How grim was life as a medieval farmer? Here are 6 things you need to know

Christopher Dyer offers six tips for those seeking success when running a smallholding in the 13th and 14th centuries

A medieval illumination in eight panels showing seasonal rural work — falconry, mowing, harvesting, threshing, sowing, grape‑pressing, pig‑tending, and indoor crop processing — all rendered in bright, patterned medieval style.

Published: August 24, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Save

1. Do your apprenticeship

The best medieval farmers learn their trade on the job

To make a success of your life as a farmer, you need training. And that will come by getting your hands dirty on the family holding, or as a servant in a neighbour’s household.

Ad

With an area under crops, some hay meadow – not to mention cattle, sheep and pigs – holdings are the perfect place to hone an array of farming techniques. You’ll learn how to yoke a team of oxen to a plough, weed a field, shear a sheep, treat a lame ox, mow hay with a scythe, and drive a cart loaded with manure.

But don’t get ahead of yourself. Learning takes time – as Richard, servant of Henry Sprot, discovered to his cost in the 14th century. He displayed his lack of experience of driving a cart by running over an unfortunate pig in the Warwickshire hamlet of Blackwell.

Two figures in a medieval-style field of tall grain; one seated in a pink robe holding a flowering stem, the other standing in blue and red clothing, picking or examining the plants amid dense stalks and small blue blossoms.

If you run a smallholding, you’ll be expected to master a range of skills, from shearing sheep to harvesting wheat (shown above in a 14th-century health handbook) | Credit: Getty Images

And it’s important that you avoid such blunders. After all, farming is a serious matter. It’s the main occupation for most of the population, working on close to a million small farms over England – and most households live on produce they grow for themselves. Get it wrong, and you could go hungry.

This advice applies to women, too. Young servant women, having learnt such domestic skills as brewing, dairying and horticulture, might be able in adult life to market their own ale, cheese, fruit and garden produce.

This could be the story of Agnes Waleys, who after some years as a diligent servant for Henry and Emma Talbot at Brigstock in Northamptonshire, gained the means to live independently when they gave her a small house in 1339.

Every young person at the meal table will hear conversations about such matters as paying the rent, attending the lord’s court, and meeting with the other villagers to discuss the running of the fields. After about 10 years you will be ready to run your own holding. And, with any luck, you’ll soon be skilled enough to pass on your own training to the next generation.

2. Get your hands on some land

And if you own it yourself, all the better

It’s all very well fine-tuning your farming skills. But you’ll need somewhere to practise them. You would, no doubt, prefer to own your own land – that is, as a freeholder – but a great deal of land is rented from the lords of manors under some restrictions.

You might be in line to inherit – particularly if you are an eldest son. But in some places, especially in eastern England, land is divided among all the sons. In the absence of men to inherit, daughters might take the land. However, women often only become tenants as widows, when their husband’s land is passed on to them on his death.

An heir might have to wait while members of the older generation occupy the holding. But it is possible to speed along the process by persuading your parents to retire. That’s exactly what William le Clerk did in 1341. William took over his father, John’s, 15-acre holding at Winslow in Buckinghamshire, promising to supply him for life with wheat, barley, peas and beans.

A medieval manuscript scene of fieldwork, with one farmer guiding a horse‑drawn plough and another scattering seed by hand as birds gather on the freshly turned soil; more figures, animals, and a cart appear in the background within an ornate decorative frame.

A manuscript illumination showing men ploughing, sowing and harrowing. For many young people, the ultimate goal was to own their own freehold, but that was often easier said than done | Credit: Bridgeman

If you’re not an heir or a widow, don’t despair. There are other alternatives available to you. You could search out a widow with land who might be in need of a husband. Or, if a holding falls vacant, you could persuade the lord that you have what it takes to become a tenant. You’ll have to pay him for the privilege but, if your funds are low, relatives could be willing to fill the gap – as happened to the fortunate Thomas Doget of Enstone in Oxfordshire. In 1362, Thomas’s father went to the lord and took land “for the use of his son”.

A relative might help in other ways: fathers sometimes give younger sons cash or some oxen as a start. You could also borrow money, as long as you are confident that you can repay eventually out of your profits.

In some parts of the country, land can be won from heathland or the edge of woods (in the North York moors or the Forest of Dean, for example), or reclaimed from fens and marshes. However, clearing or draining is hard work and you gain only a few hard-won acres. In short, without family support and a background of landholding, you’ll have to pull out all the stops to avoid a lifetime labouring in service.

3. Tie the knot

When it comes to farming, two pairs of hands are better than one

Secured a holding of land? Then your next step should be to marry. Running a holding is a work-intensive operation, and it helps if you have a family to lighten the load.

A young man should seek out a wife who has had years of preparation for the role. She will, ideally, come from a family able to provide a dowry – such as the cow, three sheep, dress and overcoat that came with Avis Maud of Belper in Derbyshire when she married John Wade in 1312.

If you’re a young woman, you too will be looking out for a capable husband – and your parents will, in all likelihood, have preferences. Women are expected to look after livestock, make bread and cheese, brew ale and tend the garden.

Two figures in a medieval-style scene preparing leeks — one carrying a basket filled with long green vegetables, the other sorting them into bundles at a wooden table, with stylised plants in the background.

A couple pick and prepare vegetables, as shown in a 14th-century health handbook. Farming acumen was a highly prized quality in potential husbands and wives | Credit: Getty Images

You can also be effective at marketing, either selling ale to other villagers, or poultry, eggs or fruit in a nearby town. You could follow the example of Elena Graise of Bishop Wilton in Yorkshire. She kept 12 geese from which she reared goslings – many more than her family needed – and sold the birds in the nearby town of Pocklington.

A woman might also be left in charge of the holding if she is widowed. This may appear daunting, but your experience of helping your husband make important decisions will set you in good stead. You can learn from the example of Alice Avice of Brigstock in Northamptonshire, who was married to Peter Avice for at least 24 years. After Peter died in 1316, Alice took charge of the holding until 1332. She was active in farming her land and participating in village life, buying land and disputing with other villagers.

Many widows will not feel able to go it alone in a male-dominated society (instead living off hand-outs or surrendering to pressure to remarry). But Alice Avice proved it could be done.

4. Play by the rules

If you go rogue, the entire community will suffer

For a village community to thrive, everyone has to pull in the same direction. And when it comes to farming, that means following the agreed routines of cultivation. Much of the land for growing corn lies in common fields. By a long-established custom, up to a half is planted each year; the other half is rested as fallow, without crops, but covered with grass and weeds that animals can graze.

You can grow bread corn, wheat and rye, planted in October and November. Crops planted in the spring are drink corn (barley or oats) and pottage corn (peas and beans, but also oats). Oats and peas and beans can also be fed to animals.

A medieval-style scene showing several people doing outdoor and domestic work — digging near a building, shearing a sheep, gathering plants, carrying baskets, and chopping wood — with a horse‑drawn cart, trees, and distant hills in the background.

Villagers work the land in a 15th-century manuscript. The delicate ecosystem of medieval life left little room for incompetents and slackers | Credit: Getty Images

If this sounds as if you have to follow a set routine, remember that you can change the way the fields are managed – if you can gain the assent of your fellow villagers. This happened in 1296 at Hailes in Gloucestershire, when it was agreed to fence off (or inhok) part of the fallow field and plant crops, increasing the amount of corn for each villager. The official document tells us that the lord, Walter, abbot of Winchcombe monastery, “gave a licence to [the petitioners for reform] and their associates and neighbours to inhok a number of acres, for 2d for each acre in compensation for the common pasture”.

You also have a degree of choice in the animals you rear – though, to prevent overgrazing, their numbers are limited by village quotas. Cows and oxen are all common sights. And, if you have enough grass and hay, you should invest in sheep, because their wool can be sold, their manure benefits the crops, and mutton from older animals can be eaten. You might be able to match the 36 sheep owned by William Johan of Pinbury in Gloucestershire in 1290, yielding wool worth 18 shillings per year, enough to pay the rent. Pigs are worth keeping, too, to ensure that you have a flitch of bacon hanging by the fire.

Above all, if you want the fields to be run well, you need to persuade the lazy, incompetent or selfish to improve. That’s what the villagers of Romsley in Worcestershire did in 1334 when Simon de Fulfen failed to clean a ditch, diverted another one and flooded his neighbours’ land. De Fulfen was fined 12d (about £500 in our money), and apparently put his ditches in order.

5. Learn how to handle the lord

And remember: he can’t thrive without you

As a medieval farmer, you have a degree of autonomy. Yet such freedom has its limits. When push comes to shove, the lord or lady is in charge.

Under the customs that govern much landholding, inheritance is supervised. You pay the lord to acquire land, and subletting needs his permission. You may even be required to work on his land.

Worse still, you may be unfree – a serf – which means that the lord has special authority over you. He’ll levy a fine for giving permission for your daughters to marry, and for your sons to move away. This intrusion into your family life not only limits choices and costs money, it can also be humiliating. In 1315, when Emma le Cockes requested a marriage licence but lacked the money to pay the fine, her lords, the monks of Worcester Priory, ordered her to plant beans on their land for 15 days.

A medieval-style marketplace scene with a crowned figure seated under a canopy, people handling a bowl of goods, and a man offering a balance scale to three spear‑carrying guards, suggesting a supervised trade or weighing of goods.

An official receives and weighs taxes in an image from c1150. Medieval society was intensely hierarchical, but the lord of the manor didn’t always have things his own way | Credit: Getty Images

If all this makes you feel a little vulnerable in the face of the lord’s power, remember there are limits to his ability to exploit his authority. He cannot behave like a dictator, because excessive demands may leave the serfs and tenants unable to pay their rent. The lord relies on the tenants to manage the manor and its court – after all, he has no policemen, and only a small band of paid officials. In short, he must co-operate with the people he wishes to dominate.

The villagers’ strength lies in acting together, presenting a united front during negotiations and, if these break down, agreeing not to pay a rent, or withdrawing labour on the lord’s land. You could follow the example of Nicholas, son of Henry the Reever, who in 1280 led the serfs of Mickleover in Derbyshire in seeking the king’s support for a legal claim that they were free. Their lord, the abbot of Burton, won the case in the courts (he argued that the cattle and all their goods belonged to him, because as serfs “they owned nothing but their bellies”). However, the rebellion warned him against pressing his tenants too hard.

You also owe a duty to the church, especially your own parish church. Paying for the building and running costs can be expensive, but a well-maintained church makes a statement: this is a village that takes pride in itself.

6. Expect the worst (and pray for luck)

When disaster strikes, it pays to be prepared

So you’ve learned the ropes. Acquired land. Got married. Followed the rules. And kept your lord onside. But if war, flood or famine strikes, it still might not be enough. When it comes to making a success of farming in the Middle Ages, some things are beyond your control.

In 15 of the 100 years after 1250, the weather reduced the yield of crops seriously, and there was a ‘great famine’ in 1315–17, caused by excessive rain. Your livestock are vulnerable to disease, like the scab that reduced sheep flocks in the 1280s, or the epidemic of rinderpest among cattle in the 1320s. In these years of adversity, your family might have to go hungry; more often, you will not have enough grain or wool to sell to pay the rent and taxes.

A medieval-style indoor scene with five people gathered around a central hearth — an older figure tending the fire, two children seated nearby, a woman spinning thread, and another person resting on the floor beneath the large hooded chimney.

Stories are told around a fire in the 14th century. Despite this homely image, life was precarious in the Middle Ages | Credit: Getty Images

If you live in the north of England, you should beware of another potential menace. Imagine the plight of the villagers of Embsay in north Yorkshire who in 1318, having endured the great famine, then suffered “the invasion of the Scots”. Their losses of buildings and animals made it impossible for them to pay their rents to Bolton Priory, their lord, which pardoned payments of more than £7 (in our money, well in excess of £50,000) over the following two years. As for the poor peasants, they bore the expense of putting right their own barns and houses.

You may not be able to change the weather, or ward off marauding Scots, however there are a few measures you can take to mitigate against the bad luck that life throws your way. Your normal practice of planting a number of types of grain is a precaution against crop failure. If the wheat rots in a wet winter, you may get a good yield from the barley planted in the spring.

Scattering your land in parcels over the entire village might mean a lot of time spent travelling from one plot to another, but it does at least increase the chances of you growing crops in a variety of soils. You may, for example, have land in a sandy area yielding well in a wet year when your corn is struggling on heavy clay. Building a good barn will keep your corn crop dry through the winter, and there might be room to shelter sheep and cattle in bad weather.

Finally, if you do sink into poverty, you could appeal to your family or community for support. However, the bottom line is that you cannot count on their assistance – as John Bray of Cartworth in Yorkshire discovered to his cost. In 1316, Bray was brought to court for stealing a bushel of oats. And the man who reported him to the authorities? That was his father.

Christopher Dyer is emeritus professor of history at the University of Leicester. He is author of Peasants Making History (OUP, 2022)

Ad

This article was first published in the September 2026 issue of HistoryExtra Magazine

Ad

Ad

Loading...

Ad

Loading...