I’ve just got back from living as a medieval person, AMA

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

First time in my life I’ve ever done anything worthy of an AMA!

Thanks so much for this thread. I’m writing a medieval novel and it’s interesting to read your perspectives.

Re transitions, I have known people do it all kinds of ways depending on the timing, the type of costume, the nature of the event. When we were young people without cars a lot of us used to travel in costume because wool is heavy so it’s easier than carrying it! I would feel weird driving in costume but some people do. I have done events for English Heritage where there was a strict rule against leaving the site in costume.

For this event, the rule was that we had to arrive at the house in costume so as not to disrupt the vibe, so we had to go and change at the modern place first.

Shoes - there are a few shoemakers who specialise in historical footwear. I tend to use one called Foxblade Trading because they are reliable and reasonably priced, but there are some whose shoes are an absolute work of art.
I spent a week as a shoemaker’s apprentice many years ago and I still have the shoes I made, but she has given it up because she became more serious about her veganism and no longer wanted to work with leather.

<graciously acknowledges Widgeon’s reverence>

😉

I think that’s all the questions answered. Thank you for all the lovely comments and for giving me the chance to talk about it some more, since banging on about history related things is my absolute favourite thing!

Wasn’t firewood a challenge to eat?

😂

Did you cheat and use toilet paper? I can’t imagine not using toilet paper.

I actually quite often wonder what I would grab if a wormhole in time to the medieval period opened up and I only had 60 seconds left in present day.

i usually end up thinking I’d grab soap. As I always think it must have been pretty honking

maybe my moon cup ?

Parmesan

and a good kitchen knife

How amazing you got to do this! I was part of a medieval reenactment group and we did an event at Weald and Downlands back in 2017 in conjunction with the Paston Household group and did an immersive evening dinner in that house with their group. It's such a fabulous experience and the houses are beautiful

It's fascinating. What did you do during any "downtime", when sitting around the fire for example?

In Middle English?

My friend went to this on the weekend and sent me pics! It looked so interesting, how do they choose who is poor and who is rich (and therefore fancily hatted😆)? Haven't read entire thread so may have been asked already sorry!

Hahaha 😄

I remember watching that, if memory serves I think it was the "Lord" who got above himself and acting like billy big bollocks. Yes he did piss the staff off, he was a total tool! I think for me what made is most unrealistic was that not a single one of the maids got knocked up by him, or if they did it didnt make the edit!

If you like this sort of thing you should check out the Guédelon project in France. They have been building a medieval castle using authentic techniques for about 50 years, and you can volunteer to take part.

You were without Mumsnet for days! How was that?

Probably as much penicillin as I could find 😆

Much the same as those pensioners denied the winter fuel payments must be living today.

Thank you - that was fascinating. And I'm glad your experience of Ruth Goodman was a positive one - she is one of my favourite people on TV; I was always sure she would be lovely.

Definitely antibiotics

What was your experience of time, OP? I was fascinated to learn from the C17 living programme that women didn’t have time pieces and relied on the men to tell them what time it was when they weren’t near a clock. Presumably you became more aware of where the sun was and how light it was? How did you know when to get up in the morning?

Yes but I’m thinking what I have in the house like right now that I can literally grab and I don’t tend to have antibiotics hanging around

these are just my own personal rules in this imaginary scenario

I remember a TV prog from years back when people lived for a while as Anglo Saxons, and they said the thing they missed the most was wellies, because their footwear wasn't waterproof. So I'd grab my wellies.

I'm now slightly obsessed with those amazing Foxblade shoes!

@ThePoshUns I thought it was going to be about living as a mermaid ! (Sentence truncated to living as a me.....so I took a wild stab ha ha) But this is fascinating stuff and I often ruminate about this myself ! Well done OP 💐