A major study of animal remains from across England suggests that the foundations of the country’s medieval wool economy were being laid as early as the seventh century, with monasteries playing an important role. The research also reveals how changing demands for wool, grain, meat and milk transformed the ways medieval farmers raised cattle and sheep over the course of a thousand years.
Published in PLOS One, the study was carried out by Matilda Holmes of the University of Leicester, David Orton of the University of York, Helena Hamerow of the University of Oxford and Richard Thomas of the University of Leicester. They drew on a vast collection of zooarchaeological evidence assembled through the Feeding Anglo-Saxon England project. Their dataset contains 701 assemblages from 460 archaeological sites, allowing them to examine changes in animal husbandry across much of England between AD 400 and 1400.
“The use of an aoristic method allowed us to look at the changing use of cattle and sheep over a continuous chronology, rather than relying on artificial periods such as ‘Saxon’ or ‘high medieval’,” the authors explain. “This way we could see more clearly the shift in emphasis towards sheep husbandry in the seventh century and the peak in draught cattle use for arable production in the tenth to twelfth centuries, followed by a change in market forces requiring more meat and milk as the population grew in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.”
Monasteries and the rise of sheep farming
Changes in the relative abundance of cattle and sheep in England between AD 400 and 1400, showing the growing importance of sheep during the medieval period. Credit: Holmes et al. / PLOS One, CC BY 4.0.
During the earlier part of the period, cattle predominated. Between about 450 and 650, much of England appears to have had a relatively self-sufficient mixed farming economy. Cattle provided meat as well as milk and traction, while sheep supplied smaller quantities of wool, milk and meat.
The first significant change appears around AD 625, when the proportion of sheep began to rise. The researchers connect this development particularly strongly with the emergence of new monastic communities. Three of the five sites from this period where sheep accounted for more than 65% of the cattle-and-sheep remains were monastic sites. The increase can also be detected across several regions, suggesting that it was not simply an isolated local development.
The researchers argue that the evidence pushes the beginnings of the growth in English sheep farming earlier than the ninth century, where it has often been placed. They conclude that the origins of the medieval wool trade can be traced to monastic communities of the seventh century and suggest that the resulting surplus may even have helped stimulate international trade and the development of wics, or trading settlements.
The authors note: “As far as sheep are concerned, the new monastic communities of the late seventh century appear to have instigated the increase in wool production that underpinned the English economy well into the sixteenth century.”
Sheep were valuable for much more than their fleeces. They provided meat and milk, while their manure could fertilise fields and they could graze on stubble after crops had been harvested. This made sheep closely connected not only with textile production but with the expansion of arable agriculture.
Medieval England’s working cattle
Oxen pulling a plough in the 13th-century Rochester Bestiary, produced in England. British Library, Royal MS 12 F XIII, fol. 37v
Cattle underwent a different transformation. From the ninth century, animals were increasingly kept to older ages, while evidence from changes to their lower limb bones points towards their use for pulling ploughs and performing other draught work.
This trend reached its height between roughly the tenth and twelfth centuries. The study finds that older cattle peaked between about 900 and 1100, while archaeological signatures associated with draught cattle peaked between about 1000 and 1200.
The pattern appears to reflect the growing importance of grain production. Population expansion, urban growth and expanding markets created demand for agricultural production on a scale not previously seen in medieval England. Older working cattle became an important part of the system that allowed farmers to cultivate more land.
Growing demand for meat and milk
Another transformation began around the twelfth century. Cattle increasingly began to be slaughtered at younger ages, indicating that beef was becoming more important. The researchers note that evidence for demand for younger animals in urban markets appears two or three centuries earlier than previous interpretations had suggested.
By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, an increase in calves also points towards intensifying dairy production. At the same time, horses were replacing some cattle as working animals. The study notes that horses represented only about 5% of draught animals around the time of Domesday but accounted for an estimated 20–50% by 1400.
Together, these changes freed cattle increasingly for the production of meat and milk rather than keeping them alive for years as working animals.
The findings reveal an animal economy that changed gradually alongside medieval England itself. What began as largely self-sufficient livestock farming after the end of Roman rule developed into a system capable of supplying growing towns, supporting large-scale grain cultivation and producing surpluses for international commerce.
A summary of the major changes in England’s animal economy between AD 400 and 1400, including the rise of sheep and wool production, the growing use of cattle for draught work, and the later shift towards meat and dairy production. Credit: Holmes et al. / PLOS One, CC BY 4.0
For the researchers, sheep farming provides one of the clearest examples of this long transformation. By tracing its expansion back to monastic estates in the seventh century, the study suggests that some of the foundations of England’s later medieval wool economy were already being established centuries before the trade reached its height.
The article, “Meat, milk, wool and grain: The animal economy of medieval England (CE 400 to 1400),” by Matilda Holmes, David Orton, Helena Hamerow and Richard Thomas, is published in PLOS One. Click here to read it.
Top Image: Christ and a monk with sheep, from a 13th-century manuscript of Hugh of Fouilloy’s Treatise on Shepherds and Flocks. The work was produced around 1270. J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XV 3, fol. 46v.
A major study of animal remains from across England suggests that the foundations of the country’s medieval wool economy were being laid as early as the seventh century, with monasteries playing an important role. The research also reveals how changing demands for wool, grain, meat and milk transformed the ways medieval farmers raised cattle and sheep over the course of a thousand years.
Published in PLOS One, the study was carried out by Matilda Holmes of the University of Leicester, David Orton of the University of York, Helena Hamerow of the University of Oxford and Richard Thomas of the University of Leicester. They drew on a vast collection of zooarchaeological evidence assembled through the Feeding Anglo-Saxon England project. Their dataset contains 701 assemblages from 460 archaeological sites, allowing them to examine changes in animal husbandry across much of England between AD 400 and 1400.
“The use of an aoristic method allowed us to look at the changing use of cattle and sheep over a continuous chronology, rather than relying on artificial periods such as ‘Saxon’ or ‘high medieval’,” the authors explain. “This way we could see more clearly the shift in emphasis towards sheep husbandry in the seventh century and the peak in draught cattle use for arable production in the tenth to twelfth centuries, followed by a change in market forces requiring more meat and milk as the population grew in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.”
Monasteries and the rise of sheep farming
During the earlier part of the period, cattle predominated. Between about 450 and 650, much of England appears to have had a relatively self-sufficient mixed farming economy. Cattle provided meat as well as milk and traction, while sheep supplied smaller quantities of wool, milk and meat.
The first significant change appears around AD 625, when the proportion of sheep began to rise. The researchers connect this development particularly strongly with the emergence of new monastic communities. Three of the five sites from this period where sheep accounted for more than 65% of the cattle-and-sheep remains were monastic sites. The increase can also be detected across several regions, suggesting that it was not simply an isolated local development.
The researchers argue that the evidence pushes the beginnings of the growth in English sheep farming earlier than the ninth century, where it has often been placed. They conclude that the origins of the medieval wool trade can be traced to monastic communities of the seventh century and suggest that the resulting surplus may even have helped stimulate international trade and the development of wics, or trading settlements.
The authors note: “As far as sheep are concerned, the new monastic communities of the late seventh century appear to have instigated the increase in wool production that underpinned the English economy well into the sixteenth century.”
Sheep were valuable for much more than their fleeces. They provided meat and milk, while their manure could fertilise fields and they could graze on stubble after crops had been harvested. This made sheep closely connected not only with textile production but with the expansion of arable agriculture.
Medieval England’s working cattle
Cattle underwent a different transformation. From the ninth century, animals were increasingly kept to older ages, while evidence from changes to their lower limb bones points towards their use for pulling ploughs and performing other draught work.
This trend reached its height between roughly the tenth and twelfth centuries. The study finds that older cattle peaked between about 900 and 1100, while archaeological signatures associated with draught cattle peaked between about 1000 and 1200.
The pattern appears to reflect the growing importance of grain production. Population expansion, urban growth and expanding markets created demand for agricultural production on a scale not previously seen in medieval England. Older working cattle became an important part of the system that allowed farmers to cultivate more land.
Growing demand for meat and milk
Another transformation began around the twelfth century. Cattle increasingly began to be slaughtered at younger ages, indicating that beef was becoming more important. The researchers note that evidence for demand for younger animals in urban markets appears two or three centuries earlier than previous interpretations had suggested.
By the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, an increase in calves also points towards intensifying dairy production. At the same time, horses were replacing some cattle as working animals. The study notes that horses represented only about 5% of draught animals around the time of Domesday but accounted for an estimated 20–50% by 1400.
Together, these changes freed cattle increasingly for the production of meat and milk rather than keeping them alive for years as working animals.
The findings reveal an animal economy that changed gradually alongside medieval England itself. What began as largely self-sufficient livestock farming after the end of Roman rule developed into a system capable of supplying growing towns, supporting large-scale grain cultivation and producing surpluses for international commerce.
For the researchers, sheep farming provides one of the clearest examples of this long transformation. By tracing its expansion back to monastic estates in the seventh century, the study suggests that some of the foundations of England’s later medieval wool economy were already being established centuries before the trade reached its height.
The article, “Meat, milk, wool and grain: The animal economy of medieval England (CE 400 to 1400),” by Matilda Holmes, David Orton, Helena Hamerow and Richard Thomas, is published in PLOS One. Click here to read it.
Top Image: Christ and a monk with sheep, from a 13th-century manuscript of Hugh of Fouilloy’s Treatise on Shepherds and Flocks. The work was produced around 1270. J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XV 3, fol. 46v.
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