Spending this afternoon imagining the simplicity of life 300 years ago…

[Gwendimarco]

Around 1700ish, pre industrial revolution.
Life would not be easy of course. Childbirth and infant mortality, no rights for women or the poor, work was hard and physical for many.

Life was hard, for sure.

But it was also simpler.

Imagine knowing (or at least expecting) that your grandchildren’s work and way of life would probably be much the same as your grandfather and great grandfather’s.

Imagine never really knowing many people or hearing much news beyond your own village.

Visiting another village could be a day’s travel, if not more. Letters would be delivered by boys on horseback - the Royal Mail isn’t invented yet.

You know where everything in your house was grown or made, and probably the person who grew or made it.

Most people are illiterate, entertainment is stories and theatre with your local community.

Spirituality and religion are how you and everyone around you unquestioningly (for the most part) navigate the trials and tribulations of daily life.

I couldn’t live that life now, accustomed as I am to the 21st century. But I do think wistfully of the slower pace and simplicity.

No antibiotics any cut could kill you
When you poo it didn't get flushed away it remained your problem
Smokey houses because all you had was a fire to cook and dry clothes

Sorry but no amount of stories round the fire makes up for this

I agree with pp about all those negative factors but one positive that I semi yearn for is the not knowing about all the desperately sad, destructive things going on in the world. In a village, you might have one relative mangled in a threshing machine accident or one murder two villages away but the wars, famines, earthquakes, tsunamis, child abuse rings, riots etc - you'd never know, never have the pictures in your head, never have your empathy stretched to breaking point. Maybe I should just be a hermit but one with a fridge freezer, washing machine, antibiotics & tesco deliveries!

One season crop failure meant starvation.

You couldn't form meaningful lengthy relationships because people would die

Being controlled into being god fearing because otherwise you will burn in hell

So you had to be miserable AND thankful

Your skin would feel dreadful all over all the time
Fleas
Toothache
Pain pain pain
You would be double screwed if you needed glasses

And what about menstruation that would be far from simple.

No hot water on demand.

Also it would have been boring. I'd definitely want to go later so I had a better chance of being literate.

Obviously lots (and lots) of bad stuff going on 300 years ago as mentioned on all the other posts but I have to admit when I watch Poldark (yes I know it's a TV programme) I do feel longing for the fresh air and space and lack of people when you see them walking on the beach or riding their horses.
Having been to Cornwall several times it was definately not my experience.
So I do know what you mean.

Also the lack of bombardment with phones, texts, emails, online shopping, blah blah does make you feel like your brain would be more 'at peace's somehow although I guess maybe they were full of worry about starving,illness etc

Also I think when you watch programmes like Poldark you feel like families were all closer and helped and supported each other so nobody was really lonely or isolated so much. I mean look at the home Elizabeth lived in - it started out with her husband and her, her father in law, his elderly sister and her sister in law. That would almost never happen now. I suppose perhaps life being hard they had to support each other like this but in modern times of social media, not living beside family or knowing your neighbours it feels comforting to watch this kind of scenario.

Finally you see them growing their fruit, veggies and keeping animals which of course many of us would like to do if we had the land and space to do it. Having grown my own tomatoes this year for the first time I have to admit they were far tastier and more like tomatoes from years ago than anything the supermarkets seem to sell. So that whole getting back to nature thing makes life seem more simple and wholesome.

So yes, I do know what you mean

Having to sit on a windowsill or whatever to sew your own clothes sounds in the daylight - awful - and if you were lucky, lacemaking as a hobby

I quite fancy the sound of a second sleep though. I've not been able to find out much about it though as googling is all about the Robert Harris book. I heard about it on R4 but if anyone knows more about it I'd be glad to know! Apparently they went to sleep when it was dark and got up in the middle of the night, socialised perhaps with neighbours or had sex and then went back to sleep!

I think it's likely you'd come across a lot more tragic accidents than "one relative mangled in a threshing machine" - industrial accidents and injuries were much more common, as well as children accidentally dying from drowning, falling, getting hold of something dangerous, etc. Fires were much more common, and much more dangerous as well.

Without the infrastructure, safety standards, engineering knowledge, healthcare, emergency services etc we have today there were a lot more horrific accidents and injuries. We have probably forgotten what that is like.

Actually there is a great but gruesome (not gory!) series which is mostly on youtube, called "Hidden Killers in the _ Home" (with different time periods), BBC originally I think? Brilliant series really worth watching, quite alarming! Makes you wonder what people will look back and think is crazily dangerous about our current lifestyles.

You probably would have died during childbirth by now.

Or be working your fingers to the bone trying to provide for your family.

The fact that you're able to sit and ponder this rather than have to think about how to provide for your family over the next week shows the privilege you have now compares to 300 years ago.

No to that. The dentistry on its own would be enough to put me off. No birth control, no antibiotics, child labour, no central heating, overcrowded slums etc.
It was ok for the wealthy, (except for the dentistry of course) but terrible for the majority who were poor.

You say that but I traced my family history and people were living into their seventies and nineties back then… of course these were the ones who survived childhood of which sadly many didn’t.

90% of that sounds bloody awful to me 😂

Although imagine never brushing your teeth and having unwashed hair all the time 🤮

And everyone smelt bad, everyone, everything, everywhere

Didn't most of the population have some form of intestinal worms until towards the end of the 19th century? That alone kills any sentimental notions of simplicity for me. Bleurgh.

I'd hate it too. Add to that, no running water, no electricity, sewage thrown into the streets, no central heating, washing what clothes we do own by hand, ending up in prison or dead due to a low level crime, no comfy bed to sleep in. There is a lot wrong with the world these days, but I'm grateful for the good stuff!

I've often thought about what people would do without glasses in the past. I'd really struggle, I can't see clearly further than about 20 cm. Also, imagine no toothpaste and how manky your mouth would feel.

I think a simple rural life was for very few, even for those who were very healthy. I imagine a lot were tenants and at the mercy of the landlord. What happened to younger sons, unmarried daughters etc. What if the breadwinner died when the kids were young? Or there was a bad harvest, farm animals died or a war?

Among my ancestors It was exceptional to live to 70/80. 50s is common and some died in their 20s.

I can trace a lot of ancestors back then. In 1700 I have the daughter of a plantation owner married to a slave trader. Politicians, estate owners, society type people, doctor etc. None of them had simple lives or easy ones.

A Facebook group I'm on and someone posted this photo of a domestic interior in Bradford in 1918, which really isn't that long ago in the scheme of things. I keep looking at it and trying to imagine how it must have been to live like this. Since getting into family history and hearing about life in the the 1930s from my grandmother I have always appreciated being born when I was, and how good we really do have it, with access to clean hot and cold water, inside flushing toilets, refrigerators, washing machines,tumble driers etc, etc.

You've been watching too many Sunday night dramas like Poldark and/or Larkrise to Candleford.

My gran and grandad had 10 children. Grandad went out to work, gran stayed at home. But she took in washing to make ends meet and was an accomplished seamstress. So she was doing other people's washing, in the yard with a mangle on top of the washing for a carpenter husband and 10 children (albeit 4 were almost leaving the nest as they were working so helped with the housework and on the verge of getting married by the time the other 6 were at school).

They lost one of their children to diphtheria (which we now vaccinate against). My mum remembers the doctor running down the street shouting 'get the children out, get them out' as diphtheria is very contagious. My mum had to sleep in a neighbours house for two weeks whilst they battled to save her sister with no luck. She was 10 years old.

That was in the mid 1930s. So God knows what it was like in the 1720s.

Any time in history is great - if you're rich. If you're poor or even average (Grandad was a master carpenter - fully trained) life's not simple or a bed of roses at any time.

I have spent a LOT of time thinking about this over the years.
Im lucky enough to live on an old farm rebuilt mid 1600's from a previous farm on the site of an old roman watchtower so history became rather interesting to me.
Life has changed A LOT, living conditions, health everything.
Looking through old records, 19 people once lived here so there would be practically NO personal space, outdoor toilet (state of the art at the time ), fires in each room, many original features some of which took me years to spot - old doorways built up/filled which are at a guess around 5ft high, the interior doors were made from one tree starting downstairs with a single "board" or slice ending up upstairs where they are made from upto 3 boards, handmade / forged hinges, handles, nails, all unique. I could go on for hours but what im saying is the amount of time and effort back then was far above what you might see today and thats without marvelling at actualy constructing the place with out modern aids, some rocks used in the walls are well over a ton in weight and probably 2-3 meters above the ground.
Hard work was the norm then, true hard work working dawn to dusk, life today is a breeze by comparison.
Ive also spent years reasearching ancestry which was much more interesteing its suprising how many folk lived very long lives and what they did in their lives.

Well you would continuously be pregnant so hardly any periods 😂

Slippin - I agree that it would be ‘nice’ not to know about all the suffering in other countries. I don’t think replacing it with more suffering in your families, friends and neighbours would be better. Having babies would be terrifying, having daughters would be awful, knowing what was ahead of them. All families would have experienced the death of babies and young children. Everyone would know people who had lives of pain. Everyone would be afraid of hunger. Everytime your child broke their skin would be worrying. On the plus side most people drank weak beer instead of water so we’re probably all slightly pissed most of the time. They needed to be.