Life in the 1500s

The Backwards Man · 01-10-2014 11:40AM

kylith wrote: »

I find it amazing that not one piece of information is correct. You'd have expected them to be right about something just by chance.

The big pot of water in the hearth would still have been coming around here until recently. I remember as a kid doing a bit of work for two bachelor brothers and being invited in for tea, as was customary.

One of the brothers was shaving using the water from the pot and the other grabbed a fork and took a couple of spuds out of it and stuck them on a plate in front of me, then dipped a mug in it, threw a spoonful of loose tea in it and gave to me.

Two boys lived until well in their nineties.

Chucken · 01-10-2014 11:48AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

The big pot of water in the hearth would still have been coming around here until recently. I remember as a kid doing a bit of work for two bachelor brothers and being invited in for tea, as was customary.

One of the brothers was shaving using the water from the pot and the other grabbed a fork and took a couple of spuds out of it and such them on a plate in front of me, then dipped a mug in it, threw a spoonful of loose tea in it and gave to me.

Two boys lived until well in their nineties.

Them boys could teach us a thing or 2 about conserving water!

kylith · 01-10-2014 12:19PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

The big pot of water in the hearth would still have been coming around here until recently. I remember as a kid doing a bit of work for two bachelor brothers and being invited in for tea, as was customary.

One of the brothers was shaving using the water from the pot and the other grabbed a fork and took a couple of spuds out of it and stuck them on a plate in front of me, then dipped a mug in it, threw a spoonful of loose tea in it and gave to me.

Two boys lived until well in their nineties.

Fair enough then, they got one thing right. Except that they didn't really because pease pudding is porridge made of peas. It is, afaik, Lobbin Scouse that has the left overs added to the new stew every day.

Reoil · 01-10-2014 12:59PM

It's a shame that 100% of the OP is bull****.

Duggy747 · 01-10-2014 01:02PM

In the 1500s, a pack of Burger Bites crisps were cheaper and you got more in them.

TheEnigma · 01-10-2014 01:12PM

Nordies were the most powerful people on the island in the 1500s , last to fall to the english

The Backwards Man · 01-10-2014 02:32PM

Duggy747 wrote: »

In the 1500s, a pack of Burger Bites crisps were cheaper and you got more in them.

And penny sweets cost a farthing.

Reoil · 01-10-2014 03:09PM

And a Snickers bar was called a "Marathon" bar.

01-10-2014 03:23PM

Despite all the nonsense I would say life was grim for most people up until fairly recently, in the 19th century the vast majority of Irish people would have been living in a 2 roomed cottages with an open fire and their only possession would have been an iron pot to cook potatoes in, yet people thrived and survived and lived long enough to produce the next generation or else none of us would be here.

Meathlass · 01-10-2014 03:24PM

mariaalice wrote: »

Despite all the nonsense I would say life was grim for most people up until fairly recently, in the 19th century the vast majority of Irish people would have been living in a 2 roomed cottages with an open fire and their only possession would have been an iron pot to cook potatoes in, yet people thrived and survived and lived long enough to produce the next generation or else none of us would be here.

Well, there was this thing called The Famine ....

muppetkiller · 01-10-2014 03:35PM

I love these kind of things.. I remember being on a Tour where they spoke about the window tax that the British brought in to Ireland which was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, Ireland France and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries.
In Ireland and other places too they tried to get around this by building the Front Door in two parts that could be opened in halves so you could use the top half as a Window.

if you ever see any of the old cottages in Ireland you can see how tiny the little windows are ..the Window tax is the reason.

It's where they think the term "daylight robbery" came from

01-10-2014 03:39PM

Meathlass wrote: »

Well, there was this thing called The Famine ....

Well all our ancestors survived or else none of us would be here!

gladrags · 01-10-2014 03:41PM

magicmushroom wrote: »

If they had their yearly bath in May, why wait until June when they still smelt 'alright'...why not just schedule the bath for the morning of or night before your wedding

Because there was only one bath,and all the guests etc,including the parish priest queued to take a bath.

The bride and groom were then bathed.

Followed finally by the piss poor.

This took a loooooooong time.

01-10-2014 03:47PM

Another thing that always amazes me if you look at a magnificent building like Versailles for example they built that in all it opulence and wealth and yet there was no indoor pluming, no running water, no loos!!

Meathlass · 01-10-2014 03:48PM

mariaalice wrote: »

Well all our ancestors survived or else none of us would be here!

Survived long enough for our other ancestors to be born at least!

Grim times though. Can't find the link for it though but remember reading that as a % of population dead Ireland has 2 of the worst famines in history. The Great Famine in 1845 when 20% of the population died and the famine in 1740 when 38% of the population died. At number 2 on the list is Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge resulted in 25% of the population dying.

Meathlass · 01-10-2014 03:51PM

muppetkiller wrote: »

I remember being on a Tour where they spoke about the window tax that the British brought in to Ireland which was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, Ireland France and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries.

There was also the Hearth tax in the 1600s which taxed the number of fire places people had. They were recored in the Hearth Money Records and still survive for some counties. It lists the person's name, address and how many fireplaces they had. There are several years recorded so you can see people building bigger houses or refurbishing or downsizing.

jimgoose · 01-10-2014 03:52PM

mariaalice wrote: »

Well all our ancestors survived or else none of us would be here!

"Survived" being the operative word. Until relatively recent times life was unbelievably harsh, with constant back-breaking manual work involved in covering the basics like feeding yourself, grinding poverty, no social or any other kind of mobility, medical facilities ranging from deeply shocking to non-existent, and early, lingering, painful death. But sure we were happy, we had a stick! :pac:

D-FENS · 01-10-2014 03:56PM

During the Stone Age, a huge problem in Ireland was birds of prey swooping down and defecating in peasant’s mouths…..resulting in the victim, or “Gob-****e”, shouting at the “****e-Hawk” to leave him alone.

o1s1n · 01-10-2014 03:56PM

mariaalice wrote: »

Another thing that always amazes me if you look at a magnificent building like Versailles for example they built that in all it opulence and wealth and yet there was no indoor pluming, no running water, no loos!!

You'd be surprised how many classical civilizations had plumbing, running water and central heating. It's pretty amazing really.

ScumLord · 01-10-2014 03:56PM

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

I think existence was very horrible for most humans in the thousands upon thousands of years we've inhabited this planet.

People probably wouldn't have considered their life all that bad and would have been pretty happy without some outside reference to say they could do better.

When we were hunter gathers we had the run of the place, there would have been an abundance of food running around the place and while it would have been a hard life by our standards it probably was rewarding. Hunter gathers seem to be long lived and healthy people.

When farmers came along they probably thought they were the bee's knees, food all year round, no need to travel all over the place, loads of free time.

By our modern standards Rome would have been a disgusting mess of a city but the Romans thought they were the height of civilization, and they were. Any place outside of Rome that got themselves a bathhouse probably thought life couldn't get any better.

People tend to think stress is bad for you, but it seems stress is only really bad for you if you believe it's bad for you. Just because they would have had busy and stressful lives doesn't necessarily mean they didn't enjoy the majority of their day.

Beano · 01-10-2014 04:02PM

o1s1n wrote: »

You'd be surprised how many classical civilizations had plumbing, running water and central heating. It's pretty amazing really.

versailles stank of ****e.

http://thisisversaillesmadame.blogspot.ie/2014/04/the-lack-of-toilets.html

o1s1n · 01-10-2014 04:07PM

ScumLord wrote: »

People tend to think stress is bad for you, but it seems stress is only really bad for you if you believe it's bad for you. Just because they would have had busy and stressful lives doesn't necessarily mean they didn't enjoy the majority of their day.

If you were living in a fertile area with lots of food and wildlife to hunt, you could have a pretty nice life. I don't think it would be any more stressful than what a lot of people do today (IE, sitting in an office with a deadline looming, working on something abstract which really has no bearing on their life other than earning money)

That's it, I'm packing it all in and moving up the mountains :pac:

o1s1n · 01-10-2014 04:08PM

Beano wrote: »

versailles stank of ****e.

http://thisisversaillesmadame.blogspot.ie/2014/04/the-lack-of-toilets.html

Sounds no different to Temple Bar/O'Connell street :pac:

TheEnigma · 01-10-2014 04:10PM

Apart from the clan battles and the war with the English, well come to think of it that would be easier than office life

01-10-2014 04:11PM

o1s1n wrote: »

You'd be surprised how many classical civilizations had plumbing, running water and central heating. It's pretty amazing really.

That's another thing the romans had all that yet it was abandoned by future generations that came after them, how come the technology was not keep in use.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie · 01-10-2014 04:15PM

But they had free water at least.

o1s1n · 01-10-2014 04:18PM

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

But they had free water at least.

The Romans had a water tax.

01-10-2014 04:19PM

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

But they had free water at least.

Free untreated water you mean, in the 19th century people dying of scarlet fever and other illness was not uncommon all cause by drinking from a contaminated well.

ScumLord · 01-10-2014 04:21PM

mariaalice wrote: »

That's another thing the romans had all that yet it was abandoned by future generations that came after them, how come the technology was not keep in use.

Some romans had those things, most were crammed into high rise apartments with nothing of the sort.

Romes wealth moved east and I'd say people just couldn't afford to keep the staff and slaves needed to keep these things running. A lot like we today depend on commodities being imported from all over the place IE: The coal you put in your fire or the TV in your sitting room, Rome was a city that was made possible by the empire importing things from all over Europe. Rome couldn't even feed itself, it depended on imports from Egypt, once the wealth moved east they simply didn't have the money or population to pay for all that stuff.

Similar things can happen today with industries slowly disappearing and being exported overseas. We used to have a much more self sufficient country years ago but now that we can import product cheaper from overseas most people have forgotten the skills that were common 100 years ago. If global trade collapsed tomorrow it's likely we'd be living pretty basic lifes for a while.

Beano · 01-10-2014 04:21PM

mariaalice wrote: »

That's another thing the romans had all that yet it was abandoned by future generations that came after them, how come the technology was not keep in use.

Yes, but what did the romans do for us?

Life in the 1500s

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