A Night in a Medieval Village | History for Sleep

A slow, calm walk through one November night in a small English village around the year 1320, from dusk to the hours before dawn. The plough team comes home along the headland, the pigs come back from the oak woods, and a family eats pottage by a fire with no chimney. We visit the alewife's house under its ale-stake, spin wool by rushlight, hear the curfew bell, and cover the fire for the night. Then we walk the moonlit lanes, sit with the shepherd by the fold on the fallow field, and listen to the house through its first sleep, the quiet waking hour, and the second sleep, while a soft rain falls on the thatch. Written and researched for The Sleepy Archive, read gently, and set to public-domain paintings and manuscript illuminations. There is nothing you need to remember. Lie back, let the voice fade into the background, and sleep. Sources used for this episode: Frances and Joseph Gies, Life in a Medieval Village (1990) Christopher Dyer, "Furnishings of medieval English peasant houses: investment, consumption and life style" (2008) Nat Alcock and Dan Miles, The Medieval Peasant House in Midland England (2012) H. S. Bennett, Life on the English Manor (1938) C. M. Woolgar, The Culture of Food in England 1200-1500 (2016) Judith M. Bennett, Ale, Beer and Brewsters in England (1996) A. Roger Ekirch, At Day's Close: Night in Times Past (2005) A. Roger Ekirch, "Segmented Sleep in Preindustrial Societies", Sleep (2016) Elizabeth Lamond (ed.), Walter of Henley's Husbandry, with Seneschaucy (1890) The Statute of Winchester (1285) University of Hull, Deserted Medieval Villages project: Wharram Percy Historic England, Wharram Percy deserted medieval village (list entry 1011377) Weald and Downland Living Museum, the Hangleton cottage Cumbria County History Trust, "Rush lights" Geoffrey Chaucer, The Squire's Tale Chapters: 00:00 Chapter 1: The Last Light 09:14 Chapter 2: The Lanes at Dusk 19:40 Chapter 3: The House 30:57 Chapter 4: Pottage and Bread 42:07 Chapter 5: The Alewife's Fire 51:23 Chapter 6: Rushlight and Spindle 1:02:28 Chapter 7: Covering the Fire 1:12:22 Chapter 8: The Lanes After Dark 1:21:42 Chapter 9: The Fold on the Fallow 1:31:30 Chapter 10: First Sleep 1:41:13 Chapter 11: The Waking Hour 1:50:25 Chapter 12: The Priest's Candle 1:59:22 Chapter 13: Second Sleep Artwork (public domain): Gloomy Day (detail) (Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Brushwood collector and cattle before a mountain landscape in evening (François Duval, 1796) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Young Ladies of the Village (Gustave Courbet, 1851–52) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain (CC0) The Harvesters (Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain (CC0) Detail of Les tres riches heures - March (Paul Limbourg, Hermann Limbourg and Jean Limbourg, 1410s) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Peasants Bringing Home a Calf Born in the Fields (Jean François Millet, 1864) - Art Institute of Chicago, CC0 The return of the herd (Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Village landscape featuring a road and canal with a church-tower on the left, a... (Aert van der Neer) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) The Adoration of the Magi by Simon Bening, mid-1520s (Simon Bening, mid-1520s) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Jan van Goyen – Country House by the Water – c. 1640–1650 – Oil on oak panel – Beatriz... (Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), c. 1638–1642) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Wooded Landscape with Travellers and Beggars on a Road (Meindert Hobbema, 1668) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) The Wall of the Kitchen Garden, Yerres (Gustave Caillebotte, 1877) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Village Pond title Pond " (Aert van der Neer, 1645) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Pasture in Normandy (Constant Troyon, 1852) - Art Institute of Chicago, CC0 The Forge (Léonard Defrance) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain (CC0) The Watermill with the Great Red Roof (Meindert Hobbema, c. 1665) - Art Institute of Chicago, CC0 Landscape with Watermill (Gillis Peeters, 1633) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Landscape (The Lock) (John Constable, c. 1820–25) - Art Institute of Chicago, CC0 An Old Country Churchyard title Old Country Churchyard " (Henry Mark Anthony) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) Old Manor of Criqueboeuf (Homer Dodge Martin, ca. 1882–92) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain (CC0) Peasants Dancing and Feasting (David Teniers the Younger, ca. 1660) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain (CC0) Interior of a Barn with a Family of Cooperstitle of a Barn with a Family of Coopers" (François Boucher (French, 1703 - 1770) (1703 - 1770) –..., about 1763 - 1766) - Wikimedia Commons (Public domain) (credit list truncated; full list in the pinned comment)