Despite the best efforts of historians, the internet is still awash with misconceptions about the Middle Ages. Many of these ideas were the product of Victorian writers and historians reflecting Mediæval life through the lens of their own society, as was done by antiquarians before them and by historians since. However, after more than a century in popular culture, and being taught in schools, these sometimes broad, sweeping assertions remain deeply rooted in everyday consciousness. This is especially so when repeatedly reinforced online, in social media, on television and in the movies. Before addressing one such notion, it is worth remembering that the Mediæval period lasted roughly 1,000 years during which peoples’ lives and experiences varied a lot according to time, place and circumstance. So, with that in mind, did animals really wander the streets of Mediæval England unchecked?
Livestock in the street It is a popular scene in films, television dramas and documentaries for animals to be portrayed freely roaming the streets of Mediæval towns and cities. It is not unusual to witness a clucking, agitated chicken scurrying out of a character’s path for example. Admittedly the unconstrained roving of chickens, cats and some other animals are more difficult to restrict, but less of a problem on a farm or in a rural setting. It might be beneficial for cats to have free range to hunt unwanted pests – mice and other rodents for example – to protect food stores from damage or being eaten. Indeed, this was most likely the principal reason humans welcomed cats into their homes. But in a crowded town or city people largely tried to avoid animals roaming freely by imposing rules and laws to counter that behaviour. Correspondingly, the popular image seems at odds with the idea that livestock was valuable, and that owners would not wish their animals to be harmed, or for them to stolen or simply lost. Besides, just like us Mediæval people did not want to see their property or streets covered in excrement. Indeed, in 1298 the abbot of St Mary’s in York complained to King Edward I about the stench pervading the streets of the Bootham area north of York Minster. In his complaint he blamed pigsties along the lanes, swine wandering about the streets and dung heaps. Significantly, the abbot’s grievance was upheld by the court which ordered local bailiffs to destroy the pigsties and ban pigs from feeding or wandering unattended.
Around the same time, roughly 200 miles south, it is documented that City of London authorities also ordered the removal of pigsties in the streets and commissioned four “swine killers” to find and eliminate any pigs roaming the main roads. As encouragement, the four men were paid half the proceeds of the sale of each carcass. Clearly 13th-century England had a pig problem.
Since animal husbandry began, people have kept pigs for one simple reason: to eat them. Other creatures were more useful alive - chickens laid eggs, cattle produced milk or drew ploughs, horses could be ridden or pulled carts, mules and donkeys were likewise beasts of burden. But pigs were most valuable as a source of fats or meat (especially salted bacon for preservation through winter) crucial to the Mediæval diet. Thus, pigs were a part of everyday life and raising pigs in the back garden of Mediæval homes was a common practice. Jørgensen quotes that in Reading in 1297, thirty of 102 taxed households owned pigs. Almost all of them had one or two animals clearly for personal consumption (Jørgensen, 2024, 64). However, as the populations of towns and cities increased, so did the number of urban pigs leading local authorities to realise that the animals and those keeping them needed controlling.
While the abbot in York complained of the stench, the commonest grievance in the 14th-century was about their location of pigsties. Records reveal that pigs (and other livestock) were generally kept in pigsties or pens, but these were often built too close to roads, over drainage ditches or next to a neighbour’s wall or property (Jørgensen, 2024, 65). Not only that but Mediæval pigs could be dangerous there being documented cases of damage to houses and gardens, attacks on people, bodies exhumed from graveyards and even children killed. Jørgensen quotes an entry in the city of Norwich’s Book of Customs that clearly reveals people’s concern with the dangers (Jørgensen, 2013, 429-451):
“Whereas great injuries and dangers so often have happened before this time in the City of Norwich and still happen from day to day in as much as boars, sows and pigs before this time have gone and still go vagrant by day and night without a keeper in the said town, whereby divers persons and children have been hurt by boars, children killed and eaten, and others [when] buried exhumed, and others maimed, and many persons of the said town have received great injuries as wrecking of houses, destruction of gardens of divers persons by such kind of pigs upon which great complaint is often brought before the said Bailiffs and Community imploring them for remedy on the misfortunes, dangers and injuries which have been done to them.”
Norwich Book of Customs, AD 1354
The experiences of the citizens of Norwich were echoed in other Mediæval town records that indicate pigs were tightly controlled. The most obvious solution was to ban pigs from the streets as one of the earliest town ordnances from York reveals. Dated to 1301, this particular byelaw decreed no one was permitted to let their pigs roam the streets by day or night. Later it was revised specifying that pigs were not allowed on York’s city walls, in its market streets, in alleys, on the bridge over the River Ouse, or on its quay. Those breaking the law risked fines and as mentioned before, officials who discovered offending animals could kill them and sell the carcass while also receiving part of the fine.
Yet, the animals had to be released regularly from their pigsties if for no other reason than to clean out the pens. Some byelaws established that mucking out of manure was to be done each Saturday to coincide with the weekly round of the municipal waste cart. Moreover, animals destined for sale at livestock markets or destined for the butchers had to be moved. Pigs were herded communally in nearby woods and fields, or wherever they would not cause too much damage, by swineherds engaged to supervise them. Similarly, town administrators paid swineherds to collect pigs from householders and take them out to graze. According to a 14th-century animal husbandry handbook “Seneschaucy”, owners were only encouraged to provide food directly to their herd during severe frosts. The rest of the time, pigs should find their own food in forest, wood pasture, marsh, or untilled fields (Jørgensen, 2013, 387-399). In these circumstances, employing swineherds to manage this makes eminent sense.
Despite some recorded instances of unruly pigs running amok, this was not the norm. Similarly, town ordinances reminding owners about the rules governing animal management only appear infrequently in the 250 years between AD 1250 and 1500. As Jørgensen notes: “Roaming pigs were considered out of the ordinary and unacceptable. Despite the swine-fuelled problems experienced in cities such as York and London, most people were minding their pigs on an everyday basis” (Jørgensen, 2024, 65).
Bon appétit!
References:
Jørgensen, D. (2013), “Running Amuck? Urban Swine Management in Late Medieval England”, Agricultural History 87, available online (accessed 2nd December 2024).
Jørgensen, D. (2013), “Pigs and Pollards: Medieval Insights for UK Wood Pasture Restoration”, Sustainability, 5(2), 387-399.
Jørgensen, D. (2024), “Pigs in the Medieval City”, BBC History magazine (October), London: Immediate Media.
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