What's the difference between medieval inns, taverns and alehouses?

Transcript
0:00 · what's the difference between a Tavern
0:02 · an inn and an ale house in the medieval
0:05 · period or are they the same thing
0:16 · [Music]
0:20 · [Applause]
0:29 · [Music]
0:35 · taverns Inns and Ale houses are three
0:38 · establishments where alcohol was served
0:40 · but what's the difference well taverns
0:43 · were introduced by the Romans comes from
0:46 · the Latin Taverna which is an inn
0:49 · but it has a bit of a specialist sort of
0:52 · connotation taverns in the medieval
0:54 · period were where you could drink wine
0:56 · and they were considered to be a little
0:58 · more up Market than your average
1:00 · drinking establishment although they
1:02 · varied as you can imagine they were
1:03 · really up Market taverns and really
1:05 · quite down and dirty taverns of course
1:08 · now wine in the medieval period is any
1:10 · alcoholic beverage which is brewed from
1:13 · fruit so obviously the fruit of the
1:15 · grape that's what we know as wine and
1:18 · most of the wine in this country that
1:20 · was imported was red but English wine
1:22 · did exist so the fruit of the grape but
1:27 · also technically cider and Perry cider
1:30 · being from apples and Perry being from
1:33 · pears were incredibly popular and were
1:35 · considered to be wines because it's a
1:36 · fruit we don't really think of them as
1:38 · wines anymore although people today do
1:41 · make Elderberry wine which I always
1:43 · thought was a bit strange but of course
1:44 · Elderberry is a fruit and therefore if
1:46 · you make wine from it then that's what
1:49 · it actually is it's literally a wine
1:51 · so wine was broadly served in taverns
1:55 · and possibly light meals but other forms
1:58 · of entertainment as well but possibly
1:59 · not the lower end of entertainment that
2:01 · might be expected in other places so
2:04 · they did consider themselves A Cut Above
2:05 · the other places in the medieval period
2:09 · London had a population about 80 000
2:12 · people and there were over 350 taverns
2:15 · within the city walls which means there
2:17 · was a Tavern for every roughly 250
2:19 · people it's quite a lot of taverns
2:21 · actually if you can imagine that now
2:23 · each Tavern was run by Vintner a
2:26 · purveyor of wines and often those
2:27 · Vintners would be wholesale wine
2:30 · salesmen as well they would keep a
2:32 · seller that wine would be sold on and
2:34 · off the premises and there was a guild
2:36 · of Vintners and the Guild of Vintners
2:37 · still exists today in London has been
2:40 · continuously there for uh hundreds of
2:43 · years since the medieval period the
2:45 · guilds tried to maintain a monopoly on
2:49 · the trade but also they tried to Main
2:51 · retain quality and you can be thrown out
2:53 · of the guild if you were serving bad
2:55 · wine and one of the interesting laws
2:57 · about taverns was that during opening
2:59 · hours the vintna were supposed to keep
3:02 · the seller unlocked and was supposed to
3:05 · allow a client
3:07 · to come visit the seller to see exactly
3:10 · what kind of wine was being served they
3:13 · could actually go and check the markings
3:15 · on the barrel and check that it was from
3:18 · the place it was supposed to be and
3:20 · Vintners that served bad wine or wine
3:23 · that was gone off gone sour or wine that
3:27 · was actually adulterated with water
3:29 · perhaps were punished by going into the
3:32 · stocks and sometimes the remains of what
3:35 · they were selling their bad wine was
3:36 · tipped all over their heads so
3:38 · occasionally
3:39 · you might see a vintna covered in wine
3:42 · sitting in the stocks well that means
3:44 · he's a bad person probably be thrown out
3:46 · of the guild as well and lose his job so
3:49 · the rules around owning a Tavern were
3:52 · fairly strict I'm sure they weren't
3:53 · always followed though of course
3:55 · otherwise the laws wouldn't be needed
3:58 · now the most expensive wine was called
4:00 · reddish wine which comes from the
4:02 · Germanic areas that was imported a long
4:05 · way that was supposedly quite sweet and
4:08 · the value of wine in the medieval period
4:11 · really depended on its sweetness so the
4:13 · sweeter the wine
4:15 · the more expensive it would be a lot of
4:18 · the wines came from gascony in northern
4:20 · France and those were roughly four times
4:22 · as expensive as an equivalent amount of
4:25 · Ale they were sold by the cup so wine
4:28 · was
4:29 · available if you had a reasonable amount
4:31 · of money it wasn't particularly
4:33 · expensive but it was a lot more
4:34 · expensive than ale and typically ale was
4:36 · drunk by the working classes as well as
4:38 · the the Tradesmen there was a type of
4:40 · wine grown in England as well which is
4:42 · typically white wine which is
4:43 · interesting but a lot of that didn't
4:45 · really get sold in the taverns as such
4:48 · because it was often grown by the clergy
4:49 · and grown by the nobility and consumed
4:53 · on their own premises so they grew their
4:55 · own wine effectively which is kind of
4:57 · interesting and today there's a little
4:59 · bit of English wine grown in the
5:01 · southern parts of England two other
5:03 · drinks which I haven't mentioned yet are
5:05 · Mead and methaglin Mead is honey is is
5:08 · fermented honey methylene is fermented
5:11 · honey and fruit juice as well combined
5:13 · now those appear to have been available
5:15 · at taverns but were not particularly
5:17 · popular as far as I can tell
5:19 · they seem to have been reserved for
5:22 · special events they seem to be those
5:23 · sort of drinks that you would drink at a
5:25 · feast or at a wedding and of course
5:27 · weddings give us the term honeymoon
5:29 · where the couple would often drink a lot
5:32 · of Honey a lot of mead for a month after
5:36 · their wedding and
5:38 · um I guess that was a form of luxury
5:40 · that wouldn't be available to them later
5:42 · and also you've had cider and Perry
5:45 · available in the west of England quite a
5:47 · lot and in the west of England there
5:49 · seems to be so much of that that it was
5:51 · roughly half the price of ale so cider
5:54 · and Perry were stronger in alcohol but
5:57 · also half the price and certainly a lot
6:00 · cheaper than Wine
6:01 · [Music]
6:11 · Inns are really associated with
6:14 · Travelers the idea of it in was that
6:17 · it's a place to sleep overnight a place
6:20 · to rest to get some food stable your
6:23 · horse if you've got a horse look after
6:24 · your mule if you've got a mule your pack
6:26 · ponies whatever it might be they could
6:28 · be safe and looked after and you could
6:31 · get a little bit of r r you'd get a bed
6:33 · for the night might be in a communal bed
6:35 · by the way people slept sometimes 12 to
6:37 · a bed or you might just get a corner or
6:39 · if you're really cheap you might be
6:40 · sleeping in the Stables but it was
6:42 · somewhere associated with it was a
6:44 · little bit organized a little bit safe
6:45 · you could meet fellow Travelers you
6:47 · could sort of recharge and then you go
6:49 · on your way again
6:51 · lots of Inns were based at the gates to
6:55 · big cities or towns they're a place
6:57 · that's convenient so if you're a
6:59 · traveler well you get to the place
7:00 · you're going to and you think I'm really
7:02 · knackered I need to have a rest so the
7:06 · closest place is the gate and therefore
7:09 · you go to the easiest Inn you can find
7:11 · and that was the one that you you saw
7:14 · when you first got to the place you're
7:16 · going to other sorts of Inns were placed
7:19 · at convenient
7:21 · distances from one place to another
7:24 · roughly a day's comfortable travel and
7:28 · maybe not a day's ride exactly but three
7:30 · quarters of a day's ride maybe a whole
7:31 · day's walk
7:33 · sometimes at Crossroads but on major
7:35 · major roads and you'll see these in
7:37 · England as well there's one in
7:39 · particular that I remember passing it's
7:41 · close to the Foss way and it's in the
7:44 · middle of nowhere really except if you
7:46 · look at it on a map it's about 20 miles
7:48 · from one town and 20 miles to the other
7:52 · in the middle of nowhere but a good
7:54 · place for everybody to stop so it was
7:55 · good for business because everybody was
7:57 · going to stop there basically so they
7:59 · were melting pots for all sorts of types
8:02 · of people you would also have people
8:04 · from all walks of life so there were a
8:06 · variety of different qualities of
8:07 · accommodation often available in the
8:09 · Canterbury Tales Chaucer talks about
8:12 · little more than a journey from one Inn
8:15 · all the way through various other Inns
8:17 · to the eventual Canterbury and it starts
8:21 · at an inn called The Tabard Inn now
8:23 · tabard is associated with a type of
8:25 · clothing used to go over armor often had
8:28 · heraldry on it so it's a very nightly
8:30 · thing it was south of the river in a
8:33 · place called Southwark now Southwark
8:35 · back then was fairly notorious it was
8:37 · Notorious because it was out of the
8:39 · bounds of the city walls it was out of
8:42 · the bounds of the city Lords as well so
8:44 · you could just cross the river you'd get
8:46 · to southwark and it was Notorious for
8:48 · Bare baiting fighting prostitution
8:51 · gambling all sorts of Nefarious
8:55 · activities which is presumably why
8:57 · Chaucer started his journey there
9:00 · emphasizing
9:01 · perhaps the lack of religious
9:03 · seriousness of these uh of these
9:06 · pilgrims on their way to Canterbury
9:08 · you might not realize but the tabbardin
9:11 · still exists you can actually go and
9:13 · have a pint there to this day
9:15 · ale houses were little more than
9:18 · somebody's accommodation somebody's
9:20 · house
9:22 · open to the public hence Public Public
9:24 · House which is what we use in Britain to
9:26 · this day to describe pubs public house
9:28 · that's what it means really what that
9:30 · amounted to was a woman it was usually a
9:33 · woman of the household Brewing
9:35 · sufficient beer for more than her family
9:38 · so she had excess and it was an easy way
9:41 · to make some money they brewed ale not
9:44 · beer at this stage but ale which is
9:46 · barley malted barley sometimes oats take
9:49 · the juice from that and you ferment it
9:52 · sometimes you can add spices if you want
9:55 · to change the flavor but broadly
9:57 · speaking you don't it's barely sweet
9:58 · compared to Modern beer
10:01 · and it has a very high nutritional value
10:03 · so people effectively use this as liquid
10:06 · bread it was a very important component
10:08 · of the peasant diet of the ordinary
10:10 · person's diet and remember at this stage
10:13 · in history in medieval England
10:15 · 95 of the population were peasants they
10:19 · were farmers subsistence plus farmers in
10:22 · times of Plenty they could sell excess
10:25 · food but sometimes they went a little
10:26 · bit without
10:28 · but ale houses and sometimes there were
10:30 · quite a lot of these there are Villages
10:32 · and towns rather than cities as such run
10:35 · by women and people would go in there
10:38 · drink the ale until it ran out
10:41 · ale doesn't keep for very long either so
10:43 · you have to really encourage people to
10:45 · drink the whole Brew today maybe
10:47 · tomorrow third fourth day probably it's
10:50 · starting to go sour there's some
10:52 · suggestion that some of the spices and
10:56 · herbs that could be added could extend
10:58 · the life and hops the bittering agent
11:01 · that makes beer from ale effectively
11:03 · that bittering agent really didn't start
11:05 · to be used extensively until
11:08 · the very end of the Middle Ages the the
11:10 · it was really a Renaissance drink b as a
11:12 · Renaissance drink and Ale is a medieval
11:14 · drink it was used a little bit it was
11:16 · introduced and it caused a little bit of
11:18 · controversy because this sort of
11:19 · newfangled bitter drink was considered
11:22 · to be a bit foreign and so some people
11:25 · thought it was a bit dodgy but it became
11:27 · very popular very quickly and hops have
11:30 · the effect of lengthening the life of
11:33 · the beer it makes it last longer in the
11:36 · vat so you could make a brew and it
11:39 · would be drinkable for a couple of weeks
11:41 · possibly possibly only a week depends on
11:43 · the temperature at this time period it's
11:45 · unlikely that ale was sold in sort of
11:48 · regulated
11:49 · volumes the wholesale price was
11:51 · regulated Magna Carta talks about a
11:54 · London quarter being the unit of selling
11:57 · of wholesale ale but the individual
12:00 · person probably just brought their own
12:02 · cup probably their own pots they talk
12:04 · about having pots of beer uh or mazes
12:07 · mazes are bowls not really flagons in
12:10 · the way you might imagine from a later
12:12 · period some kind of drinking vessel but
12:15 · I guess you tried to have the biggest
12:16 · drinking vessel possible I don't know
12:18 · whether you got charged more if you had
12:19 · a particularly big drinking vessel we
12:21 · just don't know about that I haven't
12:22 · seen any evidence whatsoever how do you
12:25 · advertise the fact you've got a brew on
12:27 · if it's just a public house well the
12:29 · answer is you put a Branch or a broom
12:32 · outside something to indicate that there
12:34 · is a brew on that everybody in the local
12:36 · area would know it's like oh Mrs miggins
12:38 · has got a brew on right we'll go around
12:40 · there and we'll have a bit of a booze up
12:42 · and a bit of a party not really a party
12:44 · I suppose but a but a bit of a social
12:46 · event uh and she's very good at brewing
12:49 · beer so her beer is excellent
12:51 · the price of beer was controlled by
12:54 · Statute law so it was one penny for four
12:57 · gallons of beer now that does slightly
13:00 · vary if the price of Bali changes a bit
13:03 · but broadly speaking it was one penny
13:05 · for four gallons that gives you an idea
13:07 · the ale wasn't that strong necessarily
13:10 · it's probably a bit more like light beer
13:12 · today so two percent three percent not
13:16 · really compared to the strong ciders
13:19 · certainly not as strong as wine of the
13:21 · of the period so it could be drunk
13:23 · without too much
13:25 · inebriation although as the coroner's
13:28 · reports a test people did get absolutely
13:31 · plastered and sometimes kill themselves
13:33 · as a result of falling over
13:35 · the ale houses started to become a bit
13:37 · more professional and the sign outside
13:41 · started to get more Gordy so in an
13:44 · environment where people weren't
13:45 · necessarily very strong readers
13:47 · illiteracy is another topic but people
13:50 · could read but not very well what you
13:52 · needed is a way of saying
13:55 · the house four doors down with the red
13:58 · door has got a good Ale on uh go there
14:01 · and have a drink what they started to do
14:03 · is put painted signs outside so rather
14:05 · than saying the house four doors down
14:07 · with a red door you would say the house
14:09 · with a painted sign of a red lion
14:12 · outside it go to the Red Lion everybody
14:15 · would know where it was go to the
14:17 · prince's arms go to the king's head
14:19 · these are all recognizable symbols often
14:22 · of a medieval period if you look into it
14:25 · and they help to identify the location
14:27 · of the Ale House which I think is
14:29 · fascinating now sometimes these signs
14:32 · got a bit awkward they stuck out too far
14:35 · into the road and they caused them
14:37 · well they caused a nuisance so from the
14:39 · period we have rules about how big these
14:41 · signs are allowed to be and how heavy
14:44 · they could be as well because obviously
14:45 · if they fell down and fell onto people
14:47 · that would be an issue so they couldn't
14:49 · be over a certain set size uh which is
14:53 · really interesting it shows you that
14:54 · people were probably breaking those
14:55 · rules and having massive sizes outside
14:57 · to say come and get your ale here very
15:00 · useful source of extra income for the
15:02 · woman of the household too
15:04 · you may have noticed I've not spoken
15:05 · about spirits very much in terms of
15:07 · drinking and that's because they weren't
15:09 · widely drunk at all in fact they really
15:11 · weren't known particularly as a drink in
15:14 · the medieval period
15:16 · distillation of perfumes and oils was
15:19 · known about since Antiquity and it was
15:21 · also known about in the medieval period
15:22 · we have a record of 13th century Italy
15:25 · of people distilling alcohol from wine
15:28 · and producing very strong substance but
15:31 · it wasn't used to drink it was
15:34 · specifically used to treat smallpox so
15:36 · it was considered to be a medicine as
15:39 · opposed to a drink now we do in the end
15:42 · of the medieval Period start to hear
15:43 · stories of people dying tragically
15:46 · through drinking too much or what they
15:48 · called aqua Vitae this is the the Water
15:51 · of Life this was distilled alcohol but
15:54 · right at the very end of it and it
15:55 · appears that drinking it was fairly
15:57 · unusual it certainly wasn't served in
16:00 · taverns Inns and Ale houses at all and
16:03 · everybody thought of it as a medicine
16:05 · rather than a type of drink whiskey
16:08 · being distilled from beer doesn't really
16:11 · appear until after the medieval period
16:13 · and distilled drinks in general our
16:17 · post-medieval in fact in the 17th
16:19 · century gin was so cheap that it caused
16:22 · a lot of societal problems it was sold
16:24 · to people in pints so imagine drinking a
16:26 · pint of gin and what that does to you
16:28 · well it was a that was a big problem
16:30 · actually and they had to bring in quite
16:32 · a lot of laws for that did Medieval
16:34 · people drink to excess yes of course
16:36 · they did just as today some people drink
16:39 · too much of whatever it is their
16:41 · favorite booze might be and the
16:44 · coroner's records which we have show an
16:46 · extensive number of deaths by accidents
16:49 · number of cases one in particular a
16:51 · gentleman was pissing in the local pond
16:54 · and over balanced fell in and drowned
16:57 · another one was going home after
17:00 · visiting the Ale House with a pot of ale
17:03 · so that's interesting that sort of
17:04 · off-market um taking the booze back home
17:07 · with you so there's a little bit of
17:08 · evidence but he was taking a pot of Ale
17:10 · home with him when he was bitten by a
17:13 · dog he stooped to try and pick up a
17:15 · stone and throw it at that dog whereupon
17:18 · he tumbled over and smashed his head
17:20 · open on on a wall it's pretty bad and
17:24 · one unfortunate chap was going home
17:26 · after drinking far too much in the local
17:29 · Ale House and fell in the town well and
17:32 · drowned
17:33 · really unpleasant deaths I suppose but
17:36 · people fall over when they're drunk they
17:38 · did back then still doing it today
17:41 · [Music]
17:43 · foreign

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Transcript
0:00	·	what's the difference between a Tavern
0:02	·	an inn and an ale house in the medieval
0:05	·	period or are they the same thing
0:16	·	[Music]
0:20	·	[Applause]
0:29	·	[Music]
0:35	·	taverns Inns and Ale houses are three
0:38	·	establishments where alcohol was served
0:40	·	but what's the difference well taverns
0:43	·	were introduced by the Romans comes from
0:46	·	the Latin Taverna which is an inn
0:49	·	but it has a bit of a specialist sort of
0:52	·	connotation taverns in the medieval
0:54	·	period were where you could drink wine
0:56	·	and they were considered to be a little
0:58	·	more up Market than your average
1:00	·	drinking establishment although they
1:02	·	varied as you can imagine they were
1:03	·	really up Market taverns and really
1:05	·	quite down and dirty taverns of course
1:08	·	now wine in the medieval period is any
1:10	·	alcoholic beverage which is brewed from
1:13	·	fruit so obviously the fruit of the
1:15	·	grape that's what we know as wine and
1:18	·	most of the wine in this country that
1:20	·	was imported was red but English wine
1:22	·	did exist so the fruit of the grape but
1:27	·	also technically cider and Perry cider
1:30	·	being from apples and Perry being from
1:33	·	pears were incredibly popular and were
1:35	·	considered to be wines because it's a
1:36	·	fruit we don't really think of them as
1:38	·	wines anymore although people today do
1:41	·	make Elderberry wine which I always
1:43	·	thought was a bit strange but of course
1:44	·	Elderberry is a fruit and therefore if
1:46	·	you make wine from it then that's what
1:49	·	it actually is it's literally a wine
1:51	·	so wine was broadly served in taverns
1:55	·	and possibly light meals but other forms
1:58	·	of entertainment as well but possibly
1:59	·	not the lower end of entertainment that
2:01	·	might be expected in other places so
2:04	·	they did consider themselves A Cut Above
2:05	·	the other places in the medieval period
2:09	·	London had a population about 80 000
2:12	·	people and there were over 350 taverns
2:15	·	within the city walls which means there
2:17	·	was a Tavern for every roughly 250
2:19	·	people it's quite a lot of taverns
2:21	·	actually if you can imagine that now
2:23	·	each Tavern was run by Vintner a
2:26	·	purveyor of wines and often those
2:27	·	Vintners would be wholesale wine
2:30	·	salesmen as well they would keep a
2:32	·	seller that wine would be sold on and
2:34	·	off the premises and there was a guild
2:36	·	of Vintners and the Guild of Vintners
2:37	·	still exists today in London has been
2:40	·	continuously there for uh hundreds of
2:43	·	years since the medieval period the
2:45	·	guilds tried to maintain a monopoly on
2:49	·	the trade but also they tried to Main
2:51	·	retain quality and you can be thrown out
2:53	·	of the guild if you were serving bad
2:55	·	wine and one of the interesting laws
2:57	·	about taverns was that during opening
2:59	·	hours the vintna were supposed to keep
3:02	·	the seller unlocked and was supposed to
3:05	·	allow a client
3:07	·	to come visit the seller to see exactly
3:10	·	what kind of wine was being served they
3:13	·	could actually go and check the markings
3:15	·	on the barrel and check that it was from
3:18	·	the place it was supposed to be and
3:20	·	Vintners that served bad wine or wine
3:23	·	that was gone off gone sour or wine that
3:27	·	was actually adulterated with water
3:29	·	perhaps were punished by going into the
3:32	·	stocks and sometimes the remains of what
3:35	·	they were selling their bad wine was
3:36	·	tipped all over their heads so
3:38	·	occasionally
3:39	·	you might see a vintna covered in wine
3:42	·	sitting in the stocks well that means
3:44	·	he's a bad person probably be thrown out
3:46	·	of the guild as well and lose his job so
3:49	·	the rules around owning a Tavern were
3:52	·	fairly strict I'm sure they weren't
3:53	·	always followed though of course
3:55	·	otherwise the laws wouldn't be needed
3:58	·	now the most expensive wine was called
4:00	·	reddish wine which comes from the
4:02	·	Germanic areas that was imported a long
4:05	·	way that was supposedly quite sweet and
4:08	·	the value of wine in the medieval period
4:11	·	really depended on its sweetness so the
4:13	·	sweeter the wine
4:15	·	the more expensive it would be a lot of
4:18	·	the wines came from gascony in northern
4:20	·	France and those were roughly four times
4:22	·	as expensive as an equivalent amount of
4:25	·	Ale they were sold by the cup so wine
4:28	·	was
4:29	·	available if you had a reasonable amount
4:31	·	of money it wasn't particularly
4:33	·	expensive but it was a lot more
4:34	·	expensive than ale and typically ale was
4:36	·	drunk by the working classes as well as
4:38	·	the the Tradesmen there was a type of
4:40	·	wine grown in England as well which is
4:42	·	typically white wine which is
4:43	·	interesting but a lot of that didn't
4:45	·	really get sold in the taverns as such
4:48	·	because it was often grown by the clergy
4:49	·	and grown by the nobility and consumed
4:53	·	on their own premises so they grew their
4:55	·	own wine effectively which is kind of
4:57	·	interesting and today there's a little
4:59	·	bit of English wine grown in the
5:01	·	southern parts of England two other
5:03	·	drinks which I haven't mentioned yet are
5:05	·	Mead and methaglin Mead is honey is is
5:08	·	fermented honey methylene is fermented
5:11	·	honey and fruit juice as well combined
5:13	·	now those appear to have been available
5:15	·	at taverns but were not particularly
5:17	·	popular as far as I can tell
5:19	·	they seem to have been reserved for
5:22	·	special events they seem to be those
5:23	·	sort of drinks that you would drink at a
5:25	·	feast or at a wedding and of course
5:27	·	weddings give us the term honeymoon
5:29	·	where the couple would often drink a lot
5:32	·	of Honey a lot of mead for a month after
5:36	·	their wedding and
5:38	·	um I guess that was a form of luxury
5:40	·	that wouldn't be available to them later
5:42	·	and also you've had cider and Perry
5:45	·	available in the west of England quite a
5:47	·	lot and in the west of England there
5:49	·	seems to be so much of that that it was
5:51	·	roughly half the price of ale so cider
5:54	·	and Perry were stronger in alcohol but
5:57	·	also half the price and certainly a lot
6:00	·	cheaper than Wine
6:01	·	[Music]
6:11	·	Inns are really associated with
6:14	·	Travelers the idea of it in was that
6:17	·	it's a place to sleep overnight a place
6:20	·	to rest to get some food stable your
6:23	·	horse if you've got a horse look after
6:24	·	your mule if you've got a mule your pack
6:26	·	ponies whatever it might be they could
6:28	·	be safe and looked after and you could
6:31	·	get a little bit of r r you'd get a bed
6:33	·	for the night might be in a communal bed
6:35	·	by the way people slept sometimes 12 to
6:37	·	a bed or you might just get a corner or
6:39	·	if you're really cheap you might be
6:40	·	sleeping in the Stables but it was
6:42	·	somewhere associated with it was a
6:44	·	little bit organized a little bit safe
6:45	·	you could meet fellow Travelers you
6:47	·	could sort of recharge and then you go
6:49	·	on your way again
6:51	·	lots of Inns were based at the gates to
6:55	·	big cities or towns they're a place
6:57	·	that's convenient so if you're a
6:59	·	traveler well you get to the place
7:00	·	you're going to and you think I'm really
7:02	·	knackered I need to have a rest so the
7:06	·	closest place is the gate and therefore
7:09	·	you go to the easiest Inn you can find
7:11	·	and that was the one that you you saw
7:14	·	when you first got to the place you're
7:16	·	going to other sorts of Inns were placed
7:19	·	at convenient
7:21	·	distances from one place to another
7:24	·	roughly a day's comfortable travel and
7:28	·	maybe not a day's ride exactly but three
7:30	·	quarters of a day's ride maybe a whole
7:31	·	day's walk
7:33	·	sometimes at Crossroads but on major
7:35	·	major roads and you'll see these in
7:37	·	England as well there's one in
7:39	·	particular that I remember passing it's
7:41	·	close to the Foss way and it's in the
7:44	·	middle of nowhere really except if you
7:46	·	look at it on a map it's about 20 miles
7:48	·	from one town and 20 miles to the other
7:52	·	in the middle of nowhere but a good
7:54	·	place for everybody to stop so it was
7:55	·	good for business because everybody was
7:57	·	going to stop there basically so they
7:59	·	were melting pots for all sorts of types
8:02	·	of people you would also have people
8:04	·	from all walks of life so there were a
8:06	·	variety of different qualities of
8:07	·	accommodation often available in the
8:09	·	Canterbury Tales Chaucer talks about
8:12	·	little more than a journey from one Inn
8:15	·	all the way through various other Inns
8:17	·	to the eventual Canterbury and it starts
8:21	·	at an inn called The Tabard Inn now
8:23	·	tabard is associated with a type of
8:25	·	clothing used to go over armor often had
8:28	·	heraldry on it so it's a very nightly
8:30	·	thing it was south of the river in a
8:33	·	place called Southwark now Southwark
8:35	·	back then was fairly notorious it was
8:37	·	Notorious because it was out of the
8:39	·	bounds of the city walls it was out of
8:42	·	the bounds of the city Lords as well so
8:44	·	you could just cross the river you'd get
8:46	·	to southwark and it was Notorious for
8:48	·	Bare baiting fighting prostitution
8:51	·	gambling all sorts of Nefarious
8:55	·	activities which is presumably why
8:57	·	Chaucer started his journey there
9:00	·	emphasizing
9:01	·	perhaps the lack of religious
9:03	·	seriousness of these uh of these
9:06	·	pilgrims on their way to Canterbury
9:08	·	you might not realize but the tabbardin
9:11	·	still exists you can actually go and
9:13	·	have a pint there to this day
9:15	·	ale houses were little more than
9:18	·	somebody's accommodation somebody's
9:20	·	house
9:22	·	open to the public hence Public Public
9:24	·	House which is what we use in Britain to
9:26	·	this day to describe pubs public house
9:28	·	that's what it means really what that
9:30	·	amounted to was a woman it was usually a
9:33	·	woman of the household Brewing
9:35	·	sufficient beer for more than her family
9:38	·	so she had excess and it was an easy way
9:41	·	to make some money they brewed ale not
9:44	·	beer at this stage but ale which is
9:46	·	barley malted barley sometimes oats take
9:49	·	the juice from that and you ferment it
9:52	·	sometimes you can add spices if you want
9:55	·	to change the flavor but broadly
9:57	·	speaking you don't it's barely sweet
9:58	·	compared to Modern beer
10:01	·	and it has a very high nutritional value
10:03	·	so people effectively use this as liquid
10:06	·	bread it was a very important component
10:08	·	of the peasant diet of the ordinary
10:10	·	person's diet and remember at this stage
10:13	·	in history in medieval England
10:15	·	95 of the population were peasants they
10:19	·	were farmers subsistence plus farmers in
10:22	·	times of Plenty they could sell excess
10:25	·	food but sometimes they went a little
10:26	·	bit without
10:28	·	but ale houses and sometimes there were
10:30	·	quite a lot of these there are Villages
10:32	·	and towns rather than cities as such run
10:35	·	by women and people would go in there
10:38	·	drink the ale until it ran out
10:41	·	ale doesn't keep for very long either so
10:43	·	you have to really encourage people to
10:45	·	drink the whole Brew today maybe
10:47	·	tomorrow third fourth day probably it's
10:50	·	starting to go sour there's some
10:52	·	suggestion that some of the spices and
10:56	·	herbs that could be added could extend
10:58	·	the life and hops the bittering agent
11:01	·	that makes beer from ale effectively
11:03	·	that bittering agent really didn't start
11:05	·	to be used extensively until
11:08	·	the very end of the Middle Ages the the
11:10	·	it was really a Renaissance drink b as a
11:12	·	Renaissance drink and Ale is a medieval
11:14	·	drink it was used a little bit it was
11:16	·	introduced and it caused a little bit of
11:18	·	controversy because this sort of
11:19	·	newfangled bitter drink was considered
11:22	·	to be a bit foreign and so some people
11:25	·	thought it was a bit dodgy but it became
11:27	·	very popular very quickly and hops have
11:30	·	the effect of lengthening the life of
11:33	·	the beer it makes it last longer in the
11:36	·	vat so you could make a brew and it
11:39	·	would be drinkable for a couple of weeks
11:41	·	possibly possibly only a week depends on
11:43	·	the temperature at this time period it's
11:45	·	unlikely that ale was sold in sort of
11:48	·	regulated
11:49	·	volumes the wholesale price was
11:51	·	regulated Magna Carta talks about a
11:54	·	London quarter being the unit of selling
11:57	·	of wholesale ale but the individual
12:00	·	person probably just brought their own
12:02	·	cup probably their own pots they talk
12:04	·	about having pots of beer uh or mazes
12:07	·	mazes are bowls not really flagons in
12:10	·	the way you might imagine from a later
12:12	·	period some kind of drinking vessel but
12:15	·	I guess you tried to have the biggest
12:16	·	drinking vessel possible I don't know
12:18	·	whether you got charged more if you had
12:19	·	a particularly big drinking vessel we
12:21	·	just don't know about that I haven't
12:22	·	seen any evidence whatsoever how do you
12:25	·	advertise the fact you've got a brew on
12:27	·	if it's just a public house well the
12:29	·	answer is you put a Branch or a broom
12:32	·	outside something to indicate that there
12:34	·	is a brew on that everybody in the local
12:36	·	area would know it's like oh Mrs miggins
12:38	·	has got a brew on right we'll go around
12:40	·	there and we'll have a bit of a booze up
12:42	·	and a bit of a party not really a party
12:44	·	I suppose but a but a bit of a social
12:46	·	event uh and she's very good at brewing
12:49	·	beer so her beer is excellent
12:51	·	the price of beer was controlled by
12:54	·	Statute law so it was one penny for four
12:57	·	gallons of beer now that does slightly
13:00	·	vary if the price of Bali changes a bit
13:03	·	but broadly speaking it was one penny
13:05	·	for four gallons that gives you an idea
13:07	·	the ale wasn't that strong necessarily
13:10	·	it's probably a bit more like light beer
13:12	·	today so two percent three percent not
13:16	·	really compared to the strong ciders
13:19	·	certainly not as strong as wine of the
13:21	·	of the period so it could be drunk
13:23	·	without too much
13:25	·	inebriation although as the coroner's
13:28	·	reports a test people did get absolutely
13:31	·	plastered and sometimes kill themselves
13:33	·	as a result of falling over
13:35	·	the ale houses started to become a bit
13:37	·	more professional and the sign outside
13:41	·	started to get more Gordy so in an
13:44	·	environment where people weren't
13:45	·	necessarily very strong readers
13:47	·	illiteracy is another topic but people
13:50	·	could read but not very well what you
13:52	·	needed is a way of saying
13:55	·	the house four doors down with the red
13:58	·	door has got a good Ale on uh go there
14:01	·	and have a drink what they started to do
14:03	·	is put painted signs outside so rather
14:05	·	than saying the house four doors down
14:07	·	with a red door you would say the house
14:09	·	with a painted sign of a red lion
14:12	·	outside it go to the Red Lion everybody
14:15	·	would know where it was go to the
14:17	·	prince's arms go to the king's head
14:19	·	these are all recognizable symbols often
14:22	·	of a medieval period if you look into it
14:25	·	and they help to identify the location
14:27	·	of the Ale House which I think is
14:29	·	fascinating now sometimes these signs
14:32	·	got a bit awkward they stuck out too far
14:35	·	into the road and they caused them
14:37	·	well they caused a nuisance so from the
14:39	·	period we have rules about how big these
14:41	·	signs are allowed to be and how heavy
14:44	·	they could be as well because obviously
14:45	·	if they fell down and fell onto people
14:47	·	that would be an issue so they couldn't
14:49	·	be over a certain set size uh which is
14:53	·	really interesting it shows you that
14:54	·	people were probably breaking those
14:55	·	rules and having massive sizes outside
14:57	·	to say come and get your ale here very
15:00	·	useful source of extra income for the
15:02	·	woman of the household too
15:04	·	you may have noticed I've not spoken
15:05	·	about spirits very much in terms of
15:07	·	drinking and that's because they weren't
15:09	·	widely drunk at all in fact they really
15:11	·	weren't known particularly as a drink in
15:14	·	the medieval period
15:16	·	distillation of perfumes and oils was
15:19	·	known about since Antiquity and it was
15:21	·	also known about in the medieval period
15:22	·	we have a record of 13th century Italy
15:25	·	of people distilling alcohol from wine
15:28	·	and producing very strong substance but
15:31	·	it wasn't used to drink it was
15:34	·	specifically used to treat smallpox so
15:36	·	it was considered to be a medicine as
15:39	·	opposed to a drink now we do in the end
15:42	·	of the medieval Period start to hear
15:43	·	stories of people dying tragically
15:46	·	through drinking too much or what they
15:48	·	called aqua Vitae this is the the Water
15:51	·	of Life this was distilled alcohol but
15:54	·	right at the very end of it and it
15:55	·	appears that drinking it was fairly
15:57	·	unusual it certainly wasn't served in
16:00	·	taverns Inns and Ale houses at all and
16:03	·	everybody thought of it as a medicine
16:05	·	rather than a type of drink whiskey
16:08	·	being distilled from beer doesn't really
16:11	·	appear until after the medieval period
16:13	·	and distilled drinks in general our
16:17	·	post-medieval in fact in the 17th
16:19	·	century gin was so cheap that it caused
16:22	·	a lot of societal problems it was sold
16:24	·	to people in pints so imagine drinking a
16:26	·	pint of gin and what that does to you
16:28	·	well it was a that was a big problem
16:30	·	actually and they had to bring in quite
16:32	·	a lot of laws for that did Medieval
16:34	·	people drink to excess yes of course
16:36	·	they did just as today some people drink
16:39	·	too much of whatever it is their
16:41	·	favorite booze might be and the
16:44	·	coroner's records which we have show an
16:46	·	extensive number of deaths by accidents
16:49	·	number of cases one in particular a
16:51	·	gentleman was pissing in the local pond
16:54	·	and over balanced fell in and drowned
16:57	·	another one was going home after
17:00	·	visiting the Ale House with a pot of ale
17:03	·	so that's interesting that sort of
17:04	·	off-market um taking the booze back home
17:07	·	with you so there's a little bit of
17:08	·	evidence but he was taking a pot of Ale
17:10	·	home with him when he was bitten by a
17:13	·	dog he stooped to try and pick up a
17:15	·	stone and throw it at that dog whereupon
17:18	·	he tumbled over and smashed his head
17:20	·	open on on a wall it's pretty bad and
17:24	·	one unfortunate chap was going home
17:26	·	after drinking far too much in the local
17:29	·	Ale House and fell in the town well and
17:32	·	drowned
17:33	·	really unpleasant deaths I suppose but
17:36	·	people fall over when they're drunk they
17:38	·	did back then still doing it today
17:41	·	[Music]
17:43	·	foreign