AD 1350 · York, after the first plague years · In research
Welcome to 1350.
A city that has just lost a third of the people who lived in it.
Arrival mode
Who are you?
You are a gardener. Age 40. Living at A tenement garden inside the city walls.
You wake to bells. Wages are higher than they were two years ago, and the reason is not one anyone wants.
Now explore your day
- Dawn bell — open the garden, check for frost damage.
- Morning — carry produce to the market and pay the toll.
- Afternoon — guild business, disputes, apprentices.
- Evening — curfew bell, shutters, tallow candle.
Everyday life · historical layers
What we know, what was written, what we think
Homes
Timber-framed structures, hall houses, cess and rubbish pits, floor tile.
Food
Animal bone, cereal, orchard fruit, fish bone from river and sea trade.
Religion
Parish churches at extraordinary density, burial practice, pilgrim badges.
Medicine
Skeletal plague burials, surgical instruments, evidence of amputation and survival.
Living museum
Walk through it
Hall house
Garden
Marketplace
Time compare
The achievements and the limitations of each era, side by side.
Medieval garden
↓ Supermarket
Grow it or go without, versus year-round global supply.
Church bell
↓ Phone clock
Time as a public sound versus a private number.
Soundscape
Environmental sound only. No music unless it would have been heard.
Historical garden
What was growing
Kale
Winter greens
A reliable staple through cold months.
Peas
Pottage and drying
Stored dry and eaten all year.
Sage
Medicinal and culinary
Named constantly in remedy books.
Medlar
Fruit
Eaten bletted, after frost.
A day in the life