Daniel Evans

For a novel I am writing, could you please tell me about life for the average person in sub-Roman Britain (480 AD). I am aware of the saxon/ english invasion, but would like to know what were the houses like, what were the towns like? Did they have wooden homes? Did they have pubs? What were the main towns?

Yours, Daniel Evans

Louise C

Most people were country dwellers, and probably lived in wooden houses with thatched roofs. A few Roman towns were taken over by the anglo saxons, like London, Bath, Cirencester, and Lincoln, but village life was the norm for most people. Later, in the reign of Alfred the Great, more towns were built, to defend against the Vikings. In 480, some towns may still have been occupied by romano-britieh communities.

There were probably some taverns in the towns, but in the country generally, people brewed ale for their own households, and a villager would often brew up a batch of ale
and then open their house as a temporary tavern. Brewing was usually a female occupation. Mead was popuar as well as ale, made from honeycomb. Decorative sieve-spoons have been found in the graves of high born Saxon women, these were a status symbol, since it was the ceremonial duty of high-born women to serve the drinks at their menfolk's feasts.

The average person would be an agricultural worker, either a serf working for his thane, or perhaps a free man working his own small farm. Women would have spent a lot of time spinning and weaving wool into cloth (the word 'wife' comes from the saxon word for weaver).

The Saxons were mostly pagan,but there were probably still some christians in England in 480, romanised Britons probably. I do not think it is exactly known how much of Britain was ruled by the Saxons in 480, and how much was still in the control of native Britons.

Daniel Evans

As a matter of interest: did the British have Thanes and serfs? were they semi-feudal liek the saxons of alfreds time (Thanes etc) or not? were most people free or not

bartieboy

I'd advice the books from Bernard Cornwell
Tough it is fiction one of his book series play in 500AD England

Louise C

Well, the Romans and the Britons both kept slaves, but there would have been free peasants as well I should think.

in UnRoman Britain, Miles Russell and Stuart Laycock write that the Britons were still organising themselves along tribal lines 300 years after the Roman conquest. in which case there would be a warrior aristocracy and an agricultural workforce, not all that different from the Saxon system probably.

Barbarossa

Britain in 480 was a time of great transition. Rome was no longer in power, the Romano-British nobility started claiming lands and proclaiming kings at the same time as Saxons, Angels, Jutes, Frisians and other small groups of Germanic tribes were landing ashore and claiming lands back from the Romano-British.
It sure was quite a chaotic time.
Christianity had yet to gain a significant power and Christians were few, mainly the Romano-British and around the larger cities and forts. The full Christianisation of Britain would take place only in the 7th century. Ireland was failrly Christian by the beginning of the 6th century and Scotland by the end of that century. England was fully christianised in the 7th century. Wales and Cornwell were the last in turn, still having some pagan communities until the 9th century.

authun

480 AD is an interesting date as we know virtually nothing. On the one hand, that gives an author scope but on the other, the few things that we do know means that certain things like pubs would be anachronistic. Coins ceased to be minted a century before and the anglo saxons tended to use them for brooches. Money has no value. The general picture for pottery for example is one of complete social and economic collapse. It becomes crude and tends to be fired in open hearths. No potter made his living producing the fine stuff that people purchased a hundred years earlier. A few roman villas were still comissioning mosaics at the start of the 5th cent. but these were against a backdrop of most being abandonned. It coincides with an an increase of coin depositions, people burying their money. Moreover, Britons appear to have stopped producing anything that we find in the archaeology.

The periods are given by Heinrich Härke in his paper, Invisible Britons:

"The archaeological sequence of the first half of the first millennium AD in England is, in itself, reasonably clear and unambiguous:

(1) Roman material culture up to the beginning of the fifth century; then

(2) a black hole (‘post-crash gap’) in the first half of the fifth century, first punctuated, and then followed, by

(3) Anglo-Saxon material culture from the second half of the fifth century."

Your date of 480 AD puts it in the 3rd period but the setting will strongly influence what you write. Some parts of the country, Elmet for example, show no signs of anglo saxon archaeology for another 250 years, but neither does it show any archaeology for Britons either. Yet, on paper, it is a kingdom.

Chances are that the Britons are operating very much on a self sufficiency basis with flimsy wooden structures nowhere near as good as the pre roman iron age round houses. St. Patrick wrote on his return to his former home, 'life and property have suffered, but the land still bears its fruits'.

The main towns are given by Nennius, who writes in the 9th century, but they had at least roman origins:

1. Cair ebrauc (York)
2. Cair ceint (Canterbury)
3. Cair gurcoc (Anglesey)
4. Cair guorthegern
5. Cair custeint (Carnarvon)
6. Cair guoranegon (Worcester)
7. Cair segeint (Silchester)
8. Cair guin truis (Norwich?)
9. Cair merdin (Caermarthen)
10. Cair peris (Porchester)
11. Cair lion (Caerleon-upon-Usk)
12. Cair mencipit (Verulam)
13. Cair caratauc (Catterick)
14. Cair ceri (Cirencester)
15. Cair gloui (Gloucester)
16. Cair lullid (Carlisle)
17. Cair grant (Cambridge)
18. Cair daun (Doncaster)
19. Cair britoc (Bristol)
20. Cair meguaid (Meivod)
21. Cair mauiguid (Manchester)
22. Cair ligion (Chester?)
23. Cair guent (Caerwent?)
24. Cair collon (Colchester?)
25. Cair londein (London)
26. Cair Guorcon (Worren?)
27. Cair lerion (Leicester)
28. Cair draithou (Drayton)
29. Cair ponsavelcoit (Pevenscy)
30. Cairteimm (Teyn-Grace)
31. Cair Urnahc (Wroxster)
32. Cair colemion
33. Cair loit coit (Lincoln)

Around 480 AD, these places may have still been functioning but they were nothing like the cities of the roman period. Excavations at Wroxeter for example show that buildings had been demolished and the land turned over to food production and the building materials recycled for the defences.

The anglo saxon parts of England are quite different and show a material culture which is probably familiar to you. We know little about their way of life during the early pagan period but Tacitus' Germania may provide some clues. The interesting thing about what little British archaology that exists for the time, enamelled objects, hanging bowls, exists in Germanic contexts. If these objects were produced by Britons for the Anglo Saxons, they were either living amongst them or producing them in exchange for something else, protection or food for example. The anglo saxon love of ornament however would tend to suggest the former.

Davidius

The Isle of Wight was the last pagan community in England.

The following is from the Wiki article



"The Isle of Wight was the last area of English paganism until 686CE when, according to Bede, Cædwalla of Wessex conquered the island, killing its inhabitants and installing Christians in their place.[9] A "sheela-na-gig" is preserved in the gateway to Holy Cross Church in Binstead."

Davidius

Nennius is a notoriously unreliable source for British history prior to his own time. eg. The name Britain being derived from Brutus.

The majority of the towns listed already existed as established settlements in pre Roman times. The Romans tended to build their settlements in or adjacent to existing native communities and expand and improve them.

AlpinLuke

I add a piece of information.

I would underline that archaeology has found less finds from this period than from the Roman age. This would indicate that the industry of the region left in part lasting materials, going back to common row materials like wood, animal skin ...

Generally the study of the burial sites suggest that the post-Roman Britain kept Celtic usages and Roman traditions [as kind of life], with a certain contact with the Mediterranean region [there are evidences of import of pottery and other goods]. But this is valid for the big centers in the south.