Our Speaker read extracts from ‘The Goodman, or "Menagier" of
The book gave instructions on how she should run the household including cleaning and how to keep moths and other insects at bay - how to wash clothing as they did not have running water or good soap and mainly used the plant ‘soapwort’ for this. Also depending on the cloth/materials used how to dry it - not easy to do in those days. She was told which vegetables and fruit to grow in the garden for meals and medication. How she should greet her husband when he came home - there was much joviality from men in the audience at this point - especially as it including having a drink and his meal ready waiting and washing her husbands feet.
Diaries were not kept in those days but a small collection of letters and wills and even shopping lists have survived and Toni read some of those to us. The wills included items of clothing that had been left and that gave us an idea of the styles of clothes that were worn. She showed us slides of how the housewife would have dressed and she also pointed out the wedding ring that she would have worn – some much like the ones we wear today but others were made of iron.
In the 15th Century clothes became cheaper because by then the English had learned how make cloth. She told us that cloth varied in price depending on what was used to dye the material and there were laws about who could wear what colour as that designated their status in society. Although from a shopping list Toni read out, which a wife gave to her husband when he went to town, it would seemed that some may have disregarded legislation about the colours they should wear. They were quite ingenious and thrifty as clothes could not be easily cleaned they were made in such a way that sleeves could be swapped from dress to dress and hems could be removed for ease of cleaning.
The wealthy ordered from ‘grocers’ mostly spices which they purchased in amounts which today would take us several lifetimes to use. The reason being that it would have taken months to arrive from countries such as
Cooking methods were very basic and Toni told us how the food was served at meal times and also the origins of crockery we use today. At table there were books of ‘etiquette’ of how to use the various items of crockery. Cutlery was limited but everyone, even children as young as 3 years old, had their own knife which they kept on their person specifically to cut up their food.
This talk was extremely well received by members with several positive comments made to the Programme Secretary.