Hello, and thanks for joining me for another Oak Academy history lesson.

My name is Mrs. Knox, and I'll be guiding you through the resources you need to be successful in the lesson.

So let's get started.

Today's lesson is part of a unit of work on Norman England where we're looking at the changes brought about to ordinary people's lives after the Norman invasion.

Today's lesson will focus on life in villages under Norman rule.

And by the end of the lesson you'll be able to describe the features of village life and changes to villages under the Normans.

Now today's lesson, we'll use some key vocabulary, so let's have a look at some of the words we'll come across in the lesson.

The first word will come across is "Manor." A manor was a unit of land presided over by a lord.

We'll also come across the word "Demesne." This was the lord of a manor's land, which was farmed for him.

We'll also use the term "Villein." A villein was a peasant who held between 15 and 30 acres of land, who worked the lord's land for two or three days per week.

Around 40% of peasants were villeins in Norman England.

And finally, we'll come across the word "Freeman." A freeman was a peasant who held up to a hundred acres of land, which they rented from a lord for money.

They were free to rent land from another lord if they chose to.

Now today's lesson will be in three parts, so we'll get started now with part one, where we'll be focusing on seasonal life in the countryside.

Nearly everyone in Norman England farmed for a living, just had been the case in Anglo-Saxon England.

Historians have calculated that 8 million acres of land were farmed in Norman England, as much as was formed in 1900.

Most of it was used to grow grain, which was used for bread and also to make beer.

Everybody drank beer because the fermentation process made water safe to drink.

Most villages had common land where livestock could be grazed.

Villagers also often had rights to local woodland to collect fallen branches to use for fuel, construction or crafts, and to fatten pigs on acorns and beech mast.

Alright, here's a quick check of your understanding now.

I'd like you to answer this question.

"How many acres land were farmed in Norman England?" Was it A, 2 million, B, 4 million, or C, 8 million? Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

Well done if you said that the correct answer was C, there were 8 million acres of land farmed in Norman England.

Activities in the farming year changed with the seasons.

Seeds for crops were sown on the fields in spring, with livestock, that's sheep and cows, eating the new grass on pasture land.

The crops were ready for harvesting in summer, which was the busiest time of year.

As well as grain crops, the villagers would harvest hay from meadows, which was used to feed animals through the winter.

Crops would then be threshed to separate the grains from the stalks and the grain would then be stored or sold.

In the autumn, village livestock would graze the stubble left after the harvest and their manure would fertilise the soil.

Then, the fields would be ploughed using a wooden plough pulled by oxen.

Some animals would be slaughtered as winter began and their meat preserved with salt.

Here's a check again of your understanding now.

I'd like you to answer this true or false question.

"It was hard work being a mediaeval farmer?" Press pause and when you have your answer, press play.

You should have said the correct answer is true, but why is the answer true? Is it because A, "All of the work had to be done in the summer, so farmers work day and night, or B, "There was always a job to do, regardless of the season?" Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

Well done if you said the correct justification was B, "There was always a job to do, regardless of the season." Here's another quick check of your understanding.

I'd like you to match the season in the mediaeval farming year to the correct job.

Press pause, and then when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on with the task.

You should have said that in the spring, the seeds for the crops were sown.

In the summer, the crops were harvested.

In the autumn, village livestock would graze.

And in the winter, animals were slaughtered.

Well done if you've got all of them correct.

It's time now to put everything you've learned in this section into practise by answering this question.

I'd like you to write a chronological account of the mediaeval farming year.

You should start your account in the spring.

Try to include the following words in your answer.

"Firstly," "next," "busiest," and then the word, "finally." Press pause, and when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

Welcome back.

Let's have a look at what you might have said in your answer.

You may have said that "'Firstly,' the seed for the crops was sown in the spring while the livestock grazed on the fresh pasture.

The 'busiest' time of year was in the summer, when the grain and the hay was harvested, threshed and put aside for the winter.

In the autumn, the sheep and cows grazed on the stubble left over from the harvest; they fertilised the soil and 'next' the soil was ploughed.

'Finally,' in the winter some of the animals were slaughtered for their meat." We're ready now to move on to the second section of the lesson today, this section will focus on continuity in village life.

The Normans did not introduce new farming practises or change how village life was organised.

A village was part of a manor with a lord as a landholder.

The lord kept some land for himself, known as the demesne, and the villagers either then rented land from the lord or got land in return for also farming the lord's land for him.

Like in Anglo-Saxon England, the village was surrounded by two or three large fields.

One field was sown in winter, one in spring, and the third left fallow, or empty, for a year.

Crops stayed the same, wheat and rye for making bread, barley for brewing beer, and oats for feeding livestock.

Fields were divided into strips, with each villager farming several.

A reeve, that's a villein, who was chosen for the job by the rest of the village, organised the work.

Alright, it's time for a check of your understanding now.

I'd like you to attempt this question.

"Which crops were grown in villages in England during Norman times?" Was it A, "Oats, barley, rye and sugarcane," B, "Oats, rye and rice and wheat," or C, "Barley, wheat, rye and oats." Press pause, and when you've got the correct answer, press play.

Well done if you said the correct answer is C, barley, wheat, rye and oats were the crops grown villages in England during the Norman times.

As in Anglo-Saxon times, village houses were made of wood, plastered with a mixture of mud and straw and their roofs thatched with straw or reeds.

Livestock lived in the house with the family in the winter, and cooking was done on an open hearth.

Villagers had very few possessions.

Sacks of straw to sleep on, wooden stools to sit on, pottery cups and bowls and a cooking pot.

Time for a check of your understanding again now.

"What were the differences between Anglo-Saxon and Norman village houses?" Press pause, and when you're ready for the answer, press play.

Let's have a look now at what your answer might have included.

You could have said that there were no differences.

"As in Anglo-Saxon times, Norman village houses were made of wood, plastered with a mixture of mud and straw, and the roofs were thatched with straw or with reeds." Most villages had a church where villagers gathered for worship, but also for festivals and sometimes for trading as well.

The village priest had a very similar life to other villagers, farming the strips of church land, called the glebe, which were mixed in with everyone else's strips.

Priests were often married and poorly educated, and both of these conditions were slow to change in Norman England since reforms banning marriage for priests were hard to enforce.

The villagers of the manor had to give a tithe, or one tenth of their farming produce, to the church each year to support its work.

Here's another true or false question now.

"Norman churches were important to village culture." Is that true or false? Press pause, and when you're ready for the answer, press play.

You should have said the correct answer was true.

Why is the answer true? Is it because "Villagers had to work for several days a week on the manor's demesne land," or "They were the place that the villagers gathered to workshop, to trade and to celebrate?" Press pause, and then press play to hear the correct answer.

You should have said the correct answer was B, Norman churches were important to village culture as they were the place that the villagers gathered to workshop, to trade and to celebrate.

Finally, in this section, let's try this question.

I'd like you to provide three examples to support Alex's statement.

Let's have a look at Alex's statement now.

Alex says, "There was more continuity than change in the countryside under the Normans." Press pause until you complete your answer, and then press play to see what you could have written.

Welcome back.

In your answer, you could have mentioned the following things, "Life was organised in the same way, with the lord of the manor providing land in return for work or rent." Also, you could have said that "The same crops were grown using the same farming techniques." And the final continuity you could have mentioned was that "Houses remained very similar to Anglo-Saxon times, with wood construction and thatched roofs." Well done if you managed to have three correct examples.

Let's move on now to the final section of the lesson today.

This section, we'll look at changes in village life.

The Domesday Book recorded 13,400 villages in England in 1086.

Although most aspects of life in these villages would've changed very little since 1066, it is likely that by 1086 most villagers would now have had a Norman lord instead of an English one.

Norman lords worked their villeins harder than had been the case in Anglo-Saxon times.

Tenants-in-chief often rented their demesne lands to farmers for a fixed fee.

It was then up to these farmers to make as much profit from the land as they could.

Evidence from court cases show how much peasants resented the way these farmers bullied and forced them to work harder and longer.

Time for a check of your understanding, "How many villages were recorded in England in the Domesday Book of 1086?" Was it 1,340, 13,400, or 134,000? Press pause, and then press play for the answer.

That's right, you should have said the correct answer was 13,400.

Another change was a fall in the number of freeman.

Freeman were the wealthiest villagers who rented their land for money from the lord.

Freeman were free to move and to rent land from someone else if they wanted to.

Freeman made up about 12% of the population in 1086, and they were mostly found in the east of England, the descendants of Viking settlers in the Danelaw.

Normans did not like this independence from their workers, and as the feudal system developed in England, more and more freeman were forced into becoming villeins who were not allowed to leave their manor.

There were around 28,000 enslaved people in England in 1066.

Sometimes English people who had fallen on hard times sold themselves and their families into slavery, although there was also trade in enslaved people between Ireland and England.

We know that the Normans disapproved of slavery for religious reasons and slavery gradually disappeared over William's reign as a result.

For example, in Essex, the number of enslaved people fell by 25% between 1066 and 1086.

However, in contrast, Normans in the Marcher earldoms sometimes enslaved Welsh people and treated them very harshly.

Village life in the north of England saw more change than in the south.

One change was the growth in monasteries.

In Cistercian monasteries, which were often set up in remote locations in the north, monks worked the land themselves.

Monasteries in the south were more likely to have local villagers farming their lands.

But the biggest change was in areas that had suffered from the Harrying of the North in 1069 to 1070, which saw the brutal slaughter of people and destruction of villages in the north.

Domesday records show that hundreds of village settlements across Yorkshire still remained wasted by 1086, no longer producing anything of value.

Time for another check of your understanding.

Here's a true or false question.

"Norman lords had a tighter control of England's peasants than Anglo-Saxon lords had done." Press pause, and then when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

Well done if you said the correct answer was true, but why is the answer true? Is it because "The number of enslaved people in England fell under Norman rule?" Or, is it because "Villeins were worked harder by Norman lords and freeman were forced into becoming villeins?" Press pause, and then press play when you have your answer.

The correct justification was B, the "Villeins were worked harder by Norman Lords and freeman were forced into becoming villeins." It's time for the final task now of the day.

I'd like you to attempt this question.

"How far do you agree that there was more change than continuity in village life under Norman rule?" In this question, you should try to write a balanced answer, including precise details to support the points that you make.

You might want to use these sentence starters to structure your response.

Press pause now to complete your answer and then press play to see what you could have written.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

Your answer could have included the following.

"On the one hand, life did change in English villages under Norman Rule.

For example, those living in the north of England, in places such as Yorkshire, experienced the Harrying of the North, which resulted in hundreds of villages being destroyed.

In addition, by using the feudal system, the Normans made it more difficult for peasants to continue as independent freeman and instead forced them into giving up their freedoms and becoming villeins.

The Normans also made peasants work harder than Anglo-Saxon lords of the manor had done.

Furthermore, the Normans were opposed to slavery and there was a gradual reduction in the number of enslaved people working in the countryside under William's reign.

However, there was also continuity such as the farming system staying the same.

For example, the same crops and farming methods were used and the same seasonal activities such as sewing, harvesting and ploughing were carried out.

Additionally, peasants worked for the lord of the manor in the same way, with most peasants (villeins) getting their land in return for work on the lord's demesne.

Overall, although there was certainly some change to village life under the Normans, generally village life continued to stay the same as it had been before.

This was because the Normans were interested in extracting more money out of what was already happening in the English countryside." We've reached the end of today's lesson, so let's have a quick summary now.

"Village life followed a seasonal pattern during both Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England.

Many other features of English life remained the same under the Normans, although Norman lords worked villagers harder and this was resented.

The feudal system resulted in a decline in the numbers of freeman and tighter control over the villeins.

The Normans' attitudes towards slavery also reduced the number of enslaved people.

There was more change in the north of England as some villages there had been destroyed during the Harrying of the North." Thank you for all of your work today.

I hope that you feel confident that you've understood the lesson and met your learning objective.

I look forward to you joining me in a future lesson.