• Medieval Kitchens

    Ask any real estate agent and they will tell you the kitchen is the heart of the home. However, in medieval times unless you lived in a castle it was not a separate room. The “kitchen area” was the area between the fireplace and entrance. Cooking on an open flame in one fashion or other was the only means of cooking, making the kitchen a dark and smoky place. In wealthier homes, the kitchen was kept on the ground floor to protect the other rooms from indoor smoke. With the advent of the chimney, the kitchen was moved from the center of the floor to the wall. In a castle,…

  • The Dangers of Heating your Home in Georgian (and Regency) England

    A roaring fire in your fire place, snow falling outside your windows, a cup of coffee (or tea) in your hands, a really good book all while curled up on the couch under a warm blanket. Sounds like a great way to spend a cold winter’s night, am I right? A fire lit in your fireplace in the 21st century is a romanticized version of what it was like to have one in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. So, the first aspect to truly grasp is that wood was not the first choice for many in England. The price of wood was becoming increasingly expensive as deforestation from…

  • ANGLO SAXON CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

    We still hold a lot of the same laws that existed in Anglo-Saxon times, however, the punishments have thankfully moved on. Here are a few facts about the punishments you would have expected had you committed a crime back then. If you committed a crime it would almost certainly be dealt with within your village by your fellow villages in a court called a moot. It would have been overseen by the ‘Thane’ of that village. A Thane was the main man of the village, he lived in a big house and made sure everyone obeyed the law and paid their taxes to him. He would also be involved in…

  • A DAY IN THE LIFE… OF PIRATES!

    I considered writing this entirely in pirate speak, but I determined that would distract too much from the actual information I wanted to get across… so instead, look for the piratical translation below! A long time ago on the Spanish Main in the region known as the Caribbean lived a rough and rugged sort of men and women. Some were refugees, some were criminals, some just couldn’t make it in civilized society. Whatever the case “roughing it” was a way of life. Some of the earliest hunters in and among the uninhabited islands used a style of wooden frame similar to a modern grill to cook their food. This wooden…

  • How to avoid the heartbreak of halitosis and other dental disasters in the time of the Tudors

    Taking care of our teeth has always been a priority even in Tudor times.  However, for many people it was not an easy task and did not always work. There were not toothbrushes and certainly no fluoride enhanced toothpaste at the time, but cleaning your teeth was considered part of good daily grooming.  A “tooth rag”, twigs or sponges were used to scrub teeth with ashes of burnt rosemary.  At least one expert at the time, recommended ground pumice stone.  Then the teeth must be rubbed by a mixture of Aqua Vitae, aqueous solution of ethanol, and Aqua Fortis, nitric acid, to strengthen them.  After dinner, the mouth must be…