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Village life - part 1

60 second histories

This video covers:

A description of a chieftain's house and the compound and buildings around it, together with a description of a poorer house and why they kept their animals inside their houses.

Hello. I live in the small village of Stow. My husband is the village chief and it’s his job to protect the village… he’s a warrior. Our house is set within a compound, which is surrounded by a wall made from wooden posts that are fixed on top of an earth bank called a palisade. Other important buildings are kept within our compound, like barns for storing food. Our house is quite big and we have several rooms. The walls are made from wood and the inside is plastered smooth with a mixture of animal dung, mud, hair and straw, which has all been chopped up, called wattle and daub. The roof is made from thatched straw and we have an open fireplace in the centre of the house. The ordinary villager’s houses here in Stow are made in the same way except of course theirs are a lot smaller, just a one-roomed affair. They keep their animals inside their houses too, that’s because the animals are safer in the houses at night and they help keep everyone warm. Can you imagine having a house full of old goats living with you? Yuck, smelly or what?
Eras: 
Anglo Saxon
Topics: 
Domestic Life
Character: 
Saxon woman
Key words: 
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