Typically Ilwen, Eanfled’s wife, works at Alric’s pig farm, but with most of the pigs sold there isn’t much work to go around. The biggest problem will be that they no longer have an Ox to plough they will have to work on the land of a Freeman called Alric in order to be able to rent an ox for a day or two to plough their 8 strips (rods). Unfortunately, it is already almost the end of March, and if they cannot plough by April then their growing season will be too short and the grain will not mature before harvest time. Aldhelm was lucky enough to get a very fertile strip in the grain field this year, which might mean that the family has some surplus grain to sell to the market. Aldhelm’s father died after three years as Lord Octo’s serf, and Aldhelm (as the oldest son) had to reaffirm his allegiance in the form of their best, and only, Ox, Freon.Įveryday life Eanfled and Aldhelm wake up early in the morning and join the rest of the farmers who head to the fields. In debt and without a home, Aldhelm’s father came before Lord Octo and asked for his charity he became Lord Octo’s serf, in a ceremony called “bondage”, and was allowed a small plot of land to cultivate. Three years earlier, the already elderly man had seen his wife, his freehold farm by the coast and his freedom evaporate into smoke at the hands of the raiders who came from the North.

The Family Aldhelm’s father died 6 years ago, aged 45. Our protagonist on this journey will be Aldhelm, a cottar in the village of Fulepet, which translates into Filthy Hole (yes, this is a genuine village name from Norman Sussex.

Today we will be focusing on the Cottar, the lowest class of the feudal system -excluding slaves (also called “thrall”). The serf could use an amount of land appropriate to the serf-class to which he was assigned that amount of land defined the amount of livestock he could own, the size of family he could support and, of course, his ability to generate any form of revenue. The roof was almost exclusively made of thatch. In a medieval village, buildings like houses were usually built by using a wooden frame which was filled with wattle and daub and then covered with plaster made of chalk, or lime and earth. Serfs were tied to the land they inhabited, and thus to the Lord of the Manor controlling the land. Serfs were further separated into three classes, the cottager (cottar), the bordar and the villein. These titles changed meaning throughout the middle ages, but for the purposes of this article we will define the cottar as the lowest class, followed by the bordar and the subsequently the villein, who stood as the wealthiest bonded (i.e.

Medieval cottage