Serf

• • serf living on a manor farm. I have three strips of land in different fields on the lord's manor. I do not own this land. In return for living on the lord's land I give him some of the crops that I grow + I work 3 times a week
  • I also must pay for the use of his water mill and seek the Lords permission if I want to leave the village or get married. Every year one tenth of our crops is given to the parish priest for the upkeep of the church. This is called the tithe.
• My wife grows vegetables in a small patch beside our hut and makes butter and cheese from cow's milk . She also makes clothes for all the family by spinning wool into a rough thread. My clothes consist of a cloth tunic, leather boots and a

  felt hat. My wife wears a woollen

  dress (plain stola), which is wrapped round

  her head and neck.
• Our home is a simple one-room cottage built around a wooden frame. The walls are made from

  wattle and daub and the roof is

  thatched. There is no glass in the windows and a hole in the roof acts as a chimney. We share our house With the animals. A piece of sacking is hung from the roof to divide where the family and animals live. The floors are bare and our furniture

  consists of a table and a stools. Meals are cooked on an open fire in the centre of the floor. We mainly eat bread, porridge and pottage (a vegetable stew), washed down by beer.
• Meat is only eaten on special occasions such as Christmas. The Christmas celebration last for 12 days the cottages are decorated with Holly and mistletoe. The Lord usually invite all the presents to FEs in the Manor house Christmas celebrations last open till the 6th of January.
• On May 1 every villager dresses in green and a young boy and girl dresses up as the king and queen of the village and everyone gathers around a tree which is cut (maypole-tree).

  • anyone who breaks the law is tried at the Manor Court, if they fail to pay the fine imposed they’ll be taken to the pound (confined area with stray animals.
• They manage to have a little time for past times on Sundays and on holidays such as wrestling and cockfighting.