TUDOR FARMING

Tudor farming

WHAT THEY GROW

The Tudors grow a lot of crops such as

wheat,bread,poeatos and much more

FACTS

1.As many as 90 percent of the population of Tudor England lived in rural farming communities,
earning the majority of their income from either livestock or arable farming.
2.The Tudors commonly kept sheep as a source of wool, milk, meat and lambs. Sheep provided the
vast majority of the milk used by farming households; more sheeps milk was used than cows milk.
3.Cattle were kept almost exclusively as working animals, unlike today, few herds existed. The
cattle were used above horses to work the land due to their strength and small expense.
4.The most popular animal of the period was the pig with almost every country person keeping at
least one. However, Tudor pigs would bear more resemblance to the modern wild boar than the
modern pig (like the Managalitzas here at The Farm).
5.Farm life in Tudor times required long hours and hard work. Due to the constrictions of daylight
hours in which they could work, Tudor farmers often began work almost at dawn.
6.All the animals on the farm had more than one use, for example cattle not only provided work
but also milk, meat and leather, often their horns could be used to form spoons or drinking vessels.
7.An enclosure known as a Hogbog was used by farmers to house both pigs and poultry. The pigs
would occupy the ground space while the poultry resided in a raised hen house. This design saved
both space and danger to the hens at night.
8.Tudor farmers did not like to waste precious resources. When an animal was sent to the
slaughter, the entire body was made use of, and not just for meat even a pigs bristles would be
used to make brushes.
9.Pigs were considered to be an incredibly useful animal to keep; it was not uncommon for a
Tudor peasant to receive a young pig in the spring time as part of his wages.
10.The food required to sustain the animals was largely sourced by farmers from either their own
or local farms. Many Tudor farmers carefully grew grasses on their farms to be dried and fed to
cattle as hay in the winter.

WHAT MACHINES DO THEY

HAVE

LIVESTOCK

HORSE AND CARRIAGE

WHAT VEG THEY CROW

Tudor grow cabages,onoice,carrots and parsnips

FACTS

Just about every country person kept a pig or two in Tudor times.
Unlike other farm animals, cattle and sheep, the pig doesn't need a field and acres of grassland to
live on.
The peasant's pig would have been kept in a small enclosure behind their cottage - the hogbog!
The pig is very good example of Tudor recycling. Not only did the pig have the food leftovers, but
pigs enjoy human waste. On one side of the pigsty was "the midden" or human toilet, with a gentle
slope into the pig quarters; we are not very efficient at taking all the goodness out of what we eat,
but the pig is better. The pig cleared the human waste, got nutrition from it, and made more
manure; this then went onto the compost heap, which when well rotted, was put on the Tudor
garden to help the vegetables grow, which humans ate.........
The pig needed more food than just the leftovers etc, and the peasants had rights to take their
animals onto common land to graze or into the landowners woodland.
Grazing pigs in woodland is beneficial to both. The pigs grazed on the undergrowth of plants,
keeping the land clear of unusable plants so all the goodness in the soil could be used by the
trees, and they also added richness to the soil by manuring it. Acorn harvest is a favourite time
with pigs.
If the woodland was used for coppicing, as in hazel for fencing etc, the pigs would be kept away
from the coppiced area for a year or two until the new growth had hardened off and developed a
bark, to prevent it being eaten with everything else.
A peasant would buy, or be given as part payment of wages, a young pig in the spring; which
would then be fed and fattened up until autumn. This was the traditional time for killing the pigs,
they were well grown so there was no point keeping them over winter - except for the breeding
sows and a boar - particularly as free food in the woodland was hard to come by.
The meat was cured, either by salting or smoking, to preserve it in a time when there weren't any
fridges and freezers! Properly smoked and hung, joints of pork would keep well for up to two

HOW FARMING WAS

FARMING

The fields were divided up so that everybody Planting crops

was hard work. Farmers ploughed their field strips with
oxen and then pulled a harrow over the ground to break up
the lumps.

When the harvest failed it was tempting for poor people to

steal food. When people did break the law, they risked
public flogging or being hangedy got a share of the good
land.

ANIMALS

Turkeys were one of the many new foodstuffs brought to this country by the Tudor explorers,
voyagers and adventurers.
The meat was often cooked and placed inside a showy, 'cured' peacock skin for grand feasts.
It was less tough than peacock meat!

Fortunes were to be made from sheep in Tudor times. There was a huge demand for wool.
The spinning and weaving of woollen cloth in England increased tremendously. It was said at
the time that a sheep was more valuable than a man!

PIC

THANKS FOR WATCHING