From these latrines human filth falls on the heads of the passers-by.Ħ The first national sanitation law passed in England (1388).įor that so much dung and filth of garbage and entrails be cast and put in ditches, rivers and other waters, so that the air there is grown greatly corrupt and infected, and many intolerable diseases do daily happen Next case heard by the wardmen of the city of London: the lane called Ebbegate was a right of way for all men until it was blocked by Thomas at Wytte and William de Hockele, who got together and built latrines which stuck out from the walls of the houses. People had no idea that dirty conditions could lead to disease.ĥ An extract from the Book of Customs (1321) - a book of court-cases brought against people in London in the Middle Ages. Towns such as London sometimes tried to clean up the streets, but not very often. Pigs, dogs and rats often roamed through the streets. These sewers became clogged with rubbish and excrement thrown from the windows. The streets often had open sewers running down the middle of them. Here it accumulated in rotting, rat and germ-infested stinking heaps until a violent rainstorm washed it further on.Ĥ A description by L Hartley, History of Medicine (1984) - a textbook aimed at less-able pupils in Key Stage 4. Household waste, sewage, leather parings, rotting vegetables and any other rubbish was thrown into the gutter and ran down the centre. The streets were sometimes cobbled, sometimes covered with gravel, but more often just a mud track and were always filthy. The following websites will help you research further:Ģ A medieval town drawn by the modern artist Norman Meredith (1969).ģ An extract from History Alive I (1970), a textbook aimed at Year 7 pupils by the children's writer Peter Moss he made history easy-to-understand, using simple descriptions and cartoons drawn by George B Hamilton. Study this webpage, then answer the question sheet by clicking on the 'Time to Work' icon at the top of the page. This webpage will help you decide whether medieval towns were as dirty as but that is just my theory, and you do not need to My view has always been that medieval people were victims of a smearĬampaign by the Renaissance, that medieval towns were relatively cleanĬompared to the 16th and 17th centuries, and VERY clean compared to the 18thĪnd 19th centuries. If you read any children's history book, it will probably tell you that medieval towns were filthy. Many of the events shown in the picture are from the records of medieval trials ĭoes this mean the picture is therefore a reliable portrayal of life in a medieval town? It is by a modern artist, but it is very carefully researched – everything you can see happening in the picture actually happened some time, somewhere, in a medieval town. ![]() This painting was commissioned for my 1997 textbook
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