches. Oil lamps were used for light. Furthermore some people had a piped water supply. Water was brought into towns in aqueducts they went along lead pipes to individual houses.
The sons and daughters of well to do Romans went to primary school to learn to read and write and do simple arithmetic. Only boys went to secondary school where they would learn geometry, history, literature and oratory (the art of public speaking).
Roman boys and girls wore a kind of necklace called a bulla. It consisted of a charm inside a pouch. It was worn around the neck. A boy wore his until he reached manhood. A girl discarded hers when she got married. For rich children the bulla might be made of gold.
For the rich luxuries like wine and olive oil were imported.
Food In Roman Britain
The Romans also introduced new foods into Britain, among them celery, cabbages, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, broad beans and walnuts. Romans cooked on charcoal stoves. Olive oil was imported. So were olives, figs and grapes. Wine was also imported (although the Romans attempted to grow vines in Britain).
The Romans were also very fond of fish sauce called liquamen. They also liked oysters, which were exported from Britain.
A Roman dining room was called a triclinium. The Romans ate a breakfast of bread and fruit called the ientaculum. At midday they ate a meal called the prandium of fish, cold meat, bread and vegetables. The main meal was called the cena and was eaten in the evening.
Transport in Roman Britain
The Romans are also famous for the network of roads they built across Britain, which remained centuries after they departed. Rich people travelled by horse or on long journeys by covered wagon. Sometimes they were carried in litters (seats between two long poles).
Poor Romans
However Roman rule probably made little difference to most poor Celts, especially in the north and extreme southwest of England. For them life went on much as it had before. Their houses remained simple huts.
Like the Celts before them and the Saxons after them the Romans kept slaves. A slave's life was, no doubt, horrid. He or she was simply a piece of property and could be bought and sold like an animal. Most people probably treated their slaves reasonably well simply to keep them working efficiently. However, no doubt some masters were cruel. Probably slaves who worked in mines were the worst off. However some slaves managed to gain their freedom or were given their freedom by their masters.
Roman Soldiers
In the first century the Roman legionary wore segmented armour (lorica segmentata). He threw a spear called a pilum and fought with a short sword called a gladius. He was protected by a curved rectangular shield. There were also auxillary soldiers, both infantry and cavalry. When they finished their service they became Roman citizens.
By the third century cavalry had become much more important. The Roman army needed mobility to fight the Saxons who were making 'hit and run' raids on Britain. The Romans built a line of forts along the 'Saxon Shore' from Portsmouth Harbour to the Wash to fight them.
Roman Religion
The Romans were usually tolerant in religion but they destroyed the Druids. The Druids had great political and social influence. The Romans probably saw them as a threat.
However although the Druid priesthood was abolished the Celtic people continued to worship their traditional gods and goddesses. The Romans introduced their own gods but they were often very similar to the Celtic ones. In fact they were so similar temples were often dedicated to both the Celtic god and the Roman equivalent.
The Romans also introduced religions from the east. By the 3rd century Mithraism was popular. It involved the worship of the Persian god Mithras, god of light and the sun.
By the second century there were Christians in Roman Britain. The Romans persecuted Christians but we only the names of three Christian martyrs. St Alban was martyred at a Roman town called Verlamium. (Later in history another town was built by it and named St Albans). We also know the names of Aaron and Julius but little else about them. Persecution of Christians ended in 312 when Constantine converted to the new faith. In 395 Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
LIFE IN SAXON TIMES
Saxon SocietyEveryday life in Saxon times was hard and rough even for the rich. Society was divided into three classes. At the top were the thanes, the Saxon upper class. They enjoyed hunting and feasting and they were expected to give their followers gifts like weapons. Below them were the churls. Some churls were reasonably well off. Others were very poor. However at least they were free. Below them were a class of slaves called thralls. Their lives were very hard.
Some churls owned their own land but many 'rented' land from a thane. They 'paid rent' by working on the thane's land for part of the week and by giving him part of their crops.
In the 7th century England was a very different place from what it is today. It was covered by forest. Wolves prowled in them and they were a danger to domestic animals. The human population was very small. There were perhaps one million people in England at that time. Almost all of them lived in tiny villages - many had less than 100 inhabitants. Each village was mainly self sufficient. The people needed only a few things from outside like salt and iron. They grew their own food and made their own clothes.
By the 11th century things had changed somewhat. The great majority of people still lived in the countryside but a significant minority (about 10%) lived in towns. Many new towns had been created and trade was flourishing. England had grown into a stable, civilised state with an efficient system of local government. In the monasteries learning and the arts flourished.
The Saxons also gave us most English place names. Saxon place name endings include: ham, a village or estate, tun (usually changed to ton), a farm or estate, hurst, a wooded hill and bury, which is derived from the Saxon word burh, meaning fortress or fortified settlement. The Saxons called groups of Roman buildings a caester. In time that world evolved into the place name ending chester, caster or cester.
Kinship (family ties) were very important in Saxon society. If you were killed your relatives would avenge you. If one of your relatives was killed you were expected to avenge them. However the law did provide an alternative. If you killed or injured somebody you could pay them or their family compensation. The money paid was called wergild and it varied according to a persons rank. The wergild for killing a thane was much more than that for killing a churl. Thralls or slaves had no wergild. If the wergild was not paid the relatives were entitled to seek revenge.
At first Saxon society was relatively free. There were some slaves but the basis of society was the free peasant. However in time Saxon churls began to lose their freedom. They became increasingly dependent on their Lords and under their control.
Saxon Farmers
The vast majority of Saxons made their living from farming. Up to 8 oxen pulled ploughs and fields were divided into 2 or sometimes 3 huge strips. One strip was ploughed and sown with crops while the other was left fallow.
The Saxons grew crops of wheat, barley and rye. They also grew peas, cabbages, parsnips, carrots and celery. They also ate fruit such as apples, blackberries, raspberries and sloes. They raised herds of goats, cattle and pigs and flocks of sheep.
However Saxon farming was very primitive. Farmers could not grow enough food to keep many of their animals through the winter so as winter approached most of them had to be slaughtered and the meat salted. The Saxons were subsistence farmers. (Farmers grew enough to feed themselves and their families and very little else). At times during the Saxon era there were terrible famines in England when poor people starved to death.
Some Saxons were craftsmen. There blacksmiths, bronze smiths and potters. At first Saxon potters made vessels by hand but in the 7th century the potters wheel was introduced). Other craftsmen made things like combs from bone and antler or horn. There were also many leather workers and Saxon craftsmen also made elaborate jewellery for the rich.
Saxon Homes
The Saxons lived in wooden huts with thatched roofs. Usually there was only one room shared by everybody. (Poor people shared their huts with animals divided from them by a screen. During the winter the animals body heat helped keep the hut warm). Thanes and their followers slept on beds but the poorest people slept on the floor.
There were no panes of glass in windows, even in a Thane's hall and there were no chimneys, smoke escaped through a hole in the roof. Floors were of earth or sometimes they were dug out and had wooden floorboards placed over them. There were no carpets.
Rich people used candles but they were too expensive for the poor. Instead poor Saxons used rush lights (rushes dipped in animal fat).
Saxon toilets were just pits dug in the ground surrounded by walls of wattle (strips of wood woven together). The seat was a piece of wood with a hole in it.
Saxon Food
Saxon women ground grain, baked bread and brewed beer. Another Saxon drink was mead, made from fermented honey. (Honey was very important to the Saxons as there was no sugar for sweetening food. Bees were kept in every village). Upper class Saxons sometimes drank wine. The women cooked in iron cauldrons over open fires or in pottery vessels. They also made butter and cheese. Saxons ate from wooden bowls. There were no forks only knives and wooden spoons. Cups were made from cow horn.
Saxons were fond of meat and fish. However meat was a luxury and only the rich could eat it frequently. The ordinary people usually ate a dreary diet of bread, cheese and eggs. They ate not just chickens eggs but eggs from ducks, geese and wild birds.
Saxon Clothes
Saxon men wore a shirt and tunic. They wore trouser like garments called breeches. Sometimes they extended to the ankle but sometimes they were shorts. Men might wear wool leggings held in place by leather garters. They wore cloaks held in place by brooches. Saxon women wore a long linen garment with a long tunic over it. They also wore mantles. Both men and women used combs made of bone or antler.
Saxon Weapons
In battle thanes wore chain mail. Ordinary Saxons just wore an iron helmet and held a round wooden shield. They fought with spears, swords and battleaxes. The usual Saxon tactic was to form a 'shield wall' by standing side by side holding their shields in a line. The shield wall was a very effective tactic. The Saxons only lost the battle of Hastings because some of them broke formation.
Rich Saxons
Rich people's houses were rough, crowded and uncomfortable. Even a Thane's hall was really just a large wooden hut although it was usually hung with rich tapestries. Thanes also like to show off any gold they owned. Any furniture must have been simple and heavy such as wooden chests.
However at least the rich Saxons ate well. In the evenings they feasted and drank. During the day the main pastime of the rich was hunting. Rich Saxons kept falcons. In the evenings apart from feasting they enjoyed storytelling, riddles and games like chess. After feasts minstrels or gleemen entertained the lord and his men by playing the harp and singing.
Saxon Towns
At first the Angles, Saxons and Jutes were farming people and they had no need for towns. However in time trade slowly increased and some towns appeared. By the mid-7th century the Saxons were minting silver coins. In Saxon times a new town of London emerged outside the walls of the old Roman town. Some towns were created deliberately. King Ine founded Southampton at the end of the 7th Century. Other towns grew up at Hereford, Ipswich, Norwich and Bristol. In the late 9th century and early 10th century Saxon kings created fortified settlements called burhs. These were more than just forts. They were also flourishing little market towns. Examples include Winchester, the capital of England. In the towns craftsmen worked with iron, leather, bone and wood. Little wooden ships sailed to and from the Saxon ports. The main export from Saxon England was wool. Slaves were also exported.
Nevertheless all these towns were very small by modern standards. In 1066 the population of London was only 16,000-18,000 and a large town like Lincoln only had 5,000 inhabitants. A medium sized town like Colchester had about 2,500 inhabitants. Many towns were smaller.
The old Roman towns fell into decay and Roman roads became overgrown. Travel was slow and dangerous in Saxon times and most people travelled if it was unavoidable. If possible people travelled by water along the coast or along rivers.
LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Feudalism
In the Middle Ages society was organised into a kind of pyramid called the feudal system. At the top of the pyramid was the king. Below him were the barons or tenants-in-chief. The king granted them land and in return they had to provide soldiers in time of war.
The church was an important part of the feudal system. The church owned vast amounts of land and livestock. Furthermore the peasants had to give a tithe or one tenth of everything they produced (crops, eggs, animals) to the church. Many bishops and abbots were very rich and powerful.
In the Middle Ages the king ruled by divine right. In other words people believed that God had chosen him to be king and rebellion against him was a sin. However that did not stop rebellions! Kings had limited power in the Middle Ages and rebellion was easy. A great deal depended on the personality of the king. If he was a strong character he could control the barons. If he were weak or indecisive the barons would often rebel. Warrior kings who fought successful wars were the most powerful as they were popular with the nobility.
A Peasant's Hut In The Middle Ages
Peasants homes were simple wooden huts. They had wooden frames filled in with wattle and daub (strips of wood woven together and covered in a 'plaster' of animal hair and clay). However in some parts of the country huts were made of stone. Peasants huts were either whitewashed or painted in bright colours.
The poorest people lived in one-room huts. Slightly better off peasants lived in huts with one or two rooms. There were no panes of glass in the windows only wooden shutters, which were closed at night. The floors were of hard earth sometimes covered in straw for warmth.
In the middle of a peasant's hut was a fire used for cooking and heating. There was no chimney. Instead smoke escaped through a hole in the thatched roof. Any furniture was very basic. Chairs were very expensive and no peasant could afford one. Instead they sat on benches or stools. They would have a simple wooden table and chests for storing clothes and other valuables. Tools and pottery vessels were hung on hooks. The peasants slept on straw and they did not have pillows. Instead they rested their heads on wooden logs.
The peasant's wife cooked on a cauldron suspended over the fire and the family ate from wooden bowls. Candles were expensive so peasants usually used rush lights (rushes dipped in animal fat).
At night in summer and all day in winter the peasants shared their huts with their animals. Parts of it were screened off for the livestock. Their body heat helped to keep the hut warm.
Rich People's Houses In The Middle Ages
The Normans, at first, built castles of wood. In the early 12th century stone replaced them. Living in a stone castle was more comfortable as it was warmer and drier than a wooden dwelling. In the towns wealthy merchants began living in stone houses. (The first ordinary people to live in stone houses were Jews. They had to live in stone houses for safety).
In Saxon times a rich man and his entire household lived together in one great hall. In the Middle Ages the great hall was still the centre of a castle but the lord had his own room above it. This room was called the solar. In it the lord slept in a bed, which was surrounded by curtains, both for privacy and to keep out draughts. The other members of the lord's household, such as his servants, slept on the floor of the great hall.
At one or both ends of the great hall there was a fireplace and chimney. In the Middle Ages chimneys were a luxury. As time passed they became more common but only a small minority could afford them. Certainly no peasant could afford one.
About 1180 for the first time since the Romans rich people had panes of glass in the windows. At first glass was very expensive and only rich people could afford it but by the late 13th and early 14th centuries the middle classes began to have glass in some of their windows. Those people who could not afford glass could use thin strips of horn or pieces of linen soaked in tallow or resin which were translucent.
Furniture in the Middle Ages was very basic. Even in a rich household chairs were rare. Often only the lord sat on one so he was the 'chairman'. Most people sat on stools or benches. Rich people also had tables and large chests, which doubled up as beds. Rich peoples homes were hung with wool tapestries or painted linen. They were not just for decoration. They also helped keep out draughts.
In a castle the toilet or garderobe was a chute built into the thickness of the wall. The seat was made of stone. Sometimes the garderobe emptied straight into the moat!
A knight's home was a smaller version of a castle. They lived in fortified manor houses often with moats around them. A manor house was usually divided into a great hall with at one end a kitchen and a solar above. A rich merchant's house was similar but without fortifications.
Clothes in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages men wore tunics. Some men wore shorts and all wore 'hose' (tights or stockings).
Women wore a nightie-like linen garment. However they did not wear knickers. They wore a long tunic (to their ankles) and over it another garment, a gown. Women held their dresses with a belt tied around their waists.
In the Middle Ages both sexes wore wool but it varied in quality. It could be fine and expensive or coarse and cheap. From the mid-14th century laws lay down which materials the different classes could wear, to stop the middle classes dressing 'above themselves'. (Poor people could not afford to wear expensive cloth anyway!). However most people ignored the law and wore what they wished.
In the late 14th and 15th centuries clothes became much more elaborate. Fashion in the modern sense began. For the wealthy styles changed rapidly. Women wore elaborate hats and men wore long shoes.
Poor people wore practical clothes. If it was wet and muddy they wore wooden clogs.
Food in the Middle Ages
The rich ate well. They ate beef, mutton, pork and venison. They also ate a great variety of birds, swans, herons, ducks, blackbirds, pigeons and greenfinches. However the church decreed that Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were fast days when people were not allowed to eat meat. Rich people usually had fishponds so they could eat pike and carp. They also ate fish caught in rivers or the sea.
The rich also used spices. In the Middle Ages a new spice arrived in England. It was called sugar.
The rich ate breakfast in private but they ate dinner at mid-morning and supper at 5 or 6 in the great hall. On special occasions they had huge feasts. The Lord and his lady sat at a table on a raised wooden platform so they could look down on the rest of the household. Often musicians entertained them while they ate. Rich people ate their food from slices of stale bread called trenchers. Afterwards they were given to the poor.
Poor people ate a simple and monotonous diet. For them meat was a luxury. If they were lucky they had rabbit or pork. They also ate lots of coarse, dark bread and cheese. They only had one cooked meal a day. In the evening the mother mixed grain with hot water. She added vegetables and, if available, meat or fish to make a kind of stew called pottage. In the autumn peasants gathered fruit and nuts. In normal years the peasants had an adequate diet but if there was a famine they might starve.
Rich People In The Middle Ages
The main pastime of the upper class was hunting. Lords hunted deer with packs of dogs and killed them with arrows. They also hunted wild boar with spears. Both men and women went hawking. In the evenings they feasted, danced and played board games such as chess and backgammon. In the mid-15th century playing cards arrived in England.
When he was not hunting the noble or knight was fighting. Their wives were also kept busy. They had to organise the servants and generally run the household.
Knights also took part in tournaments. These events drew large crowds of spectators. At them knights fought with wooden lances, swords or maces. This was called jousting. There were also tourneys (fights between teams). Tournaments often lasted four days. Two days were for jousting, one was for tourneys and one was for archery competitions.
Children in the Middle Ages
Children from noble families saw little of their parents. When they were very young nurses looked them after. When they were about 7 they were sent to live with another noble household. Boys became pages and had to wait on lords and ladies. They also learned to fight. At 14 a boy became a squire and at 21 a knight. Girls learned the skills they needed to run a household.
Childhood ended early for children in the Middle Ages. In upper class families girls married as young as 12 and boys as young as 14. They did not normally choose their own marriage partners. Their parents arranged their marriages for them. Children from poor families might have more choice about who they married but by the time they were about 7 or 8 they had to start helping their parents by doing simple jobs such as chasing away birds when crops had been sown or helping to weave wool. Children were expected to help the family earn a living as soon as they were able.
A Peasant's Life In The Middle Ages
For peasants life was one of toil. Most people in the Middle Ages lived in small villages of 20 or 30 families. The land was divided into 3 huge fields. Each year 2 were sown with crops while one was left fallow (unused) to allow it to recover. Each peasant had some strips of land in each field. Most peasants owned only one ox so they had to join with other families to obtain the team of oxen needed to pull a plough. After ploughing the land was sown. Men sowed grain and women planted peas and beans.
Most peasants also owned a few cows, goats and sheep. Cows and goats gave milk and cheese. Most peasants also kept chickens for eggs. They also kept pigs. Peasants were allowed to graze their livestock on common land. In the autumn they let their pigs roam in the woods to eat acorns and beechnuts. However they did not have enough food to keep many animals through the winter. Most of the livestock was slaughtered in autumn and the meat was salted to preserve it.
However life was not all hard work. People were allowed to rest on Holy days (from which we get our word holiday). During them poor people danced and wrestled. They also played a very rough form of football. The men from 2 villages played on a 'pitch' which might include woods and streams! There were no rules so broken limbs and other injuries were common. People also enjoyed cruel 'sports' like cockfighting and bear baiting. (A bear was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it). Gambling was also common.
Warfare in the Middle Ages
The 'backbone' of Medieval armies was the armoured knight mounted on a horse. Norman knights wore chain mail, armour made of iron rings joined together. In the 14th century chain mail was replaced by plate armour. Metal plates were attached to each part of the body.
Norman knights carried kite shaped shields. Later in the middle Ages shields became smaller.
The Normans built wooden forts called motte and bailey castles. An artificial mound of earth was created, called a motte and the living quarters were built on top. Below was a walled yard called a bailey where food and animals were stored. The whole thing was sometimes protected by a moat.
However these early wooden forts were vulnerable to fire and later castles were built of stone. In the centre was a stone tower called a keep where the inhabitants lived. Surrounding it was a curtain wall. However even if attackers breached the curtain wall the defenders could retreat into the keep and continue to hold out.
The weakest part of a castle was its gate but there were ways of strengthening it. A building called a gatehouse was built. Often it was approached by a drawbridge over a moat. Gatehouses usually had an iron grid called a portcullis that could be raised or lowered vertically. Behind the portcullis was a covered passageway running through the gatehouse. Sometimes there was a second portcullis at the other end of the passageway.
If you got past the drawbridge and the first portcullis you would have to fight your way to the second portcullis and the defenders would not make it easy for you.
In the roof were holes through which the defenders could drop stones or pour boiling liquids.
Around the curtain wall were arrow slits called embrasures. Furthermore the tops of castle walls often had overhangs. In them were openings through which boiling liquids could be poured or stones could be dropped. They were called machicolations.
However attackers could use a variety of siege weapons. The simplest was a battering ram. The users were protected by a wooden shed but the defenders might set it on fire. They could also use a crane with giant 'tongs' to try and grab the ram.
To climb the walls you could use ladders but that was dangerous as the defenders could push them over. Attackers might use a wooden siege tower on wheels. Inside it were ladders for soldiers to climb. At the top was a drawbridge. When it was lowered the attackers could swarm over the castle walls.
Attackers could also use a kind of crane called a tenelon to get over the wall. On the end of a long wooden arm was a basket containing soldiers. The basket could be swung over the castle walls.
The attackers could also hurl missiles. A medieval catapult was powered by twisted rope. The rope was twisted tighter and tighter then released, firing a stone.
Another Medieval siege weapon was called a trebuchet. It worked by counterweight. It was a kind of see saw with a huge weight at one end and a sling containing a missile at the other. The sling was tied down and when it was released the great weight at the other end of the 'see saw' caused it to swing upwards and hurl its missile.
Attackers could also tunnel under the castle walls. The tunnels were supported by wooden props. When ready they were covered in animal fat and burned. The tunnels would collapse and hopefully so would the walls.
However in the 14th century warfare was changed by the longbow. Logbows were not new (archeologists have found examples thousands of years old). However in the 14th century the English learned to use the longbow in a new way. In the early Middle Ages archers were used to 'soften up' the enemy before knights charged. (They were used that way at Hastings). However in the 14th century the English devised a new tactic of having dismounted knights protect the archers and allowing the enemy to charge. The enemy cavalry was decimated by volleys of arrows.
The longbow was used to win great victories at Crecy (1346), Poitiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415). An archer could shoot an arrow every 5 or 6 seconds. He could shoot an arrow up to 225 metres. An arrow could penetrate armour at 90 metres. The one disadvantage of the longbow was that it took years to learn to use one properly.
Transport in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages roads were no more than dirt tracks that turned to mud in winter. Men travelled on horseback (if they could afford a horse!). Ladies travelled in wagons covered in painted cloth. They looked pretty but they must have been very uncomfortable on bumpy roads as they had no springs. Worse, travel in the Middle Ages was very slow. A horseman could only travel 50 or 60 kilometres a day.
Some goods were carried by pack horses (horses with bags loaded on their sides) and peasants pulled along two-wheeled carts full of hay and straw.
However, whenever they could people travelled by water. It was faster and more comfortable than travelling by land. It was also much cheaper to send goods by water than by land. Some goods were taken by ship from one part of the English coast to another. This was known as the coastal trade.
The main type of ship in the Middle Ages was called a cog. It had only one sail. Furthermore in the early Middle Ages ships did not have rudders. Instead they were steered by a huge oar on side of the ship. It was called the steer board. Today the right side of a ship is called the starboard. It was originally the 'steer board' side. (When you tied up a ship in port the steer board always faced outwards to sea otherwise it might be crushed between the ship and the quay. The left side of a ship always faced the quay so it was the 'port' side). The rudder was invented at the end of the 13th century.
In the Middle Ages people believed they would gain favour with God if they went on long journeys called pilgrimages to visit shrines. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) wrote the Canterbury Tales about a group of pilgrims who go to Canterbury to visit the burial place of Thomas Becket. They tell each other tales to pass the time.
Towns in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages most people lived in the countryside and made a living from farming. However at the time of the Domesday Book (1086) about 10% of the population of England lived in town. Moreover trade boomed in the following two centuries and many new towns were founded. Examples of towns founded in the 12th and 13th centuries include Portsmouth, Plymouth, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Doncaster and Preston.
The first thing that would surprise us about those towns would be their small size. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 London had a population of about 18,000. By the 14th century it rose to about 45,000. Other towns were much smaller. York may have had a population of about 13,000 by 1400 but it then fell to about 10,000 by 1500. Most towns had between 1,500 and 4,000 inhabitants.
The larger towns had stone walls. Small towns often only had stone gates. Ditches and earth ramparts protected them with wooden stockades on top. Most of the buildings in Medieval towns were of wood and fire was a constant danger. Many English towns were devastated by fire in the Middle Ages.
In Medieval towns there were a host of craftsmen such as carpenters, bakers, butchers, blacksmiths, bronze smiths, fletchers (arrow makers), bowyers (bow makers), stringfellows (who made the strings for bows), fullers (who cleaned and thickened wool before it was dyed), dyers, potters, coppers, turners (who turned wooden bowls on lathes), horners (who made things from horn) and barber-surgeons who both cut hair, pulled teeth and performed operations such as setting broken bones.
Most craftsmen had a workshop at the bottom of their house which doubled up as a shop. Behind they had a storeroom. The craftsman and his family lived in rooms above. Many people in towns kept animals as well.
Craftsmen took in apprentices for money. The apprentice lived with the craftsman and his family and his apprenticeship might last 7 or 8 years. At the end the apprentice had to make a masterpiece to prove his skill. If it was good enough he was admitted to the guild.
In the Middle Ages craftsmen were organised into guilds. They fixed hours of work and the wages paid to apprentices. They also inspected member's work to make sure it was up to standard. The guilds also prevented craftsmen from other towns or anyone who wasn't part of the local guild working in their town. Moreover guilds looked after their members in times of trouble like sickness. Merchants had their own guilds.
Guilds also put on plays called mystery plays. (The word mystery is a corruption of the French word metier meaning job or trade). The plays were based on Bible stories and were meant to instruct the people. However there was nothing solemn about these plays. They contained lots of jokes.
The Church in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages religion was a vital part of everyday life. All children were baptised (unless they were Jewish) and everyone attended mass on Sunday. Mass was in Latin, a language that ordinary people did not understand.
Bishops ruled over groups of parishes called dioceses. They usually came from rich families. Bishops lived in palaces and often took part in government. Things were very different for parish priests. They were poor and often had little education. Parish priests had their own land called the glebe where they grew their own food. They lived and worked alongside their parishioners.
In the Middle Ages monks and nuns gave food to the poor. They also ran the only hospitals where they tried to help the sick as best they could. They also provided hospitality for pilgrims and other travellers (although as time went by there were an increasing number of inns where you could pay to stay the night). In a medieval monastery there was an almonry where food or money was given to the poor, the refectory where the monks ate, the dormitory, infirmary and the cloisters where the monks could take exercise. An almoner looked after the poor, an infirmarian looked after the sick and a hospitaller looked after visitors.
As well as the monks from the 13th century there were also friars. They took vows like but instead of withdrawing from the world they went out to preach. Franciscan friars were called grey friars because of their grey costumes. Dominican friars were called black friars.
Education in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages most people were illiterate but not all. Upper class children were educated when they were pages. Among the poor the better educated priests might teach some children to read and write - a little. In many towns there were grammar schools where middle class boys were educated. (They got their name because they taught Latin grammar). Boys worked long hours in the grammar schools and discipline was severe. Boys were beaten with rods or birch twigs.
There were also chantry schools. Some men left money in their wills to pay for a priest to chant prayers for their soul after their death. When he was not praying the priest would educate local children.
During the Middle Ages literacy and learning gradually increased. By the 15th century perhaps a third of the population could read and write.
From the early 13th century England had two universities at Oxford and Cambridge. At them students learned seven subjects, grammar, rhetoric (the art of public speaking), logic, astronomy, arithmetic, music and geometry.
LIFE IN TUDOR TIMES
Tudor England was an agricultural society. Most of the population lived in small villages and made their living from farming. Having said that towns grew larger and more important. During the 16th century trade and industry grew rapidly and England became a more and more commercial country. Mining of coal, tin and lead flourished. So did the iron industry. During this period England became richer and richer.
However there were winners and losers in Tudor times. Upper class and middle class Tudors saw a big rise in their standard of living. As England grew more and more prosperous the homes of the well off became more and more comfortable. However the lowest section of society, the wage labourers, became worse off. In the 14th century a large part of the population died of plague. As a result there was a shortage of labour so wages went up. However in the 16th century the population recovered so real earnings fell.
In the 15th century the population of England may have been around 2 1/2 million. By 1525 it had risen to around 3 million and by 1600 it was about 4 million.
During the 16th century there was inflation, especially in the mid-century, and prices rose steeply. Wages rose too but less than prices so real earnings fell. They reached their lowest point in 1597. (The years 1594-97 were ones of famine. In Cumbria, the poorest and most isolated part of England, people starved to death).
Tudor Society
Tudor society was divided into four broad groups. At the top were the nobility who owned huge amounts of land. Below them were the gentry and rich merchants. Gentlemen owned large amounts of land and they were usually educated and had a family coat of arms. Most important gentlemen never did any manual work, that was beneath their dignity. Below the gentry were yeomen and craftsmen. Yeomen owned their own land. They could be as wealthy as gentlemen but they worked alongside their men. Yeomen and craftsmen were often able to read and write. Below the yeomen were the tenant farmers who leased their land from the rich. There were also wage labourers. They were often illiterate and very poor.
In the 16th century about 50% of the population lived at subsistence level. In other words they had just enough food, clothes and shelter to survive. For them life was very hard. Or it would seem hard to us, of course people in the 16th century would have different attitudes. They would be content with a much lower standard of living.
However it was possible to move from one class to another. With hard work and luck a husbandman could become a yeoman. A yeoman could buy a coat of arms and become gentlemen. It was possible for an ambitious young man to rise in the world.
The Poor in Tudor Times
With the rise in population jobs were not always easy to find. In Tudor times there were thousands of people without jobs wandering around looking for work. There were also disabled beggars. There were also people who pretended to be mad or disabled in order to beg. Tudor governments tolerated people who were disabled begging. However they did not tolerate able-bodied people without jobs wandering around. They saw such 'sturdy vagabonds' as a threat to law and order.
Since the 14th century there had been laws against vagabonds but in 1530 a new law was passed. The old and disabled poor were to be given licences to beg. However anyone roaming without a job was tied to a cart in the nearest market town and whipped till they were bloody. They were then forced to return to the parish where they had been born or where they had lived for the last 3 years.
A law of 1536 was more severe. Vagabonds were whipped the first time. However for a second offence they part of their right ear was cut off (so they could be easily identified wherever they went). For a third offence they were hanged. However officers of the law were reluctant to carry out such draconian measures. A law of 1547 chided them for 'foolish pity and mercy'. Under this law anyone who roamed or loitered for 3 days without a job must offer to work for any employer for any wages he was willing to pay. If nobody would employ him then he must offer to work just for food and drink. If he did not do this then anyone could take him to the Justice of the Peace (local magistrate). The vagabond was then made that person's slave for 2 years. If he ran away during that time he was branded and made a slave for life. This terrible law was abolished in 1550. Once again flogging was made the punishment for vagrancy.
Furthermore every parish was commanded to build a workhouse for the old and disabled poor. They would be housed in the workhouse and made to do any work they were capable of.
However in 1572 the law was made more severe again. For a first offence a vagabond would be whipped and burned in the right ear with a red-hot iron. (Unless some kindly employer was willing to give him a job). For a second offence he would be hanged (again unless an employer gave him a job). For a third offence he would be hanged regardless.
In 1576 the law regarding the old and disabled was changed again. This time the parishes were ordered to supply them with materials like flax, hemp, wool and iron. They were to do any work they could in their own homes. Any old or disabled person who refused to work was sent to a House or Correction where conditions were very harsh.
However in 1597 the death penalty for vagrancy was abolished.
16th Century Punishments
In the 16th century prison was seldom used as a punishment. Instead people were held in prison until trial then some physical punishment was meted out. In the 16th century minor crimes were often punished by the pillory or the stocks. The pillory was a wooden frame on a pole with holes through which a person's head and hands were placed. The frame was then locked and the person was subjected to humiliation and ridicule. Sometimes people also threw unpleasant objects at the person in the pillory. The stocks was a wooden frame with holes through which a person's feet were placed and they were humiliated in the same way. Other common punishments were flogging and branding with red hot irons.
More serious crimes were punished by death. Beheading was reserved for the wealthy. Ordinary people were usually hanged. (They were suspended with a rope round their neck until they were strangled to death). However there were worse ways of killing people.
In 1401 a law in England made burning the penalty for heresy. In the 16th century during the reign of Mary (1553-1558) nearly 300 Protestants were burned to death in England. Sometimes a person about to be burned was strangled with a rope first to spare them pain. However in a horrible variation on this punishment in 1531 Henry VIII passed an act allowing poisoners to be boiled alive but the act was repealed after his death in 1547.
In England the punishment for treason was hanging, drawing and quartering. The person was drawn on a hurdle pulled by a horse to the place of execution. They were hanged (strangled by being suspended by a rope) but when they were still alive and sometimes conscious they were cut down. The executioner cut open their stomach and 'drew out' their entrails. Finally the person was beheaded and his body was cut into quarters.
Tudor Homes
In the Middle Ages rich people's houses were designed for defence rather than comfort. In the 16th century life was safer so houses no longer had to be easy to defend. Rich Tudors built grand houses e.g. Cardinal Wolsey built Hampton Court Palace. Later the Countess of Shrewsbury built Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire.
People below the rich but above the poor built sturdy 'half-timbered' houses. They were made with a timber frame filled in with wattle and daub (wickerwork and plaster). In the late 16th century some people built or rebuilt their houses with a wooden frame filled in with bricks. Roofs were usually thatched though some well off people had tiles. (In London all houses had tiles because of the fear of fire).
Furniture was more plentiful than in the Middle Ages but it was still basic. In a wealthy home it was usually made of oak and was heavy and massive. Tudor furniture was expected to last for generations. You expected to pass it on to your children and even your grandchildren. Comfortable beds became more and more common in the 16th century. In a middle class home a mattress was often stuffed with flock (a kind of rough wool).
Chairs were more common than in the Middle Ages but they were still expensive. Even in an upper class home children and servants sat on stools. The poor had to make do with stools and benches.
In the 15th century only a small minority of people could afford glass windows. In Tudor times they became much more common. However they were still expensive. If you moved house you took your glass windows with you! Tudor windows were made of small pieces of glass held together by strips of lead. They were called lattice windows. However the poor still had to make do with strips of linen soaked in linseed oil.
Chimneys were also a luxury in Tudor times, although they became more common. Poor people simply had a hole in the roof to let out the smoke. However as more and more people could afford chimneys they had an important effect on homes. In the Middle Ages a well to do person's house was dominated by the great hall. It extended all the way up to the roof of the building where a hole let out smoke from the fire. It was not possible to build upstairs rooms over the great hall or the smoke would not be able to escape. Building chimneys meant that many people could not install another storey in their house over the great hall. So well off people's houses became divided into more rooms.
In wealthy Tudor houses the walls of rooms were lined with oak panelling to keep out drafts. People slept in four-poster beds hung with curtains to reduce drafts. In the 16th century some people had wallpaper but it was very expensive. Other wealthy people hung tapestries or painted cloths on their walls.
In Tudor England carpets were a luxury only the richest people could afford. They were usually too expensive to put on the floor! Instead they were often hung on the wall or over tables. People covered the floors with rushes or reeds (or mats of woven rushes or reeds), which they strew with sweet smelling herbs.
In the 16th century prosperous people lit their homes with beeswax candles. However they were expensive. Others made used candles made from tallow (animal fat) which gave off an unpleasant smell and the poorest people made do with rush lights (rushes dipped in animal fat).
Rich Tudors had clocks in their homes. The very rich had pocket watches although most people relied on pocket sundials.
Rich Tudors were also fond of gardens. Many had mazes, fountains and topiary (hedges cut into shapes). Less well off people used their gardens to grow vegetables and herbs.
None of the improvements of the 16th century applied to the poor. They continued to live in simple huts with one or two rooms (occasionally three). Smoke escaped through a hole in the thatched roof. Floors were of hard earth and furniture was very basic, benches, stools, a table and wooden chests. They slept on mattresses stuffed with straw or thistledown. The mattresses lay on ropes strung across a wooden frame.
In 1596 Sir John Harrington invented a flushing lavatory with a cistern. However the idea failed to catch on. People continued to use chamber pots or cess pits, which were cleaned by men called gong farmers. (In the 16th century a toilet was called a jakes).
Tudor Food
Rich Tudors ate vast amounts of meat. However they rarely ate vegetables. Rich people were not necessarily well fed because they ate too few vegetables. Poor people ate plenty of vegetables because they had no choice! Vegetables were cheap but meat was a luxury.
On certain days by law people had to eat fish instead of meat. At first this was for religious reasons but later in the 16th century it was to support the fishing industry. If you lived near the sea or a river you could eat fresh fish like herrings or mackerel. Otherwise you might have to rely on dried or salted fish.
Poor Tudors lived on a dreary diet. In the morning they had bread and cheese and onions. They only had one cooked meal a day. They mixed grain with water and added vegetables and (if they could afford it) strips of meat.
All classes ate bread but it varied in quality. Rich peoples bread was made from fine white flour. Poor people ate coarse bread of barley or rye.
In the 16th century many people thought fresh fruit was bad for you. They did eat fruit but usually after it was cooked and made into a tart or pie.
The Tudors were also fond of sweet foods (if they could afford them). However in the 16th century sugar was very expensive so most people used honey to sweeten their food.
In the 16th century new foods were introduced from the Americas. Turkeys were introduced into England about 1525. Potatoes were brought to England in the 1580s but at first few English people ate them. Tomatoes came to England from Mexico and apricots were introduced from Portugal.
Nobody drank water in Tudor times because it was too dirty. Young children drank milk. Everyone else drank ale or, if they were rich, wine. From the mid-16th century beer became common. The Tudors also drank cider and perry.
Rich people liked to show off their gold and silver plate. The middle classes would have dishes and bowls made of pewter. The poor made do with wooden plates and bowls. There were no forks in Tudor times. People ate with knives and their fingers or with spoons. Rich Tudors had silver or pewter spoons. The poor used wooden ones.
People in the 16th century made much of their own food. A farmers wife cured bacon and salted meat to preserve it. She baked bread and brewed beer. She also made pickles and conserves and preserved vegetables. Many prosperous farms kept bees for honey.
Tudor Towns
Only a small part of the population of Tudor England lived in towns. Nevertheless they played a vital role in the economy. Peasants brought their surplus produce to weekly markets to sell. All kinds of manufactured goods like shoes and pottery were on sale in towns.
Tudor London probably had a population of between 60,000 and 70,000. By 1600 its population was over 250,000. Other towns were much smaller. Bristol probably had a population of about 14,000 in 1500. By 1600 it had grown to about 20,000. The next largest town, Norwich had about 10,000 inhabitants in 1500. In 1600 it still had less than 20,000. The largest town in the north of England was York. In 1500 it had a population of about 10,000. By 1600 it had only risen to about 12,000. The next largest town was probably Exeter with a population of about 9,000 in 1600. Most of the towns in Tudor England were much smaller with populations of between 2,500 and 4,000. In the 16th century anything with more than 1,000 inhabitants was considered a town.
In most Tudor towns tradesmen of one kind tended to live and work in the same street e.g. in many towns butchers and slaughterhouses gathered together in a street called the Shambles.
Tudor towns were dirty, smelly and crowded. There were no sewers and no drains. Rubbish such as rotting vegetables, offal and dirty water were thrown in the streets. In some towns every man was supposed to clean the street in front of his house once a week but it is unlikely many people bothered! Rats and other vermin were common.
In Tudor London there were a few public toilets by streams. However in most towns there were none and people went wherever they could find a convenient spot.
People usually obtained their water from wells or from water carriers who carried water in containers on their shoulders. Some towns had conduits which brought in water from the countryside and which the public could use.
Furthermore in some towns the principal streets were paved but most town streets were not.
In the 16th century streets were also very narrow. Upper storeys of buildings jutted out over lower storeys. These were called jetties.
At night the streets were dark and dangerous. Quite apart from the danger of being robbed it was easy to have an accident in dark, unpaved streets. In London you could hire a linkboy with a lamp to light your way. However many people avoided going out after dark.
Given the dirty condition of Tudor towns it is not surprising that outbreaks of plague were common. When plague struck it might kill 10%, 15% or even more of the population of a town. However towns always recovered. There were always plenty of poor people in the countryside willing to come to towns in search of work.
Tudor Transport
In Tudor times roads were just dirt tracks. Men were supposed, by law, to spend a number of days repairing the local roads but it is unlikely they did much good! People travelled by horse. You could either ride your own or you could hire a horse. From the mid-16th century some rich people rode in carriages. They must have been very uncomfortable because they did not have springs and roads were very bumpy.
In the 16th century you would be lucky if you could travel 50 or 60 kilometres a day. It normally took a week to travel from London to Plymouth. However rich Tudors deliberately travelled slowly. They felt it was undignified to hurry and they took their time.
Goods were sometimes transported by pack horse (horses with bags on their sides). Also carriers with covered wagons carried goods and sometimes passengers. However when possible people preferred to transport goods by water. All around England there was a 'coastal trade'. Goods from one part of the country, such as coal, were taken by sea to other parts.
Tudor Games
Although the days of armoured knights were over rich Tudors still enjoyed tournaments. The contestants dressed in armour and rode horses. They fought with wooden lances and swords.
Rich Tudors also enjoyed hunting. They went hunting deer with bows and arrows. After it was killed the deer was eaten. The rich also went hawking. Falcons were trained to kill other birds. However in Tudor times rich people did not hunt foxes.
The Tudors also liked wrestling and 'casting the bar', which was like shot-putting but with an iron bar. They also played billiards (but not snooker, which is a 19th century game).
Rich Tudors also played board games like chess and backgammon (a backgammon set was found on the wreck of the Mary Rose. It is the same as a modern one). They also tennis with a leather ball stuffed with hair. They also played bowls and skittles. Playing cards were also popular.
All classes gambled. Poor people gambled with dice. They also played games like shuffleboard (shove ha'penny) and nine mens morris. The Tudors also played draughts and fox and geese.
Music and dancing were also very popular. The printing press made books much cheaper so reading was a popular pastime for rich Tudors.
Ordinary people played a rough version of football. There were no rules and the 'pitch' was often a large area including woods and even streams! It was a very rough game. Injuries like broken limbs were common.
Cruel 'sports' like cockfighting were also popular in Tudor times. So was bear baiting. A bear was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it.
Another popular entertainment was watching public executions! Criminals were hanged in public and large crowds turned out to watch.
Tudor Education
In the early 16th century many boys went to chantry schools. Rich men left money in their wills to pay priests to pray for their souls. After the religious changes of the 1540s the chantry schools were closed. However many rich men founded grammar schools.
Boys usually went to a kind of nursery school called a 'petty school' first then moved onto grammar school when they were about seven. The school day began at 6 am in summer and 7 am in winter (people went to bed early and got up early in those days). Lunch was from 11 am to 1 pm. School finished at about 5pm. Boys went to school 6 days a week and there were few holidays.
In Tudor times many children learned to read and write with something called a hornbook. It was not a book in the modern sense. Instead it was a wooden board with a handle. Fixed to the board was a sheet of paper with the alphabet and the Lord's prayer (the Our Father) written on it. The paper was usually protected by a thin slice of animal horn.
Discipline in Tudor schools was savage. The teacher often had a stick with birch twigs attached to it. Boys were hit with the birch twigs on their bare buttocks.
At about 15 or 16 the brightest boys might go to one of England's two universities, Oxford and Cambridge.
Of course many boys did not go to school at all. If they were lucky they might get a 7-year apprenticeship and learn a trade. Some craftsmen could read and write but few labourers could.
As for girls, in a rich family a tutor usually taught them at home. In a middle class family their mother might teach them. Upper class and middle class women were educated. However lower class girls were not.
Tudor children who did not go to school were expected to work. They helped their parents by doing tasks such as scaring birds when seeds were sown They also helped to weave wool and did other household tasks.
Children from rich families usually had their marriages arranged for them. If they refused to marry the person their parents chose they were beaten until they changed their minds. Children from poorer families had more choice over whom to marry. Yet girls usually married young. Many were married when they were only 15 or 16. Boys often married between the ages of 18 and 21.
Tudor Clothes
For rich Tudors fashion was important. For the poor clothes had to be hardwearing and practical. All classes wore wool. However it varied in quality. The rich wore fine quality wool. The poor wore coarse wool.
Linen was used to make shirts and underwear. However only the rich could afford cotton and silk. Rich Tudors also embroidered their clothes with silk, gold or silver thread. Rich Tudor women wore silk stockings.
In the 16th century men wore short trouser-like garments called breeches. They also wore tight fitting jackets called doublets. Another jacket called a jerkin was worn over the doublet. Over the jerkin rich men wore a gown, or later in the 16th century a cloak or cape.
However instead of a doublet many workingmen wore a loose tunic. It was easier to work in. Some workingmen wore a leather jerkin called a buff-jerkin. Men also wore stockings or woollen socks, which were called hose.
Women wore a kind of petticoat called a smock or shift or chemise made of linen or wool and a wool dress over it. A woman's dress was made of two parts, a bodice or corset like garment and a skirt. Sleeves were held on with laces and could be detached. Workingwomen wore a linen apron.
In the late 16th century many women wore a frame made of whale bone or wood under their dress called a farthingale. If they could not afford a farthingale women wore a padded roll around their waist called a bum roll.
In the 16th century women did not wear knickers. However men sometimes wore linen shorts.
In Tudor times everyone wore hats. Poor women often wore a linen cap called a coif. After 1572 by law all men except nobles had to wear a woollen cap on Sundays. This law was passed to give the wool cap makers plenty of work!
In the 16th century buttons were usually for decoration. Clothes were held together with laces or pins. Furs in Tudor times included cat, rabbit, beaver, bear, badger and polecat.
The Tudors used mostly vegetable dyes such as madder for red, woad for blue or walnut for brown. However you have to use a chemical called a mordant to 'fix' the dye. The mordant changed the colour of the dye e.g. a plant called weld was used with alum for yellow but if used with iron or tin it produced shades of green.
The most expensive dyes were bright red, purple and indigo. Poor people often wore brown, yellow or blue. Incidentally in the 16th century scarlet was not a colour it was the name of a fine, expensive wool.
Tudor women who could afford it would hang a container of sweet smelling spices on their belt. This was called a pomander and it disguised the horrid smells in the streets! However it is a myth that in Tudor times people were very dirty and smelly. Most people tired to keep themselves clean but it was difficult to keep free of vermin. On the wreck of the Mary Rose many lice combs were found. A bone ear scoop and a bone manicure set were also found.
Some women wore wigs. Both Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots wore them. When Mary was beheaded her wig came off.
From the 14th century to the mid-17th century laws called sumptuary laws laid down what each class could and could not wear. In the 16th century complicated laws said that only persons of a certain rank could wear certain expensive materials such as velvet and silk. These laws, of course, made no difference to poor people since they could not afford 'sumptuous' materials even if they wanted to. They were supposed to keep the better off classes, such as nobility, gentry and rich merchants, separate. You were supposed to be able to tell which class somebody belonged to by his or her clothes. However the sumptuary laws proved to be unenforceable and many people simply ignored them.
Tudor Medicine
In the 16th century many people died in epidemics of sweating sickness (possibly influenza). Many others died of smallpox. (Queen Elizabeth I almost died of it. However she was given the most advanced medical treatment for smallpox -she was wrapped in red cloth.) Even if you survived smallpox it could leave you disfigured with pox marks or blind. Syphilis was also rampant. Dysentery was also a killer and many women died in childbirth (usually because of infection).
Tudor doctors were very expensive and they could do little about illness partly because they did not know what caused disease. They had little idea of how the human body worked. Doctors thought the body was made up of four fluids or 'humours'. They were blood, phlegm, choler or yellow bile and melancholy or black bile. In a healthy person all four humours were balanced but if you had too much of one you fell ill.
If you had too much blood you would be bled either with leeches or by cutting a vein. Too much of other humours would be treated either by eating the right diet or by purging (taking medicines to cause vomiting or diarrhoea).
Doctors also fought infectious disease, like plague, was caused by poisonous 'vapours', which drifted through the air and were absorbed through the skin.
One of the main ways of diagnosing sickness was uroscopy (examining urine) by its appearance, its smell or even by its taste!
It is often said that Tudor surgeons did not use anaesthetics. That is not quite true. They did have opium and hemlock. However both of them were very dangerous. The wrong dose could kill and Tudor doctors had only a vague idea about correct dosages. Many surgeons refused to use these substances because they were too dangerous.
Astrology also played a part in Tudor medicine. Most doctors believed that different zodiacal signs ruled different parts of the body.
Since doctors were so expensive many people went to see a wise woman if they were ill. The wise women would have a great knowledge of different herbs and their properties and might be able to help. Unfortunately many Tudor folk-cures were absurd e.g. a treatment for gout was goat's grease with saffron.
Actual operations were performed by a barber-surgeon. He was the barber, the surgeon and the dentist combined. Barber-surgeons had lower status than doctors. Lower still were the apothecaries who made up medicines.
The average life span in the 16th century was shorter than today. Average life expectancy at birth was only 35. (So only half of all people born lived to be 35). However many of the people born died while they were still children. Out of all people born between one third and one half died before the age of about 16. However if you could survive to your mid-teens you would probably live to your 50s or early 60s. Even in the 16th century some people did live to their 70s or 80s.
Tudor Warfare
In the 16th century guns transformed warfare. Early guns were lit by a slow match (string was soaked in saltpetre and when it was lit it smouldered). The slow match was touched to the gunpowder to ignite it. However in the early 16th century the wheelock was invented. A metal wheel spun against a piece or iron pyrites generating sparks that ignited the gunpowder. As a result most cavalry stopped using lances. Instead they carried two or three pistols each, ready to fire, and sabres.
Meanwhile the traditional English weapon was the longbow but handguns were increasingly used. The longbow slowly went out of use during the 16th century. However muskets took a long time to reload and during that time the infantry needed protection from cavalry. They were protected by men with pikes (a weapon like a long spear).
Cannons meant that fortifications had to be re-designed. Walls were now made to slope outwards to deflect cannon balls. Instead of towers forts and walled towns now had bastions. They were triangular sections of wall that jutted out from the rest of the wall. They provided flanking fire. In other words guns on the bastion could fire at approaching soldiers from the sides.
LIFE IN THE 17th CENTURY
During the 17th century the population of England and Wales grew steadily. It was about 4 million in 1600 and it grew to about 5 1/2 million by 1700.
During the 17th century England became steadily richer. Trade and commerce grew and grew. By the late 17th century trade was an increasingly important part of the English economy. Meanwhile industries such as glass, brick making, iron and coal mining expanded rapidly.
The port of London grew rapidly. By the late 17th century London had a population of more than half a million. Towns like Liverpool, which were well placed to trade with North America and the West Indies, also grew rapidly.
In the 17th century England began to found colonies in North America and the West Indies. In 1607 the first permanent colony was founded in North America at Jamestown, Virginia. In 1609 the English settled in Bermuda. In 1620 the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth to Massachusetts carrying English settlers. In 1629 the English settled in the Bahamas. In 1655 they took Jamaica from the Spaniards. In 1664 they took New York and New Jersey from the Dutch.
Meanwhile the East India Company was founded in 1600. The English founded a trading post at Canton, China in 1637.
Banking in the 17th Century
Furthermore banking developed in the 17th century. As England grew more commercial so lending money became more important. In the early 17th century goldsmiths lent and changed money. Then in 1640 King Charles I confiscated gold, which London merchants had deposited at the mint for safety. Afterwards people began to deposit money with goldsmiths instead. The goldsmiths gave receipts for the gold in the form of notes promising to pay on demand.
In time merchants and tradesmen began to exchange these notes as a form of money. The goldsmiths realised that not all of their customers would withdraw their gold at the same time. So it was safe to issue notes for more gold than they actually had. They could then lend money using the extra notes.
The Bank of England was founded in 1694.
17th Century Society
During the 17th century the status of merchants improved. People saw that trade was an increasingly important part of the country's wealth so merchants became more respected. However political power and influence was held by rich landowners.
At the top of society were the nobility. Below them were the gentry. Gentlemen were not quite rich but they were certainly well off. Below them were yeomen, farmers who owned their own land. Yeomen were comfortably off but they often worked alongside their men. Gentlemen did not do manual work! Below them came the mass of the population, craftsmen, tenant farmers and labourers.
At the end of the 17th century a writer estimated that half the population could afford to eat meat every day. In other words about 50% of the people were wealthy of at least reasonably well off. Below them about 30% of the population could afford to eat meat between 2 and 6 times a week. They were 'poor'. The bottom 20% could only eat meat once a week. They were very poor. At least part of the time they had to rely on poor relief.
By an act of 1601 overseers of the poor were appointed by each parish. They had power to force people to pay a local tax to help the poor. Those who could not work such as the old and the disabled would be provided for. The overseers were meant to provide work for the able-bodied poor. Anyone who refused to work was whipped and, after 1610, they could be placed in a house of correction. Pauper's children were sent to local employers to be apprentices.
Towns in the 17th Century
In 1600 Westminster was separate from London. However in the early 17th century rich people built houses along the Thames between the two. In the late 17th century many grand houses were built west of London. Meanwhile working class houses were built east of the city. So as early as the 17th century London was divided into the affluent west end and the poor east end.
Stuart towns were dirty and unsanitary. People threw dirty water and other rubbish in the streets. Furthermore the streets were very narrow. At night they were dark and dangerous.
However there were some improvements in London. In the early 17th century a piped water supply was created. Water from a reservoir travelled along elm pipes through the streets then along lead pipes to individual houses. However you had to pay to be connected to the supply and it was not cheap.
In 1600 people in London walked from one street to another or if they could afford it they travelled by boat along the Thames. However from the early 17th century you could hire a horse drawn carriage called a hackney carriage to take you around London.
In the 1680s the streets of London were lit for the first time. An oil lamp was hung outside every tenth house and was lit for part of the year. The oil lamps did not give much light but they were better than nothing at all.During the 17th century towns grew much larger. That was despite outbreaks of plague. Fleas that lived on rats transmitted bubonic plague. If the fleas bit humans they were likely to fall victim to the disease. Unfortunately at the time nobody knew what caused the plague and nobody had any idea how to treat it.
Plague broke out in London in 1603, 1636 and in 1665. Each time it killed a significant part of the population but each time London recovered. There were always plenty of poor people in the countryside willing to come and work in the town. Of course, other towns as well as London were also periodically devastated by the plague. However the plague of 1665, which affected London and other towns, was the last. We are not certain why.
Rich 17th Century People's Homes
In the late 17th century furniture for the wealthy became more comfortable and much more finely decorated. In the early 17th century furniture was plain and heavy. It was usually made of oak. In the late 17th century furniture for the rich was often made of walnut or (from the 1680s) mahogany. It was decorated in new ways. One was veneering. (Thin pieces of expensive wood were laid over cheaper wood). Some furniture was also inlaid. Wood was carved out and the hollow was filled in with mother of pearl. At this time lacquering arrived in England. Pieces of furniture were coated with lacquer in bright colours.
Furthermore new types of furniture were introduced. In the mid 17th century chests of drawers became common. Grandfather clocks also became popular. Later in the century the bookcase was introduced.
Chairs also became far more comfortable. Upholstered (padded and covered) chairs became common in wealthy people's homes. In the 1680s the first real armchairs appeared.
In the early 17th century the architect Inigo Jones introduced the classical style of architecture (based on ancient Greek and Roman styles). He designed the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall, which was the first purely classical building in England.
The late 17th century was a great age of building grand country homes, displaying the wealth of the upper class at that time.
Poor People's Homes
However all the improvements in furniture did not apply to the poor. Their furniture, such as it was remained very plain and basic. However there were some improvements in poor people's houses in the 17th century.
In the Middle Ages ordinary people's homes were usually made of wood. However in the late 16th and early 17th centuries many were built or rebuilt in stone or brick. By the late 17th century even poor people usually lived in houses made of brick or stone. They were a big improvement over wooden houses. They were warmer and drier.
Furthermore in the 16th century chimneys were a luxury. Most people made do with a hole in the roof to let out smoke. However during the 17th century chimneys became more common and by the late 17th century even the poor had them. Furthermore in 1600 glass windows were a luxury. Poor people made do with linen soaked in linseed oil. However during the 17th century glass became cheaper and by the late 17th century even the poor had glass windows.
In the early 17th century there were only casement windows (ones that open on hinges). In the later 17th century sash windows were introduced. They were in two sections and they slid up and down vertically to open and shut.
Although poor people's homes improved in some ways they remained very small and crowded. Most of the poor lived in huts of 2 or 3 rooms. Some families lived in just one room.
17th Century Food
In the early 17th century people began eating with forks for the first time.
During the century new foods were introduced into England (for the rich) such as bananas and pineapples. New drinks were introduced, tea and coffee. In the late 17th century there were many coffee houses in the towns. Merchants and professional men met there to read newspapers and talk shop.
In the late 17th century the rich began eating ice cream. Many rich people built special underground chambers in the grounds of their houses for preserving ice during the summer. The ice was covered in straw to preserve it.
However for the poor food remained plain and monotonous. They subsisted on food like bread, cheese and onions. Ordinary people also ate pottage each day. This was a kind of stew. It was made by boiling grain in water to make a kind of porridge. You added vegetables and (if you could afford it) pieces of meat or fish.
17th Century Clothes
At the beginning of the 17th century men wore starched collars called ruffs. Women wore frames made of wood or whalebone under their dresses. However the farthingale was soon discarded and the ruff evolved into a large lace collar (for those who could afford it!).
In the 17th century men wore knee length, trouser like garments called breeches. They also wore stockings and boots.
On the upper body men wore linen shirts. In the early 17th century they wore a kind of jacket called a doublet with a cape on top. Men wore their hair long. They also wore beards.
In the late 17th century a man's doublet became a waistcoat and men wore a frock coat over it. With breeches it was rather like a three-piece suit. Men were now clean shaven and they wore wigs.
Women wore a linen nightie like garment called a shift. Over it they wore long dresses. The dress was in two parts the bodice and the skirt. Sometimes women wore two skirts. The upper skirt was gathered up to reveal an underskirt. Women in the 17th century did not wear knickers.
From the mid 17th century it was fashionable for women to wear black patches on their faces such as little stars or crescent moons.
17th Century Games
In the 17th century traditional pastimes such as cards and bowls continued. So did games like tennis and shuttlecock. People also played board games like chess, draughts, backgammon and fox and goose.
The wealthy also played a game called pale-maille (Pall Mall in London gets its name from an area where the game was played).
Charles II also made yachting a popular sport.
The theatre remained popular. However the Puritans disapproved of the theatre and in 1642 they banned it completely. Theatre began again in 1660.
In the early 17th century the stage jutted out into the audience. In the late 17th century it took on its modern form. In the early 17th century boys played women's parts. However after 1660 actresses performed.
Among the poor cruel 'sports' like cock fighting and bull and bear baiting were popular. (A bear or bull was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it).
The first English newspaper was printed in 1621.
Education in the 17th Century
In well off families both boys and girls went to a form of infant school called a petty school. However only boys went to grammar school. Upper class girls (and sometimes boys) were taught by tutors. Middle glass girls might be taught by their mothers. Moreover during the 17th century boarding schools for girls were founded in many towns. In them girls were taught subjects like writing, music and needlework. (It was considered more important for girls to learn 'accomplishments' than to study academic subjects).
In the grammar schools conditions were hard. Boys started work at 6 or 7 in the morning and worked to 5 or 5.30 pm, with breaks for meals. Corporal punishment was usual. Normally the teacher hit naughty boys on the bare buttocks with birch twigs. Other boys in the class would hold the naughty boy down.
Transport in the 17th Century
In 1600 the royal posts were exclusively used to carry the kings correspondence. However in 1635, to raise money, Charles I allowed members of the public to pay his messengers to carry letters. This was the start of the royal mail.
From the middle of the 17th century stagecoaches ran regularly between the major towns. However they were very expensive and they must have been very uncomfortable without springs on rough roads. There was also the danger of highwaymen.
In 1663 the first Turnpike roads opened. You had to pay to use them. The money was used to maintain the roads.
In towns wealthy people were carried in sedan chairs.
In Tudor times goods were carried by packhorse. Or carriers with carts carried goods. However it was still easier to transport goods by water. Around Britain there was a 'coastal trade'. Ships and boats carried goods from one part of the coast to another.
17th Century Medicine
During the 17th century operations were performed by barber-surgeons. Their knowledge of anatomy improved. Medicine also improved. In 1628 William Harvey published his discovery of how blood circulates around the body. Doctors also discovered how to treat malaria with bark from the cinchona tree.
However medicine was still handicapped by wrong ideas about the human body. Most doctors still thought that there were four fluids or 'humours' in the body, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Illness resulted when you had too much of one humour. Nevertheless during the 17th century a more scientific approach to medicine emerged and some doctors began to question traditional ideas.
The Chinese invented the toothbrush. (It was first mentioned in 1498). Toothbrushes arrived in Europe in the 17th century. In the late 17th century they became popular with the wealthy in England.
The average life span in the 17th century was shorter than today. Average life expectancy at birth was only 35. That does not mean that people dropped dead when they reached that age! Instead many of the people born died while they were still children. Out of all people born between one third and one half died before the age of about 16. However if you could survive to your mid-teens you would probably live to your 50s or early 60s. Even in Stuart times some people did live to their 70s or 80s.
17th Century Warfare
In the early 17th century firearms were either matchlocks or wheel locks. A matchlock held a slow burning match, which was touched to the powder when the trigger was pulled. With a wheel lock a metal wheel spun against iron pyrites making sparks. During the 17th century both of these were gradually replaced by the flintlock which worked by hitting a piece of flint and steel making sparks.
Furthermore in the early 17th century the cartridge was invented. The musket ball was placed in a container, which held the right amount of gunpowder to fire it. The soldier no longer had to measure powder from a powder horn into his gun.
Apart from artillery there were two branches of an army. The cavalry were usually armed with wheelock pistols and sabres. They were protected by back plates, breastplates and helmets. The infantry consisted men armed with muskets and those armed with pikes. A musket took a long time to reload and the soldiers were very vulnerable while they did so. Therefore they were protected by men with pikes (a weapon like a long spear). In theory there were two musketeers to each pike man. The pike men usually had a steel helmet but musketeers did not usually wear armour.
About 1680 the ring bayonet was invented. With bayonet fixed a musket could be used as a weapon even if it had been fired and was not reloaded. The bayonet did away with the need for pike men.
The Scientific Revolution
A revolution in thought occurred during the 17th century. The ancient Greeks could be said to be scientists. They thought by using their reason they could work out why the natural world behaves as it does. However the Greeks never tested their theories by carrying out practical experiments. As a result many of their ideas about the natural world were wrong. Unfortunately the ancient Greek philosophers were held in very high esteem and for centuries hardly anyone questioned their theories. This began to change in the late 16th century and the early 17th century. People began to conduct experiments to see if theories about the world were true.
In England a man named Francis Bacon 1561-1626 declared that people should not accept that a theory was true just because a Greek philosopher said it was. He argued that careful observation and experiment was the key to finding out how the natural world works. Gradually this new method of understanding the world took over. By the late 17th century the new scientific approach had triumphed everywhere in Europe. By then scientists were carrying out careful observations and experiments to find out how the world works.
There was a change in attitude during the 17th century. Previously people saw nature almost as a living thing. Now they began to see it as a machine (Isaac Newton called God the 'Divine Watchmaker'). Furthermore Francis Bacon believed that science (or natural philosophy as it was called) could greatly improve people's lives. By the late 17th century there was a new mood of optimism.
In 1645 a group of philosophers and mathematicians began holding meetings to discuss science or natural philosophy. Charles II was interested in science and in 1662 he made the club the Royal Society.
The arts also flourished in late 17th century England. The great architect Christopher Wren 1632-1723 designed many buildings including the most famous St Paul's Cathedral. The poet John Milton 1608-1674 wrote his masterpiece Paradise Lost. It was also the era of the great English composer Henry Purcell 1659-1695.
During the 17th century belief in witchcraft and magic also declined. The last person to be executed for witchcraft in England met her death in 1685. (Incidentally witches were hanged in England not burned).
LIFE IN 18TH CENTURY BRITAIN
From the 1780s onwards Britain was transformed by the industrial revolution. Until then most people lived in the countryside and made their living from farming. By the 1880's most people in Britain lived in towns and made their living from mining or manufacturing industries.
From 1712 a man named Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729) made primitive steam engines for pumping water from mines. In 1769 James Watt (1736-1819) patented a more efficient steam engine. In 1785 his engine was adapted to driving machinery in a cotton factory. The use of steam engines to drive machines slowly transformed industry.
Meanwhile Britain built up a great overseas empire. The North American colonies were lost after the War of Independence 1776-1783. On the other hand after the Seven Years War 1756-1763 Britain captured Canada and India. Britain also took Dominica, Grenada, St Vincent and Tobago in the West Indies.
In 1707 the Act of Union was passed. Scotland was united with England and Wales (although many Scots bitterly opposed the move). England became part of Great Britain.
18th Century Society
In the early 18th century the population of Britain was about 6 1/2 million. In the late 18th century it grew rapidly and by 1801 it was over 9 million.
Owning land was the main form of wealth in the 18th century. Political power and influence was in the hands of rich landowners. At the top were the nobility. Below them were a class of nearly rich landowners called the gentry. In the early 18th century there was another class of landowners called yeomen between the rich and the poor. However during the century this class became less and less numerous.
However other middle class people such as merchants and professional men became richer and more numerous, especially in the towns.
Below them were the great mass of the population, craftsmen and labourers. In the 18th century probably half the population lived as subsistence or bare survival level.
In the early 18th century England suffered from gin drinking. It was cheap and it was sold everywhere as you did not need a license to sell it. Many people ruined their health by drinking gin. Yet for many poor people drinking gin was their only comfort. The situation improved after 1751 when a tax was imposed on gin.
At the end of the 18th century a group of Evangelical Christians called the Clapham Sect were formed. They campaigned for an end to slavery and cruel sports. They were later called the Clapham Sect because so many of them lived in Clapham.
18th Century Towns
During the 18th century towns grew larger. Nevertheless most towns still had populations of less than 10,000. However in the late 18th century new industrial towns in the Midland and the North of England mushroomed. Meanwhile the population of London grew to nearly 1 million by the end of the century.
Many towns were improved in the later 18th century when bodies of men called Paving or Improvement Commissioners were formed by Acts of Parliament. They had powers to pave and clean the streets and sometimes to light them with oil lamps. Some also arranged collections of rubbish. Since most of it was organic it could be sold as fertiliser.
18th Century Agriculture
During the 18th century agriculture was gradually transformed by an agricultural revolution. Until 1701 seed was sown by hand. In that year Jethro Tull invented a seed drill, which sowed seed in straight lines. He also invented a horse drawn hoe which hoed the land and destroyed weed between rows of crops.
Furthermore until the 18th century most livestock was slaughtered at the beginning of winter because farmers could not grow enough food to feed their animals through the winter months.
Until the 18th century most land was divided into 3 fields. Each year 2 fields were sown with crops while the third was left fallow (unused). The Dutch began to grow swedes or turnips on land instead of leaving it fallow. (The turnips restored the soil's fertility). When they were harvested the turnips could be stored to provide food for livestock over the winter. The new methods were popularised in England by a man named Robert 'Turnip' Townsend (1674-1741).
Under the 3 field system, which still covered much of England, all the land around a village or small town, was divided into 3 huge fields. Each farmer owned some strips of land in each field. During the 18th century land was enclosed. That means it was divided up so each farmer had all his land in one place instead of scattered across 3 fields. Enclosure allowed farmers to use their land more efficiently.
Also in the 18th century farmers like Robert Bakewell began scientific stockbreeding (selective breeding). Farm animals grew much larger and they gave more meat, wool and milk.
However despite the improvements in farming food for ordinary people remained plain and monotonous. For them meat was a luxury. They lived mainly on bread, butter, potatoes and tea.
18th Century Homes
In the 18th century a small minority of the population lived in luxury. The rich built great country houses. A famous landscape gardener called Lancelot Brown (1715-1783) created beautiful gardens. (He was known as 'Capability' Brown from his habit of looking at land and saying it had 'great capabilities').
The leading architect of the 18th century was Robert Adam (1728-1792). He created a style called neo-classical and he designed many 18th century country houses.
The wealthy owned comfortable upholstered furniture. They owned beautiful furniture, some of it veneered or inlaid. In the 18th century much fine furniture was made by Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779), George Hepplewhite (?-1786) and Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806). The famous clockmaker James Cox (1723-1800) made exquisite clocks for the rich.
However the poor had none of these things. Craftsmen and labourers lived in 2 or 3 rooms. The poorest people lived in just one room. Their furniture was very simple and plain.
In 1778 Joseph Bramah invented patented the modern water closet.
18th Century Clothes
In the 18th century men wore knee-length trouser like garments called breeches and stockings. They also wore waistcoats and frock coats. They wore linen shirts. Both men and women wore wigs and for men three-cornered hats were popular. Men wore buckled shoes.
Women wore stays (a bodice with strips of whalebone) and hooped petticoats under their dresses. Women in the 18th century did not wear knickers.
Fashionable women carried folding fans. Fashion was very important for the wealthy but poor people's clothes hardly changed at all.
18th Century Leisure
Traditional games remained popular. These included games such as chess, draughts and backgammon. They also played dominoes and tennis and a rough version of football.
Horse racing was carried on for centuries before the 18th century but at this time it became a professional sport. The Jockey Club was formed in 1727. The Derby began in 1780.
For the well off card games and gambling were popular. The theatre was also popular. In the early 18th century most towns did not have a purpose built theatre and plays were staged in buildings like inns. However in the late 18th century theatres were built in most towns. Assembly rooms were also built in most towns. In them people played cards and attended balls. In London pleasure gardens were created.
Moreover a kind of cricket was played long before the 18th century but at that time it took on its modern form. The first cricket club was formed at Hambledon in Hampshire about 1750.
Also in the 18th century rich people visited spas. They believed that bathing in and/or drinking spa water could cure illness. Towns like Buxton, Bath and Tunbridge prospered. At the end of the 18th century wealthy people began to spend time at the seaside. (Again they believed that bathing in seawater was good for your health). Seaside resorts like Brighton, Bognor, Southport and Blackpool boomed.
Reading was also a popular pastime and the first novels were published at this time. Books were still expensive but in many towns you could pay to join a circulating library. The first daily newspaper in England was printed in 1702. The Times began in 1785.
Many people enjoyed cruel 'sports' like cockfighting and bull baiting. (A bull was chained to a post and dogs were trained to attack it). Rich people liked fox hunting.
Public executions were also popular and they drew large crowds. Boxing without gloves was also popular (although some boxers began to wear leather gloves in the 18th century). Puppet shows like Punch and Judy also drew the crowds. Furthermore in the late 18th century the circus became a popular form of entertainment.
Smoking clay pipes was popular in the 18th century. So was taking snuff.
Wealthy young men would go on a 'grand tour' of Europe lasting one or two years.
18th Century Education
In the early 18th century charity schools were founded in many towns. They were sometimes called Blue Coat Schools because of the colour of the children's uniforms.
Boys from well off families went to grammar schools. Girls from well off families also went to school but it was felt important for them to learn 'accomplishments' like embroidery and music rather than academic subjects.
However non-comformists or dissenters (Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England) were not allowed to attend most public schools. Instead they went to their own dissenting academies.
18th Century Transport
Transport was greatly improved during the 18th century. Groups of rich men formed turnpike trusts. Acts of Parliament gave them the right to improve and maintain certain roads. Travellers had to pay tolls to use them. The first turnpikes were created as early as 1663 but they became far more common in the 18th century.
Transporting goods was also made much easier by digging canals. In the early 18th century goods were often transported by packhorse. Moving heavy goods was very expensive. However in 1759 the Duke of Bridgewater decided to build a canal to bring coal from his estate at Worsley to Manchester. He employed an engineer called James Brindley. When it was completed the Bridgewater canal halved the price of coal in Manchester. Many more canals were dug in the late 18th century and the early 19th century. They played a major role in the industrial revolution by making it cheaper to transport goods.
Travel in the 18th century was made dangerous by highwaymen. The most famous is Dick Turpin (1705-1739). Originally a butcher Turpin does not deserve his romantic reputation. In reality he was a cruel and brutal man. Like many of his fellow highwaymen he was hanged.
Smuggling was also very common in the 18th century. It could be very profitable as import duties on goods like rum and tobacco were very high. There were also wreckers. On stormy nights they deliberately lured ships onto rocks with lights. When the ship was wrecked they stole anything they could.
18th Century Medicine
Knowledge of anatomy greatly improved in the 18th century. Until 1745 craftsmen called barber-surgeons performed operations. However in that year the barber and the surgeon became two different jobs. Their organisation The United Company of Barber-Surgeons split in two. Surgeons began to be university educated.
The famous 18th century surgeon John Hunter (1728-1793) is sometimes called the Father of Modern Surgery. He invented new procedures such as tracheotomy.
Among other advances a Scottish surgeon named James Lind discovered that fresh fruit or lemon juice could cure or prevent scurvy. He published his findings in 1753.
A major scourge of the 18th century was smallpox. Even if it did not kill you it could leave you scarred with pox marks. Then, in 1721 Lady Mary Wortley Montague introduced inoculation from Turkey. You cut the patient then introduced matter from a smallpox pustule into the wound. The patient would (hopefully!) develop a mild case of the disease and be immune in future.
Then, in 1796 a doctor named Edward Jenner (1749-1823) realised that milkmaids who caught cowpox were immune to smallpox. He invented vaccination. The patient was cut then matter from a cowpox pustule was introduced. The patient gained immunity to smallpox.
During the 18th century superstition declined. In 1700 many people believed that scrofula (a form of tubercular infection) could be healed by a monarch's touch. (Scrofula was called the kings evil). Queen Anne (1702-1714) was the last British monarch to touch for scrofula. Despite the decline of superstition there were still many quacks in the 18th century. Limited medical knowledge meant many people were desperate for a cure. One of the most common treatments, for the wealthy, was bathing in or drinking spa water, which they believed could cure all kinds of illness.
Art and Science in the 18th Century
During the 18th century England produced two great portrait painters, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). Meanwhile the artist William Hogarth (1697-1764) painted scenes showing the harsh side of 18th century life. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in 1768.
In theatre the greatest actor of the 18th century was David Garrick (1717-1779).
In science Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) discovered oxygen. Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) discovered hydrogen. He also calculated the mass and density of the earth. Willim Herschel (1738-1822) discovered Uranus. The Scottish engineer Thomas Telford (1757-1834) built roads, canals and the Menai suspension bridge.
Religion in the 18th Century
The early 18th century was notable for its lack of religious zeal. Most people went to church on Sunday but very often they were indifferent. Some of the clergy continued to do good work but generally there was a lack of energy in the church.
This began to change in the 1730s. First a man named George Whitefield (1714-1770) became a great preacher. It was said that he could preach to crowds of 20,000 people (without a microphone). Then in 1738 John Wesley (1703-1791) founded the Methodists. Wesley did not want to break with the Church of England. He wanted his followers to remain within it but in the end this proved impossible and the Methodists were forced to become a separate denomination.
Meanwhile at the end of the 18th century religious enthusiasm began to revive. Within the Church of England there were a number of Evangelicals campaigning for an end to slavery.
LIFE IN 19TH CENTURY BRITAIN
In the 19th century Britain became the world's first industrial society. It also became the first urban society. By 1851 more than half the population lived in towns.
The population of Britain boomed during the 19th century. In 1801 it was about 9 million. By 1901 it had risen to about 41 million.
This was despite the fact that many people emigrated to North America and Australia to escape poverty. About 15 million people left Britain between 1815 and 1914.
However there were also many immigrants. In the 1840s many people came from Ireland, fleeing a terrible potato famine. In the 1880s the Tsar began persecuting Russian Jews. Some fled to Britain and settled in the East End of London.
19th Century Society
In the early 19th century Britain was an oligarchy. Only a small minority of men (and no women) were allowed to vote. The situation began to change in 1832 when the vote was given to more men. Constituencies were also redrawn and many industrial towns were represented for the first time. The franchise was extended again in 1867 and 1883. In 1872 the secret ballot was introduced.
However in the 19th century at least 80% of the population was working class. In order to be considered middle class you had to have at least one servant. Most servants were female. (Male servants were much more expensive because men were paid much higher wages). Throughout the 19th century 'service' was a major employer of women.
In the 19th century families were much larger than today. That was partly because infant mortality was high. People had many children and accepted that not all of them would survive.
In a 19th century family the Father was head of the family. He wife and children respected him and obeyed him (at least that was the theory!). Until 1879 a man could legally beat his wife and until 1882 all a woman's property, even the money she earned, belonged to her husband. Divorce was made legal in 1857 but it was very rare in the 19th century.
In the early 19th century a group of Evangelical Christians called the Clapham Sect were active in politics. They campaigned for an end to slavery and cruel sports. They gained their name because so many of them lived in Clapham.
Organised religion was much more important in the 19th century than it is today. Nevertheless in 1851 a survey showed that only about 40% of the population were at church or chapel on a given Sunday. Even allowing for those who were ill or could not make it for some other reason it meant that half the population did not go to church. Certainly many of the poor had little or no contact with the church. In 1881 a similar survey showed only about 1/3 of the population at church on a given Sunday. In the late 19th century organised religion was in decline.
Work in the 19th Century
During the 19th century the factory system gradually replaced the system of people working in their own homes or in small workshops. In England the textile industry was the first to be transformed. The changes caused a great deal of suffering to poor people.
The industrial revolution created a huge demand for female and child labour. Children had always done some work but at least before the 19th century they worked in their own homes with their parents or on land nearby. Children's work was largely seasonal so they did have some time to play. When children worked in textile factories they often worked for more than 12 hours a day.
In the early 19th century parliament passed laws to curtail child labour. However they all proved to be unenforceable. The first effective law was passed in 1833. It was effective because for the first time factory inspectors were appointed to make sure the law was being obeyed. The new law banned children under 9 from working in textile factories. It said that children aged 9 to 13 must not work for more than 12 hours a day or 48 hours a week. Children aged 13 to 18 must not work for more than 69 hours a week. Furthermore nobody under 18 was allowed to work at night (from 8.30 pm to 5.30 am). Children aged 9 to 13 were to be given 2 hours education a day.
Conditions in coalmines were often terrible. Children as young as 5 worked underground. In 1842 a law banned children under 10 and all females from working underground. In 1844 a law banned all children under 8 from working. Then in 1847 a Factory Act said that women and children could only work 10 hours a day in textile factories.
In 1867 the law was extended to all factories. (A factory was defined as a place where more than 50 people were employed in a manufacturing process).
In the 19th century boys were made to climb up chimneys to clean them. This barbaric practice was ended by law in 1875.
In the 1850s and 1860s skilled craftsmen formed national trade unions. In 1868 a group of them formed the TUC. However unskilled workers did not become organised until the late 1880s.
Cities in the 19th Century
Conditions in early 19th century towns were often dreadful. However there was one improvement. Gaslight was first used in 1807 in Pall Mall in London. Many towns introduced gas street light in the 1820s.
However early 19th century towns were dirty, unsanitary and overcrowded.
In the 18th century groups of men called Improvement Commissioners or Pavement Commissioners were formed. They had powers to pave, clean and sometimes to light streets (with oil lamps). However at that time England was divided into areas called parishes. Commissioners only had powers in certain parishes. As towns grew new houses were built in other parishes nearby. Unfortunately the commissioners had no authority in the new suburbs.
In them streets were very often unpaved and they were not cleaned. Rubbish was not collected and it was allowed to accumulate in piles in the streets. Since most of it was organic when it turned black and sticky it was used as fertiliser.
Furthermore in the early 19th century poor people often had cesspits, which were not emptied very often. Later in the century many people used earth closets. (A pail with a box containing granulated over it. When you pulled a lever clay covered the contents of the pail). In the early 19th century only wealthy people had flushing lavatories. However in the late 19th century they became common.
In the early 19th century poor families often had to share toilets and on Sunday mornings queues formed.
Given these horrid conditions it is not surprising that disease was common. Life expectancy in towns was low (significantly lower than in the countryside) and infant mortality was very high. British towns and cities suffered outbreaks of cholera in 1831-32 and in 1848-49. Fortunately the last outbreak at last spurred people into action.
In the late 19th century most towns dug sewers and created piped water supplies, which made life much healthier.
Poverty in the 19th Century
We know more about poverty in the 19th century than in previous ages because, for the first time, people did accurate surveys and they made detailed descriptions of the lives of the poor. We also have photographs and they tell a harrowing story.
The worst thing about poverty in the 19th century was the callous attitude of many Victorians. They were great believers in 'self-help'. That is they thought everyone should be self-reliant and not look to other people for help. They also believed that anyone could become successful through sheer hard work and thrift. Logically that meant that if you were poor it was your fault. Many Victorians (not all) felt that the poor were to blame for their poverty.
At the end of the 19th century more than 25% of the population was living at or below subsistence level. Surveys indicated that around 10% were very poor and could not afford even basic necessities such as enough nourishing food. Between 15% and 20% had just enough money to live on (provided they did not lose their job or have to take time off work through illness).
If you had no income at all you had to enter the workhouse. The workhouses were feared and hated by the poor. They were meant to be as unpleasant as possible to deter poor people from asking the state for help. In workhouses in the mid-19th century you could not wear your own clothes. You had to wear a uniform. Husbands and wives were separated and children were separated from their parents. Inmates had to do hard, unpleasant work such as breaking stones or pulling apart old rope. There were also many strict rules. However in the late 19th century workhouses gradually became a little bit more humane.
At the end of the 19th century attitudes to poverty were changing. In 1878 William Booth formed the Salvation Army, which did much good work among the poor (and still does). Also in some places in the 1890s teachers began providing poor children with a free breakfast of bread and jam and a mug of cocoa. (Maybe not a nourishing meal but better than nothing). Many poor children were malnourished and teachers realised it was no use trying to teach pupils who came to school hungry.
Furthermore in the 1890s boot funds were formed. The boot fund was a charity that provided free boots or shoes for poor children. (In the 19th century and early 20th century many children did not have footwear and just went barefoot).
It is horrific that so many people were very poor in 19th century Britain. However things had always been that way. In the 18th century perhaps half the population lived at subsistence level or below it. Before the 20th century dire poverty was accepted as a fact of life.
19th Century Homes
Well off Victorians lived in very comfortable houses. (Although their servants lived in cramped quarters, often in the attic). For the first time furniture was mass-produced. That meant it was cheaper but unfortunately standards of design fell. To us middle class 19th century homes would seem overcrowded with furniture, ornaments and knick-knacks. However only a small minority could afford this comfortable lifestyle.
In the early 19th century housing for the poor was often dreadful. Often they lived in 'back-to-backs'. These were houses of three (or sometimes only two) rooms, one of top of the other. The houses were literally back-to-back. The back of one house joined onto the back of another and they only had windows on one side.
The bottom room was used as a living room cum kitchen. The two rooms upstairs were used as bedrooms. The worst homes were cellar dwellings. These were one-room cellars. They were damp and poorly ventilated. The poorest people slept on piles of straw because they could not afford beds.
Fortunately in the 1840s local councils passed by-laws banning cellar dwellings. They also banned any new back to backs. The old ones were gradually demolished and replaced over the following decades.
In the early 19th century skilled workers usually lived in 'through houses' i.e. ones that were not joined to the backs of other houses. Usually they had two rooms downstairs and two upstairs. The downstairs front room was kept for best. The family kept their best furniture and ornaments in this room. They spent most of the their time in the downstairs back room, which served as a kitchen and living room. As the 19th century passed more and more working class Victorians could afford this lifestyle.
The carpet sweeper was invented in 1876.
In the late 19th century workers houses greatly improved. After 1875 most towns passed building regulations which stated that e.g. new houses must be a certain distance apart, rooms must be of a certain size and have windows of a certain size.
By the 1880s most working class people lived in houses with two rooms downstairs and two or even three bedrooms. Most had a small garden.
At the end of the 19th century some houses for skilled workers were built with the latest luxury - an indoor toilet.
Most homes also had a scullery. In it was a 'copper', a metal container for heating water for washing clothes. The copper was filled with water and soap powder was added. To wash the clothes they were turned with a wooden tool called a dolly. Or you used a metal plunger with holes in it to push clothes up and down. Wet clothes were wrung through a mangle to dry them.
At the beginning of the 19th century people cooked over an open fire. This was very wasteful as most of the heat went up the chimney. In the 1820s an iron cooker called a range was introduced. It was a much more efficient way of cooking because most of the heat was contained within. By the mid-19th century ranges were common. Most of them had a boiler behind the coal fire where water was heated.
However even at the end of the 19th century there were still many families living in one room. Old houses were sometimes divided up into separate dwellings. Sometimes if windows were broken slum landlords could not or would not replace them. So they were 'repaired' with paper. Or rags were stuffed into holes in the glass.
Gaslight first became common in well off people's homes in the 1840s. By the late 1870s most working class homes had gaslight, at least downstairs. Bedrooms might have oil lamps. Gas fires first became common in the 1880s. Gas cookers first became common in the 1890s.
Joseph Swan invented the electric light bulb in 1878. (Thomas Edison invented an improved version in 1879). The first town to have electric streetlight was Godalming in 1881. However electric light was expensive and it took a long time to replace gas in people's homes.
In the early 19th century only rich people had bathrooms. People did take baths but only a few people had actual rooms for washing. In the 1870s and 1880s many middle class Victorians had bathrooms built. The water was heated by gas. Working class people had a tin bath and washed in front of the kitchen range.
In the 1890s, for the well to do, a new style or art and decoration appeared called Art Nouveau. It involved swirling and flowing lines and stylised plant forms.
19th Century Food
In the early 19th century most of the working class lived on a dreary diet of bread, butter, potatoes and bacon. Butcher's meat was a luxury. However things greatly improved in the late 19th century. Railways and steamships made it possible to import cheap grain from North America so bread became cheaper. Refrigeration made it possible to import cheap meat from Argentina and Australia. Consumption of sugar also increased. By the end of the 19th century most people (not all) had a reasonably varied diet.
The first fish and chip shops in Britain opened in the 1860s. By the late 19th century they were common in towns and cities.
In the late 19th century the first convenience foods in tins and jars went on sale. Although the principle of canning was invented at the end of the 18th century tinned food first became widely available in the 1880s. Furthermore in the 1870s margarine, a cheap substitute for butter, was invented. Tomato ketchup was invented in 1874.
Several new biscuits were invented in the 19th century including the Garibaldi (1861), the cream cracker (1885) and the Digestive (1892). Furthermore new sweets were invented during the 19th century including peanut brittle (1890) and liquorice allsorts (1899).
For centuries people drank chocolate but the first chocolate bar was made in 1847. Milk chocolate was invented in 1875.
19th Century Games
In 1871 the Bank Holiday Act gave workers a few paid holidays each year. Also in the 1870s some clerks and skilled workers began to have a weeks paid annual holiday. However even at the end of the 19th century most people had no paid holidays except bank holidays.
In the early 19th century everyone had Sunday off. In the 1870s some skilled workers began to have Saturday afternoon off. In the 1890s most workers gained a half day holiday on Saturday and the weekend was born.
During the 19th century sports became organised. The London Football Association devised the rules of football in 1863. The first international match was held between England and Scotland in 1872. In 1867 John Graham Chambers drew up a list of rules for boxing. They were called the Queensberry Rules after the Marquis of Queensberry. The Amateur Athletics Association was founded in 1880.
Several new sports and games were invented during the 19th century. William Webb Ellis is supposed to have invented Rugby at Rugby school in 1823 when he picked up a football and ran with it. Although a form of tennis was played since the Middle Ages lawn tennis was invented in 1873. Snooker was invented in India in 1875. Volleyball was invented in 1895.
At the end of the 19th century bicycling became a popular sport. The safety bicycle went on sale in 1885 and in 1892 John Boyd Dunlop invented pneumatic tyres (much more comfortable than solid rubber ones!) Bicycling clubs became common.
Ludo was originally an Indian game. It was introduced into Britain c. 1880.
Archery was considered a suitable sport for women. It was 'ladylike'.
Reading was also popular in the 19th century. In 1841 Edgar Allen Poe published the first detective story The Murders In The Rue Morgue. The first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887 by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Many middle class Victorians enjoyed musical evenings when they gathered around a piano and sang.
Middle class Victorians were very fond of the theatre. In the late 19th century there were also music halls where a variety of acts were performed.
In the 19th century going to the seaside was very popular with those who could afford it. The first pleasure pier was built at Brighton in 1823 and soon they appeared at seaside resorts across Britain.
The steam driven printing press was invented in 1814 allowing newspapers to become more common. Stamp duty on newspapers was abolished in 1855, which made them cheaper. However newspapers did not become really common until the end of the 19th century. In 1896 the Daily Mail appeared. It was written in a deliberately sensational style to attract readers with little education.
One new hobby in the 19th century was photography. Henry Fox Talbot took the first photograph in 1835. However photography was more than just a pastime. In 1871 a writer said that one of the great comforts for the working class was having a photo of a family member who was working a long way off. They could be reminded what their loved one looked like.
The first cheap camera was invented in 1888 by George Eastman. Afterwards photography became a popular hobby.
In the late 19th century town councils laid out public parks for recreation. The first children's playground was built in a park in Manchester in 1859.
Lastly, for those who like shopping, the first department store opened in London in 1863.
In the 19th century the 'modern' Christmas evolved. Before then Christmas wasn't especially important. It was one of only many festivals celebrated during the year. However the Victorians invented the Chistmas card and the Christmas cracker. The Christmas tree was known in England before the 19th century but it was really made popular when the royal were shown in a magazine illustration with one. Father Christmas or Santa Claus became the figure we know today in the 19th century.
Transport and Communications in the 19th Century
These greatly improved during the 19th century. In the mid 19th century travel was revolutionised by railways. They made travel much faster. (They also removed the danger of highwaymen). The Stockton and Darlington railway opened in 1825. However the first major railway was from Liverpool to Manchester.It opened in 1830. In the 1840s there was a huge boom in building railways and most towns in Britain were connected. In the late 19th century many branch lines were built connecting many villages.
The first underground railway in Britain was built in London in 1863. Steam locomotives pulled the carriages. The first electric underground trains began running in London in 1890.
From 1829 horse drawn omnibuses began running in London. They soon followed in other towns. In the 1860s and 1870s horse drawn trams began running in many towns.
Meanwhile at sea travel was revolutionised by the steam ship. By 1815 steamships were crossing the English Channel. Furthermore it used to take several weeks to cross the Atlantic. Then in 1838 a steam ship called the Sirius made the journey in 19 days. However steam did not completely replace sail until 1897 when Charles Parsons invented the steam turbine.
In the early 19th century the recipient of a letter had to pay the postage, not the sender. Then in 1840 Rowland Hill invented the Penny Post. From then on the sender of a letter paid. Cheap mail made it much easier for people to keep in touch with loved ones who lived a long way off.
The telegraph was invented in 1837. A cable was laid across the Channel in 1851 and after 1866 it was possible to send messages across the Atlantic.
A Scot, Alexander Graham Bell, invented the telephone in 1876. The first telephone exchange in Britain opened in 1879.
Education in the 19th Century
In the early 19th century the churches provided schools for poor children. From 1833 the government provided them with grants. There were also dame schools. They were run by women who taught a little reading, writing and arithmetic. However many dame schools were really a child minding service.
The state did not take responsibility for education until 1870. Forsters Education Act laid down that schools should be provided for all children. If there were not enough places in existing schools then board schools were built. In 1880 school was made compulsory for 5 to 10 year olds. However school was not free, except for the poorest children until 1891 when fees were abolished. From 1899 children were required to go to school until they were 12.
Girls from upper class families were taught by a governess. Boys were often sent to public schools like Eaton.
Middle class boys went to grammar schools. Middle class girls went to private schools were they were taught 'accomplishments' such as music and sewing.
Discipline in 19th century schools was savage. Furthermore children who were poor at lessons were humiliated by being forced to wear a cap with the word 'dunce' on it.
19th Century Clothes
In the 19th century, apart from cotton shirts, men's clothes consisted of three parts. In the 18th century they wore knee length breeches but in the 19th century men wore trousers. They also wore waistcoats and coats.
In the early 19th century women wore light dresses. In the 1830s they had puffed sleeves. In the 1850s they wore frames of whalebone or steel wire called crinolines under their skirts. In the late 1860s women began to wear a kind of half crinoline. The front of the skirt was flat but it bulged outwards at the back. This was called a bustle and it disappeared in the 1890s.
From the 1840s onwards it was fashionable for women to have very small waists so they wore corsets.
About 1800 women started wearing underwear for the first time. They were called drawers. Originally women wore a pair of drawers i.e. they were actually two garments, one for each leg, tied together at the top. In the late 19th century women's drawers were called knickerbockers then just knickers.
The Victorians usually wore hats. Wealthy men wore top hats. Middle class men wore bowler hats and working men wore cloth caps.
Before the 19th century children were always dressed like little adults. In Victorian times the first clothes made especially for children appeared such as sailor suits.
A number of inventions to do with clothing were made in the 19th century. The safety pin was invented in 1849. The electric iron was invented by Henry Seely in 1882 but it did not become common until the 1930s. Dry cleaning was invented in 1855. The zip fastener was invented in 1893. Meanwhile In 1863 Butterick made the first paper dress pattern.
Health and Medicine in the 19th century
Medicine and surgery made great advances in the 19th century. Louis Pasteur 1822-1895 proved that disease was caused by microscopic organisms. He also invented a way of sterilising liquids by heating them (called pasteurisation). He also invented vaccination for anthrax (which killed many domestic animals) and for rabies.
Immunization against diphtheria was invented in 1890. A vaccine for typhoid was invented in 1897.
Surgery was greatly improved by the discovery of Anaesthetics. An American dentist Henry H. Morgan began using ether in 1846. James Simpson began using chloroform for operations in 1847. In 1865 Joseph Lister discovered antiseptic surgery, which enabled surgeons to perform many more complicated operations. Rubber gloves were first used in surgery in 1890.
The hypodermic syringe was invented in France in 1853. and in 1895 x-rays were discovered.
Nursing was greatly improved by two nurses, Florence Nightingale 1820-1910 and Mary Seacole 1805-1881 who both nursed soldiers during the Crimean War 1854-56. From 1865 women were allowed to become doctors.
However the terrible disease tuberculosis (also called consumption) was very common in the 19th century. Fortunately tuberculosis declined after 1850.
Warfare in the 19th century
The industrial revolution transformed warfare. Railways meant armies could be transported much faster than before. The telegraph meant that messages could also be transmitted much faster.
In 1807 a Scot named John Forsyth invented the percussion cap. When a trigger was pulled a hammer hit a container of fulminate of mercury, which exploded and ignited the charge of gunpowder. The percussion cap replaced the flint lock.
In 1827 a Prussian named Johann von Dreyse invented a way of combining the charge of gunpowder and the detonator in a single cartridge.
In 1837 von Dreyse invented the first breech-loading firearm, the needle-gun. Over the following decades the breech loading rifle was refined and improved.
Breech loading guns greatly increased the rate of fire. The British army began using breech loading guns in 1865.
The range of guns was improved by rifling. Some guns had been rifled for centuries but it only became commonplace in the 19th century. Meanwhile in 1835 Samuel Colt invented the revolver. Traditionally the cavalry fought with pistols and swords but the revolver made swords obsolete.
In the 19th century many people experimented with machine guns. In 1862 Richard Gatling invented the Gatling gun. However the first really successful machine gun was the maxim gun, invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884. It was adopted by the British army in 1889.
War at sea was changed by exploding shells, by steam engines and by iron ships. Britain's first iron warship, HMS warrior, was launched in 1860. Soon the traditional gun deck was replaced by turret guns on the top deck.
Meanwhile conditions in the services greatly improved. Uniforms were introduced for sailors in 1857. Flogging in the army and navy was abolished in 1881.
LIFE IN 20TH CENTURY BRITAIN
There were two sides to the 20th century. On the one hand there were severe recessions in the early 1930s and in the 1980s and 1990s. There were also two terrible world wars. On the other hand there was a vast improvement in the standard of living of ordinary people. Life expectancy also rose. In 1900 it was about 47 for a man and 50 for a woman. By the end of the century it was about 75 and 80. Life was also greatly improved by new inventions.
Even during the depression of the 1930s things improved for most of the people who had a job. Real incomes rose significantly during the decade. The same was true of the 1980s.
British Society in the 20th Century
British society changed greatly during the 20th century. In 1914 only about 20% of the population was middle class. By 1939 the figure was about 30%. In the late 20th century the number of 'blue collar' or manual workers declined rapidly but the number of 'white collar' workers in offices and service industries increased rapidly.
In the 1950s large numbers of West Indians arrived in Britain. Also from the 1950s many Asians came. In the late 20th century Britain became a multi-cultural society.
There was another changed in British society. In the late 20th century divorce and single parent families became much more common.
Meanwhile the rights and status of women greatly improved in the 20th century. In 1918 women over 30 were allowed to vote. In 1928 they were allowed to vote at the age of 21 (the same as men). In 1970 the law was changed so women had to be paid the same wages as men for doing work of equal value. From 1975 it was made illegal to sack women for becoming pregnant. Also in 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act made it illegal to discriminate against women in employment, education and training. In the late 20th century the number of women in managerial and other highly paid jobs greatly increased.
Also, in the 1950s young people had significant disposable income for the first time. A distinct 'youth culture' emerged, first with teddy boys, then in the 1960s with mods and rockers and in the late 1970s with punks and also with rock music. A revolution in music was led by Elvis Presley and Bill Hayley.
Work and Industry in the 20th Century
In the years 1900-1914 the economy was stable and unemployment was quite low. However during the 1920s there was mass unemployment. For most of the decade it hovered between 10% and 12%. Then, in the early 1930s, the economy was struck by depression. By the start of 1933 unemployment among insured workers was 22.8%. However unemployment fell substantially in 1933, 1934 and 1935. By January 1936 it stood at 13.9%. Unemployment continued to fall and by 1938 it was around 10%.
However although a partial recovery took place in the mid and late 1930s there were semi-permanent depression areas in the North of England, Scotland and South Wales. On the other hand new industries such as car and aircraft making and electronics prospered in the Midlands and the South of England where unemployment was relatively low.
The problems of depression and high unemployment were only really solved by the Second World War, which started industry booming again. Unemployment remained very low in the late 1940s and the 1950s and 1960s were a long period of prosperity.
However this ended in the mid-1970s. In 1973 there was still full employment in Britain (it stood at 3%). However shortly afterwards a period of high inflation and high unemployment began. In the late 1970s unemployment stood at around 5.5%.
However in the years 1980-1982 Britain was gripped by recession and unemployment grew much worse. It reached a peak in 1986 then it fell to 1990. Unfortunately another recession began in 1990 and unemployment rose again. However unemployment began to fall again in 1993 and it continued to fall till the end of the century.
Meanwhile in the late 20th century a change was coming over the British economy, sometimes called de-industrialisation. Traditional industries such as coal mining, textiles and shipbuilding declined rapidly. On the other hand service industries such as tourism, education, retail and finance grew rapidly and this sector became the main source of employment.
Poverty in the 20th Century
At the beginning of the 20th century surveys showed that 25% of the population were living in poverty. They found that at least 15% were living at subsistence level. They had just enough money for food, rent, fuel and clothes. They could not afford 'luxuries' such as newspapers or public transport. About 10% were living in below subsistence level and could not afford an adequate diet.
The surveys found that the main cause of poverty was low wages. The main cause of extreme poverty was the loss of the main breadwinner. If dad was dead, ill or unemployed it was a disaster. Mum might get a job but women were paid much lower wages than men.
Surveys also found that poverty tended to go in a cycle. Workers might live in poverty when they were children but things usually improved when they left work and found a job. However when they married and had children things would take a turn for the worse. Their wages might be enough to support a single man comfortably but not enough to support a wife and children too. However when the children grew old enough to work things would improve again. Finally, when he was old a worker might find it hard to find work, except the most low paid kind and be driven into poverty again.
In 1900 some women made their underwear from bags that grocers kept rice or flour in. Poor children often did not wear underwear. Some poor families made prams from orange boxes.
A liberal government was elected in 1906 and they made some reforms. From that year poor children were given free school meals. In January 1909 the first old age pensions were paid. They were hardly generous - only 5 shillings a week, which was a paltry sum even in those days and they were only paid to people over 70. Nevertheless it was a start.
Also in 1909 the government formed wages councils. In those days some people worked in the so-called 'sweated industries' such as making clothes and they were very poorly paid and had to work extremely long hours just to survive. The wages councils set minimum pay levels for certain industries.
In 1910 the first labour exchanges where jobs were advertised were set up.
Then in 1911 the government passed an act establishing sickness benefits for workers. The act also provided unemployment benefit for workers in certain trades such as shipbuilding, where periods of unemployment were common. In 1920 unemployment was extended to most workers although it was not extended to agricultural workers until 1936.
Things greatly improved after the First World War. A survey in 1924 showed that 4% of the population were living in extreme poverty. (A tremendous improvement from the period before 1914 when it was about 10%). A survey in Liverpool in 1928 found that 14% of the population were living at bare subsistence level. (That figure may not apply to the whole of Britain as Liverpool was a poor city). In 1929-30 a survey in London found that about 10% of the population were living at subsistence level.
A survey in 1936 found that just under 4% were living at bare survival level. Poverty had by no means disappeared by the 1930s but it was much less than ever before.
Pensions and unemployment benefit were made more generous in 1928 and in 1930. In 1931 unemployment benefit was cut by 10% but it was restored in 1934. Furthermore prices continued to fall during the 1930s. By 1935 a man on the 'dole' was about as well off as a skilled worker in 1905, a measure of how much living standards had risen.
However even in the 1920s in the poorest areas children played barefoot because they couldn't afford boots or shoes. There was a charity called the Boot Fund which provided shoes for poor children and by the end of that decade children normally wore them.
Even so in 1939 many children from cities were evacuated to the countryside to be safe from bombing. Many of them had never seen the countryside before. Worse some of them were used to sleeping in their parents bed or even under it. Some poor children were not used to sleeping in a bed at all.
After 1945 things improved when child benefit was introduced. By 1950 absolute poverty had almost disappeared from Britain. Absolute poverty can be defined as not having enough money to eat an adequate diet or afford enough clothes.
However there is also such a thing as relative poverty, when you cannot afford the things most people have. Relative poverty in the late 20th century and it increased in the 1980s. That was partly due to mass unemployment and partly due to a huge rise in the number of single parent families, who often lived on benefits. During the 1980s the gap between rich and poor increased as the well off benefited from tax cuts.
20th Century Homes
At the start of the 20th century working class homes had two rooms downstairs. The front room and the back room. The front room was kept for best and children were not allowed to play there. In the front room the family kept their best furniture and ornaments. The back room was the kitchen and it was where the family spent most of their time. Most families cooked on a coal-fired stove called a range, which also heated the room.
This lifestyle changed in the early 20th century as gas cookers became common. They did not heat the room so people began to spend most of their time in the front room or living room, by the fire. Rising living standards meant it was possible to furnish all rooms properly not just one. During the 20th century ordinary people's furniture greatly improved in quality and design.
In the 1920s and 1930s a new style of furniture and architecture was introduced. It was called Art Deco and it used geometric shapes instead of the flowing lines of the earlier Art Nouveau. The name art deco came from an exhibition held in Paris in 1925 called the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs.
At the beginning of the 20th century only rich people could afford electric light. Other people used gas. Ordinary people did not have electric light until the 1920s and 1930s.
By the 1920s vacuum cleaners and washing machines were available but only rich people could afford them. They became more common in the 1930s, though they were still expensive. By 1959 about two thirds of British homes had a vacuum cleaner. However fridges and washing machines did not become really common till the 1960s.
The first practical electric fire was made in 1912 but they did not become common until the 1930s. Central heating became common in the 1960s and 1970s. Double glazing became common in the 1980s.
Plastic or pvc was first used in the 1940s. By the 1960s all kinds of household goods from drain pipes to combs were made of plastic.
In 1900 about 90% of the population rented their home. However home ownership became more common during the 20th century. By 1939 about 27% of the population owned their own house.
Meanwhile the first council houses were built before the First World War. More were built in the 1920s and 1930s and some slum clearance took place. However council houses remained rare until after World War II. After 1945 many more were built and they became common.
In the early 1950s many homes still did not have bathrooms and only had outside lavatories. The situation greatly improved in the late 1950s and 1960s.
In the 1950s and 1960s Large-scale slum clearance took place when whole swathes of old terraced houses were demolished. High-rise flats replaced some of them. However flats proved to be unpopular with many people. Some people who lived in the new flats felt isolated. The old terraced houses may have been grim but at least they often had a strong sense of community, which was usually not true of the flats that replaced them.
Furthermore in 1968 a gas explosion wrecked a block of flats at Ronan Point in London and public opinion turned against them. In the 1970s the emphasis turned to renovating old houses rather than replacing them.
Then, in 1979 the government adopted a policy of selling council houses.
20th Century Food
The diet of ordinary people greatly improved during the 20th century. In 1900 some families sat down to tea of a plate of potatoes and malnutrition was common among poor children. Food was also expensive. In 1914 a working class family spent about 60% of their income on food. By 1937 food was cheaper and they only spent about 35% of their income on food.
Moreover sweets were a luxury in 1914. They became much more common in the 1920s and 1930s.
Food was rationed during World War II. In January 1940 butter, sugar, bacon and ham were rationed. Tea was also rationed from 1940. Rationing became more severe in 1942. From July 1942 sweets were rationed. Instead of real eggs many people had to make do with 'dried eggs' imported from the USA.
Rationing lasted for several years after the war. Tea rationing lasted until 1952. Sweet rationing ended in 1953. Meat and cheese remained until 1954.
In the late 20th century convenience foods became far more common. That was partly because fridges, freezers and later microwave ovens became common. (Microwave ovens first became common in the 1980s).
The British diet also became more varied. Chinese and Indian takeaways and restaurants became common. So, in the 1980s, did hamburger and pizza chains.
Several new foods were invented in the 20th century. People had been eating ice cream for centuries but in 1903 the ice cream cone was invented. Hot dogs went on sale in 1908. Choc-ices went on sale in the USA in 1921. Sliced bread was invented in the USA in 1928 and it went on sale in Britain in 1930. Spam was invented in 1936. Instant coffee was invented in 1938 and tea bags went on sale in 1953. Fish fingers went on sale in 1955. Meanwhile in 1954 Marc Gregoire developed the non-stick frying pan. Fruit-flavoured yoghurt went on sale in Britain in 1963.
Many new kinds of confectionary were introduced in the 20th century. They included Milky Way (1923), Crunchie (1929), Snickers (1930), Mars Bar (1933), Aero and Kit Kat (1935), Maltesers and Blue Riband (1936) and Smarties and Rolos (1937). Later came Polo mints (1948), Bounty (1951), Yorkie and Lion Bar (1976) and Twix (1979). Also in the 20th century new biscuits were introduced including the bourbon (1910) and HobNobs (1986). Furthermore the ice lolly was invented in 1924.
At the end of the 20th century the first genetically modified foods were introduced. Today scientists are developing soya beans that can help prevent heart attacks and tomatoes that can help to prevent cancer as well as rice that can resist drought and needs fewer nutrients.
The way people shopped also changed. In the early 20th century people usually went to small local shops such as a baker or butcher. Shops usually did deliveries. If you went to the butcher you paid for meat and a butchers boy on a bicycle delivered it. The first supermarket in Britain opened in 1948. In the 1950s and 1960s supermarkets replaced many small shops.
Credit cards became available in 1966 and at the end of the 20th century shopping on the internet became popular.
20th Century Clothes
At the beginning of the 20th century fashionable men wore trousers, waistcoat and coat. They wore top hats or homburgs.
In 1900 women wore long dresses. It was not acceptable for women to show their legs. From 1910 women wore hobble skirts. They were so narrow women could only 'hobble' along while wearing them. However during World War I women's clothes became more practical.
Meanwhile in 1913 Mary Crosby invented the bra. She used two handkerchiefs joined by ribbon. In 1915 lipstick was sold in tubes for the first time.
In the early 1920s women still wore knickers that ended below the knee. However during the 1920s knickers became much shorter. By the late 1920s they ended well above the knee. During the 1940s and 1950s younger women wore briefs.
A revolution in women's clothes occurred in 1925. At that time women began wearing knee length skirts. In the mid and late 1920s it was fashionable for women to look boyish. However in the 1930s women's dress became more conservative.
During World War II it was necessary to save material so skirts were shorter. Clothes were rationed until 1949.
Meanwhile the bikini was invented in 1946. In 1947 Christian Dior introduced the New Look, with long skirts and narrow waists giving an 'hour glass' figure.
During the 1950s women's clothes were full and feminine. However in 1965 Mary Quant invented the mini skirt and clothes became even more informal.
After the First World War men's clothes became less informal and more casual. In the 1920s wide trousers called 'Oxford bags' were fashionable. Men also often wore pullovers instead of waistcoats.
In the 19th century men's underwear covered almost the whole body, stretching from the ankles to the neck and the wrists. However in the 1920s they began to wear shorts that ended above the knee and sleeveless vests. The first y-fronts went on sale in the mid-1930s.
In the second half of the 20th century fashions for both sexes became so varied and changed so rapidly it would take too long to list them all. One of the biggest changes was the availability of artificial fibres. Nylon was first made in the 1935 by Wallace Carothers and polyester was invented in 1941. It became common in the 1950s. Vinyl (a substitute for leather) was invented in 1924. Trainers were designed in 1949 by Adolf Dasler.
20th Century Transport and Communications
The first cars appeared at the end of the 19th century. After the First World War they became cheaper and more common. However in 1940 only about one in 10 families owned a car. They increased in number after World War II. By 1959 32% of households owned a car. Yet cars only became really common in the 1960s. By the 1970s the majority of families owned one.
In 1903 a speed limit of 20 MPH was introduced. It was abolished in 1930. However in 1934 a speed limit of 30 MPH in built-up areas was introduced. Meanwhile in 1926 the first traffic lights were installed in London. A driving test was introduced in 1934. Also in 1934 Percy Shaw invented the cat's eye.
The parking meter was invented by Carlton Magee. The first one was installed in the USA in 1935. In 1983 wearing a seat belt was made compulsory.
Meanwhile in 1936 Belisha Beacons were introduced to make road crossing safer. The first zebra crossing was introduced in 1951.
In 1931 an American called Rolla N. Harger invented the first breathalyser. It was first used in Indianapolis USA in 1939.
A Swede named Nils Bohlin developed the three-point seat belt in 1959.
Meanwhile in the late 19th century horse drawn trams ran in many towns. At the beginning of the 20th century they were electrified. However in most towns trams were phased out in the 1930s. They gave way to buses, either motorbuses or trolley buses, which ran on overhead wires. The trolleybuses, in turn were phased out in the 1950s. Ironically at the end of the 20th century some cities re-introduced light railways.
In the mid-20th century there was a large network of branch railways. However in 1963 a minister called Dr. Beeching closed many of them.
The first hovercraft was launched in 1959. The first hovercraft passenger service began in 1962.
In the early 20th century only a small minority of people had a telephone. They did not become common till the 1960s. Even so, in 1979 31% of households did not have a phone.
Mobile phones became common in the 1990s. Emails also became common at that time.
In 1919 aeroplanes began carrying passengers between London and Paris. Jet passenger aircraft were introduced in 1949.
However in the early 20th century flight was a luxury few people could afford. Furthermore only a small minority could afford foreign travel. Foreign holidays only became common in the 1960s.
The Boeing 747, the first 'Jumbo jet' was introduced in 1970.
The Channel Tunnel opened in 1994.
20th Century Leisure
During the 20th century people had more and more leisure time. In 1900 the average working week was 54 hours. By the 1980s it was 39 hours. Furthermore in 1900 most people had no paid holidays except bank holidays. In 1939 a new law said that everyone must have one weeks annual paid holiday. By the 1950s two weeks were common and by the 1980s most people had at least 4 weeks annual holiday.
In 1900 Frank Hornby invented a toy called meccano. In 1907 Robert Baden-Powell formed the boy scouts. In 1910 the girl guides were formed.
The first crossword was devised in 1913 by Arthur Wynne.
In the early 20th century films were often shown in theatres but an increasing number of purpose built cinemas appeared. The great age of cinema going was the 1930s when most people went at least once and sometimes twice a week. At first the films were silent but the first 'talkie', The Jazz Singer, was made in 1927. Early films were also black and white but in the 1930s the first colour films were made. (Although it was decades before all films were made in colour).
Radio broadcasting began in 1922 when the BBC was formed. By 1933 half the households in Britain had a radio.
Television began in Britain in 1936 when the BBC began broadcasting. TV was suspended during World War II but it began again in 1946. TV first became common in the 1950s. A lot of people bought a TV set to watch the coronation of Elizabeth II and a survey at the end of the that year showed that about one quarter of households had one. By 1959 about two thirds of homes had a TV. By 1964 the figure had reached 90% and TV had become the main form of entertainment - at the expense of cinema, which declined in popularity.
At first there was only one TV channel but between 1955 and 1957 the ITV companies began broadcasting. BBC2 began in 1964 and Channel 4 began in 1982.
In Britain BBC 2 began broadcasting in colour in 1967, BBC 1 and ITV followed in 1969.
Video recorders became common in the early 1980s. Many video hire shops opened at the that time. At the end of the century videos were replaced by DVDs.
Portable TVs became common in the 1980s and satellite broadcasting began in 1989. Satellite or cable TV became common in the 1990s.
Personal computers became common in the 1980s. The internet became common in the 1990s.
Furthermore in the late 20th century gardening became a very popular pastime. So did DIY.
Education in the 20th Century
In 1900 children sometimes left school when they were only 12 years old. However in 1918 the minimum school leaving age was raised to 14. Between the wars working class children went to elementary schools. Middle class children went to grammar schools and upper class children went to public schools.
In 1947 the school leaving age was raised to 15 and in 1972 it was raised to 16.
Following the 1944 Education Act all children had to sit an exam called the 11 plus. Those who passed went to grammar schools while those who failed went to secondary modern schools. However in the late 1950s public opinion began to turn against the system and in the 1960s and early 1970s most schools became comprehensives.
Until the late 20th century teachers were allowed to physically and verbally abuse children. Corporal punishment was phased out in most primary schools in the early 1970s. The cane was abolished in state secondary schools in 1987. It was finally abolished in private schools in 1999.
There was a huge expansion of higher education in the 1960s and many new universities were founded. In 1992 polytechnics were changed to universities. Meanwhile the Open University began in 1969. In the late 20th century people had far more opportunities for education and training than ever before.
Medicine in The 20th CenturyMedicine made huge advances in the 20th century. In 1900 Freud founded psychoanalysis when he published The Interpretation of Dreams. In 1920 Hermann Rorschach invented the Rorschach test (patients are asked to look at ink blots and say what they see).
In 1900 Karl Landsteiner discovered blood is divided into different groups. That made successful blood transfusions possible. Vitamins were discovered in 1912. Insulin was first used to treat a patient in 1922.
The iron lung was invented in 1928. In 1943 Willem Kolf built the first artificial kidney machine.
In the years 1935-1940 a group of drugs called the sulphonamides were discovered. They were used to treat bacterial infections such as gonorrhoea.
Antibiotics were discovered too. Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming but it was not widely used till after 1940. Another antibiotic, streptomycin was isolated in 1944. It was used to treat tuberculosis. They were followed by many others. A vaccine for measles was discovered in 1963.
Meanwhile in Britain the health of ordinary people greatly improved when the National Health Service was founded in 1948.
In the 1950s Dr Jonas Salk invented a vaccine for poliomyelitis.
Meanwhile surgery made great advances. The most difficult surgery was on the brain and the heart. Both of these developed rapidly in the 20th century. The first pacemaker was made in 1958. The first heart transplant was performed in 1967. The first test tube baby was born in 1978.
In 1980 the World Health Organisation announced that smallpox had been eradicated. However in 1981 a terrible new disease called AIDS was isolated.
20th Century Warfare
When the First World War began in 1914 it was impossible for infantry to advance without terrible losses because firearms were now so powerful. The result was a deadlock. By the end of 1914 both armies had dug lines of trenches with barbed wire and machine guns.
When an army attacked they began with an artillery bombardment. The defenders simply retreated to dugouts until it was over. The attacking army would face machine guns that cut them down.
In April 1915 the Germans used gas on the western front. However wind quickly dispersed the gas and the Germans were unable to break through the allied lines.
In July 1915 the Germans used the first flamethrowers.
In 1917 the British tried mining under the German trenches then packing the tunnels with explosives. When ignited they would destroy the trenches above them. However even this failed to cause a break through and the stalemate continued.
Meanwhile in 1916 the British introduced the tank. They were used in the Battle of the Somme in September 1916. Unfortunately they were too few in number and too likely to break down to prove decisive. Tanks were first used in large numbers at Cambrai in November 1917. In 1918 British and French tanks proved decisive in winning the war.
Meanwhile in 1918 the Germans introduced the first sub-machine gun, which could be operated by one man. In 1920 the Thompson sub-machine gun or Tommy gun was produced. It was used by gangsters and by soldiers in the Second World War.
One new weapon in the First World War was the U-boat. People had experimented with submarines since the early 17th century but it was the invention of the diesel engine that really made submarines feasible.
The British launched their first submarine in 1901 but during the First and Second World Wars German U-boats sank hundreds of allied merchant ships.
During the First World War the allies introduced weapons to counter the U-boat menace. Some U-boats were destroyed by mines and from the end of 1915 by depth charges. The allies also used Q-ships (merchant ships with disguised guns). Furthermore from mid-1917 allied ships travelled in convoys with escorts. By 1918 aircraft technology had improved so much planes could escort convoys. Despite all these measures submarines continued to play an important part in naval warfare.
The first nuclear powered submarine, the Nautilus was launched in 1955.
Meanwhile in 1915 the Germans began using Zeppelin airships to bomb British cities. However Zeppelins proved very vulnerable to fire from planes and anti-aircraft guns.
At the beginning of the First World War aircraft were used to observe the enemy. During the war aircraft technology changed rapidly. However the war ended before aircraft could play a decisive part.
During the Second World War aircraft realised their full potential. Dive bombers were used to support the army while other planes were used to bomb cities and destroy the enemies industries.
Planes first took of from moving ships in 1912. In July 1918 aircraft took off from HMS Furious and bombed Zeppelin sheds. It was a portent of things to come. Although aircraft carriers came too late to play a significant part in the First World War they played a decisive part in naval warfare in the Second World War.
In 1944 jet engines were introduced and planes became still faster. In 1947 a plane flew faster than sound for the first time.
During the Second World War tanks continued to play a dominant role despite the development of anti-tank guns. However during World War II there were two new developments. The Germans began using rockets. On 13 June 1944 they launched the first V-1 flying bomb. More dangerous was the V-2 rocket. It had a range of 200-220 miles. It rose to a height of 50 miles and travelled at over 2,000 mph.
In 1954 the Soviet Union made the first ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile).
The other development was the atomic bomb. On 6 August 1945 one exploded over Hiroshima. On 9 august another exploded over Nagasaki. Each killed tens of thousands of people. The Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb in 1949.
In 1952 American scientists invented the much more powerful hydrogen bomb. The USSR exploded a hydrogen bomb in 1954.
During the Vietnam War the Americans experimented with laser guided missiles. However they were not used on a large scale until the Gulf War of 1991.
