Sir Thomas Parr

What people wore

Limited wardrobes for the commoners

Many ordinary people owned only one set of clothes for daytime wear and lacked dedicated sleepwear, opting to sleep in their smocks and nightcaps.

Daily life

Open fire cooking and cookshops

Cooking usually took place over an open fire, often involving stews in a cauldron or roasting meat on a spit. Many poorer people lacked cooking facilities at home and relied on cookshops for takeaway food.

Work

Workdays started before daybreak

The working day typically began before daybreak, often around 4 or 5 a.m., and lasted until sunset.

Music

Nightly Patrols by Civic Musicians

Civic musicians called waits often patrolled town streets at night on winter nights, providing entertainment and calling out the time or weather.

At the table

Pottage was the staple daily dish

Pottage was the main daily dish for ordinary people, a thick soup made of cereals, pulses, vegetables, and occasionally meat that was cooked in a cauldron over an open fire.

Getting around

Carts were for cargo, not people

Carts and wagons were used to transport cargo, not people, and passengers who rode in them sat on the floor among straw or baggage. These vehicles were extremely slow and were widely considered an uncomfortable or shameful way for a person to travel.

What it cost

Cost of Basic Food Items

A loaf of bread (24 oz) cost 1 penny, and 1 pound of cheese cost 1 1/2 pence. A skilled worker could buy a dozen eggs for 4d and a pound of cheese for 1 1/2d with their daily wage.