What was it really like to live in a home during the Middle Ages? For many of us, medieval houses bring to mind images of draughty halls, wooden beams, and perhaps a cauldron over an open fire. But these homes were more than historical set pieces—they were busy, lived-in spaces filled with work, family, and social life. In late medieval York, especially among artisans and merchants, the home was the centre of everything.
Historian Jeremy Goldberg, using records like wills, inventories, and church court testimony, has pieced together a vivid picture of domestic life in this period. His article, “Making the house a home in later medieval York,” reveals how these places were deeply woven into the fabric of economic, emotional, and social experience in the Middle Ages.
Living and Working Under One Roof
One of the biggest differences between then and now is that many medieval homes were also workplaces. If you were a tailor, a goldsmith, a brewer, or a merchant, you likely ran your business from your home. That meant your shop, your tools, your apprentices—and sometimes your customers—all came right into your living space.
Goldberg offers these examples:
The remains of original shopfronts survive on several former butchers’ houses down York’s Shambles. Shops are described in the inventories of a barber, a girdler, a pewterer, a skinner, a stringer and a tailor respectively. It is likely that these served as retail spaces as well as – in most instances at least – work spaces and that they consequently would usually have opened onto the street. However, the workshop listed in the inventory of John Collan, a goldsmith, of 1490 was probably not accessible from the street, but followed the pattern outlined by David Clark whereby customers would be invited in by arrangement. The same was likely true of Thomas Gryssop, described as a chapman, but whose voluminous stock, including lengths of cloth, spices, caps and bonnets, gloves, purses and the like suggests he was more akin to a merchant.
The Shambles in York – the iconic image of a medieval city and its streets. Photo by Ray in Manila / Flickr
This overlap made for a very different kind of home life, one where business and family were always mixing. It wasn’t unusual for an apprentice to sleep in the workshop or for a servant to cook, clean, and help in the shop all in the same day.
The Hall: Heart of the Household
The Great Hall in Barley Hall, a reconstructed medieval townhouse in York, England. Photo by Fingalo Christian Bickel / Wikimedia Commons
At the centre of many homes was the hall. This was where the family gathered, meals were served, and guests were received. It was the main social space and was often decorated with wall hangings (known as corsers, costers and bankers), cushions, and even colourful fabrics to show off the family’s taste and status. Goldberg notes a few examples:
The prosperous girdler, Robert Talkan, had two different sets of dorsers, costers and bankers, which also included cushions, though only a red and blue dorser is described. The weaver, Thomas Catton, had a red and green dorser and matching banker. Painted wall hangings are also regularly found. John Carter, a tailor, had six painted hangings and one striped. Cushions were ubiquitous in the bourgeois hall. Catton, for example, had 13, Talkan exceptionally 20.
It wasn’t just for show, though. One important function of the hall was that it was a dining area – records reveal you could usually find tables, benches, basins and ewers there, and sometimes candlesticks (for eating at night) and trestle tables (in case you got extra guests). Meanwhile, the hall could also double as a space for spinning wool or playing games.
The Medieval Kitchen: Feeding the Household
Medieval Cooking – A cook at the stove with his trademark ladle; woodcut illustration from Kuchenmaistrey, the first printed cookbook in German, woodcut, 1485
No medieval home could function without its kitchen. It was the heart of domestic work and one of the most important rooms in any artisan or merchant’s house. While many kitchens were modest in size, they were busy spaces, and even sometimes supported side businesses like brewing or baking.
Most kitchens were equipped with the basics: pots, pans, spits for roasting meat, and sometimes mortars for grinding. Larger and wealthier households had more elaborate tools, especially for roasting meat—an activity often linked with entertaining or celebrating feast days. Hugh Grantham, a prosperous mason in York, had a well-stocked kitchen that included multiple roasting spits, highlighting the importance of hospitality in his household. In contrast, the kitchen of Katherine North, a poor laundress and maker of cheap clothing, had no such equipment. Her entire estate was worth less than 12 shillings.
Not every home had a clearly defined kitchen space. In smaller or poorer homes, cooking might take place directly in the hall, where the hearth doubled as a stove. This was the case for Thomas Peerson, a toll collector whose inventory listed cooking equipment in the hall itself. His modest setup reflects how many urban households operated on tight budgets, making do without special-purpose rooms.
In the best-equipped houses, the kitchen wasn’t alone. It might be accompanied by a brewhouse, gilehouse (a room for fermenting), or even a bakehouse. These were often outbuildings attached to the main home. For example, William Coltman, a brewer, had both a gilehouse and a bulting-house—used for sifting flour and preparing bread. The division of labour was often gendered too: in several households, especially those of masons, the wife managed the brewing operations as part of the family economy.
Chambers and a Little Privacy
A medieval bedchamber – BNF MS Latin 9333
If there was any private space in the house, it was the chamber, usually located upstairs. This was where the master and mistress of the house slept, often in large beds filled with feather mattresses and heavy curtains. But even this space could be shared with children, guests, or servants when needed.
The evidence found in these records is often vague and incomplete, leaving room for different interpretations. Goldberg gives this example:
Hugh Grantham’s inventory documents a plentiful supply of bed linen in the form of sheets and pillows. His chamber was well equipped with chests, a ubiquitous feature of chambers, but only one actual wooden bed is recorded. At his death Hugh was living with his wife Agnes, quite probably their son and one or more female servants. Three overlapping possibilities arise. One is that all slept in the chamber, but only Hugh and Agnes slept on bedding contained within a physical bed with curtains, the others making do with paillasses of virtually no value and so unrecorded in the inventory. A second is that paillasses were put out at night elsewhere in the house, perhaps providing for the female servants to sleep separately. A third is that there were more solid bed frames, but these were deemed the personal belongings of the users and so unrecorded. In the light of the deposition evidence that servants and children might sleep downstairs, these two last seem the more likely.
Who Was in Charge?
Barley Hall in York – photo by Attila / Flickr
Medieval homes were not just places of work and family life; they were also shaped by clear power dynamics. The household followed a strict hierarchy, with the male head of the house (the master) holding formal authority. He was in charge of the workshop, made key decisions, presided over meals, and controlled who entered or left the home. Even small routines, such as locking the front door or opening the shop window, were his responsibility.
But this power was not absolute. Much of the day-to-day running of the household depended on the mistress, who managed servants, kept track of supplies, and often helped run the family business. She quite literally held the keys, symbolising her control over domestic spaces and resources. When her husband was away, she might even take charge of the workshop. In practice, the household’s success relied not only on the master’s authority but also on a functional partnership between husband and wife
Servants, Apprentices, and Busy Households
Male servants preparing a meal – British Library MS Additional 42130 fol. 207v
A medieval home was rarely quiet or empty. It might include several live-in servants, one or two apprentices, and possibly a few children. These people worked hard and often slept in shared or makeshift spaces, including under tables, in shops, or on pallets in common rooms. Their daily lives were full of duties, but they also formed part of the household’s social fabric.
Relationships in these homes were complicated. Servants and apprentices might live for years with their masters and mistresses, forming strong bonds or falling into conflict. Some of the most revealing records come from court cases, where disputes and scandals brought private life into public view. For example, in 1372, court records reveal how a metal worker named Thomas de Walde was discovered to be sharing a bed with his former servant, forcing his wife to sleep downstairs with their children.
Daily life inside the medieval home was richly layered—practical, social, emotional, and symbolic all at once. Goldberg’s study of York in the later Middle Ages shows us that far from being mere shelters, these houses were vibrant spaces of labour, identity, and human drama. They were deeply structured by social roles, economic activity, and the negotiation of public and private life. In short, the medieval home was a world in miniature.
Jeremy Goldberg’s article, “Making the house a home in later medieval York,” is published in Journal of Medieval History. You can read it through White Rose Research Online.
Jeremy Goldberg is an Emeritus Reader of History at the University of York and a member of the Medieval Urban Household Research Project. Click here to view his university webpage.
What was it really like to live in a home during the Middle Ages? For many of us, medieval houses bring to mind images of draughty halls, wooden beams, and perhaps a cauldron over an open fire. But these homes were more than historical set pieces—they were busy, lived-in spaces filled with work, family, and social life. In late medieval York, especially among artisans and merchants, the home was the centre of everything.
Historian Jeremy Goldberg, using records like wills, inventories, and church court testimony, has pieced together a vivid picture of domestic life in this period. His article, “Making the house a home in later medieval York,” reveals how these places were deeply woven into the fabric of economic, emotional, and social experience in the Middle Ages.
Living and Working Under One Roof
One of the biggest differences between then and now is that many medieval homes were also workplaces. If you were a tailor, a goldsmith, a brewer, or a merchant, you likely ran your business from your home. That meant your shop, your tools, your apprentices—and sometimes your customers—all came right into your living space.
Goldberg offers these examples:
The remains of original shopfronts survive on several former butchers’ houses down York’s Shambles. Shops are described in the inventories of a barber, a girdler, a pewterer, a skinner, a stringer and a tailor respectively. It is likely that these served as retail spaces as well as – in most instances at least – work spaces and that they consequently would usually have opened onto the street. However, the workshop listed in the inventory of John Collan, a goldsmith, of 1490 was probably not accessible from the street, but followed the pattern outlined by David Clark whereby customers would be invited in by arrangement. The same was likely true of Thomas Gryssop, described as a chapman, but whose voluminous stock, including lengths of cloth, spices, caps and bonnets, gloves, purses and the like suggests he was more akin to a merchant.
This overlap made for a very different kind of home life, one where business and family were always mixing. It wasn’t unusual for an apprentice to sleep in the workshop or for a servant to cook, clean, and help in the shop all in the same day.
The Hall: Heart of the Household
At the centre of many homes was the hall. This was where the family gathered, meals were served, and guests were received. It was the main social space and was often decorated with wall hangings (known as corsers, costers and bankers), cushions, and even colourful fabrics to show off the family’s taste and status. Goldberg notes a few examples:
The prosperous girdler, Robert Talkan, had two different sets of dorsers, costers and bankers, which also included cushions, though only a red and blue dorser is described. The weaver, Thomas Catton, had a red and green dorser and matching banker. Painted wall hangings are also regularly found. John Carter, a tailor, had six painted hangings and one striped. Cushions were ubiquitous in the bourgeois hall. Catton, for example, had 13, Talkan exceptionally 20.
It wasn’t just for show, though. One important function of the hall was that it was a dining area – records reveal you could usually find tables, benches, basins and ewers there, and sometimes candlesticks (for eating at night) and trestle tables (in case you got extra guests). Meanwhile, the hall could also double as a space for spinning wool or playing games.
The Medieval Kitchen: Feeding the Household
No medieval home could function without its kitchen. It was the heart of domestic work and one of the most important rooms in any artisan or merchant’s house. While many kitchens were modest in size, they were busy spaces, and even sometimes supported side businesses like brewing or baking.
Most kitchens were equipped with the basics: pots, pans, spits for roasting meat, and sometimes mortars for grinding. Larger and wealthier households had more elaborate tools, especially for roasting meat—an activity often linked with entertaining or celebrating feast days. Hugh Grantham, a prosperous mason in York, had a well-stocked kitchen that included multiple roasting spits, highlighting the importance of hospitality in his household. In contrast, the kitchen of Katherine North, a poor laundress and maker of cheap clothing, had no such equipment. Her entire estate was worth less than 12 shillings.
Not every home had a clearly defined kitchen space. In smaller or poorer homes, cooking might take place directly in the hall, where the hearth doubled as a stove. This was the case for Thomas Peerson, a toll collector whose inventory listed cooking equipment in the hall itself. His modest setup reflects how many urban households operated on tight budgets, making do without special-purpose rooms.
In the best-equipped houses, the kitchen wasn’t alone. It might be accompanied by a brewhouse, gilehouse (a room for fermenting), or even a bakehouse. These were often outbuildings attached to the main home. For example, William Coltman, a brewer, had both a gilehouse and a bulting-house—used for sifting flour and preparing bread. The division of labour was often gendered too: in several households, especially those of masons, the wife managed the brewing operations as part of the family economy.
Chambers and a Little Privacy
If there was any private space in the house, it was the chamber, usually located upstairs. This was where the master and mistress of the house slept, often in large beds filled with feather mattresses and heavy curtains. But even this space could be shared with children, guests, or servants when needed.
The evidence found in these records is often vague and incomplete, leaving room for different interpretations. Goldberg gives this example:
Hugh Grantham’s inventory documents a plentiful supply of bed linen in the form of sheets and pillows. His chamber was well equipped with chests, a ubiquitous feature of chambers, but only one actual wooden bed is recorded. At his death Hugh was living with his wife Agnes, quite probably their son and one or more female servants. Three overlapping possibilities arise. One is that all slept in the chamber, but only Hugh and Agnes slept on bedding contained within a physical bed with curtains, the others making do with paillasses of virtually no value and so unrecorded in the inventory. A second is that paillasses were put out at night elsewhere in the house, perhaps providing for the female servants to sleep separately. A third is that there were more solid bed frames, but these were deemed the personal belongings of the users and so unrecorded. In the light of the deposition evidence that servants and children might sleep downstairs, these two last seem the more likely.
Who Was in Charge?
Medieval homes were not just places of work and family life; they were also shaped by clear power dynamics. The household followed a strict hierarchy, with the male head of the house (the master) holding formal authority. He was in charge of the workshop, made key decisions, presided over meals, and controlled who entered or left the home. Even small routines, such as locking the front door or opening the shop window, were his responsibility.
But this power was not absolute. Much of the day-to-day running of the household depended on the mistress, who managed servants, kept track of supplies, and often helped run the family business. She quite literally held the keys, symbolising her control over domestic spaces and resources. When her husband was away, she might even take charge of the workshop. In practice, the household’s success relied not only on the master’s authority but also on a functional partnership between husband and wife
Servants, Apprentices, and Busy Households
A medieval home was rarely quiet or empty. It might include several live-in servants, one or two apprentices, and possibly a few children. These people worked hard and often slept in shared or makeshift spaces, including under tables, in shops, or on pallets in common rooms. Their daily lives were full of duties, but they also formed part of the household’s social fabric.
Relationships in these homes were complicated. Servants and apprentices might live for years with their masters and mistresses, forming strong bonds or falling into conflict. Some of the most revealing records come from court cases, where disputes and scandals brought private life into public view. For example, in 1372, court records reveal how a metal worker named Thomas de Walde was discovered to be sharing a bed with his former servant, forcing his wife to sleep downstairs with their children.
Daily life inside the medieval home was richly layered—practical, social, emotional, and symbolic all at once. Goldberg’s study of York in the later Middle Ages shows us that far from being mere shelters, these houses were vibrant spaces of labour, identity, and human drama. They were deeply structured by social roles, economic activity, and the negotiation of public and private life. In short, the medieval home was a world in miniature.
Jeremy Goldberg’s article, “Making the house a home in later medieval York,” is published in Journal of Medieval History. You can read it through White Rose Research Online.
Jeremy Goldberg is an Emeritus Reader of History at the University of York and a member of the Medieval Urban Household Research Project. Click here to view his university webpage.
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