![]() Typically the shape is uneven and the placement of houses is random. The settlement has not been planned or ordered by a lord. ![]() The most common layout of a village is the „heap village“. Heap – „Haufendorf“ image 1: Wiese = Maddow, Acker= farmland, Garten= garden – source: own work They sometimes grows into a „heap-village“, or in German „haufendorf“. They were more common in western Germany. They occur as planned as well as random settlements. hamlet – „Weiler“Ī Weiler consists of 3-20 farms, most commonly in random shapes. An „Einzelhof“ or Gutshof, consits of the Lords Villa and a few farmers (2-5) houses to support the estate. „Einzelhof“-settlements as their field are usually in blocks, and not strips, as the other types of villages. (see ) a map of a estate with fields around it This can go up to 12 or more acres depending on the climate and fertility of the soil. These acres are divided among the 3-field system, so only 6 acres need to be tended to at any given time. To support a single adult person, a minimum of 18 acres of land is needed. To support a person, at least 18 acres of field is needed. image 2: a medieval manor with a row or street village and the surrounding lands, public domain from wikimedia commons Estate- „Einzelhof“ If your village has private ownership of land, the fields will probably be consolidated into blocks, like today. Under an open field system, each farmer owns land dividing it into small non-adjacent patches that shrink each time the land is divided up between the sons (assuming such a system of inheritance). translation „field constraint“), which hindered innovation. It forced everyone to farm in the same way at the same time in what was called „ flurzwang“ (lit. (See image Plan of a Medieval Manor) If your World has a different number or order of seasons, I recommend you invent your own crop rotation, or otherwise decide how much and how often one could yield crops from the ground until it needs to be left fallow. The open field system is thought to have been quite inefficient. Each farmer owned part of the land in each block. The village’s fields were divided into 3 blocks: Fallow land that is left unused so it can replenish nutrients spring planting and autumn planting. The farmland was worked in an open field system with 3 field crop rotation. Often there was a shared meadow or „ common land“ that the villager’s animal could use for grazing- thus the name “commoner”. Most farms and houses had a small garden and a small plot of land for the livestock to dwell. ![]() How much land a farmer had varied greatly. This also led fields to feature a „ ridge and furrow“ pattern- small dams building up to the left and right of the plow. The farmland was divided into rectangular patches because turning the plow was cumbersome. In western Europe, the dominant feature of the medieval hamlet and village were the fields surrounding it. Fields a framer plowing a field, source: wikimedia commons Thus the location and layout of towns may vary based on the time period and location. Over that timespan, progress was made in the realm of farming and housing during the medieval times, albeit slowly. The Middle Ages cover a very long period, ranging from about 500 AD to 1500 AD, depending on who you ask. This article focuses on the late Middle Ages. If your world does not know serfdom and feudalism as western Europe had it, this information will probably not apply to your game. I want to give you an idea of how a village in the post-Roman Manorialism looked on a map,so you can draw and describe such settlements in a way that makes sense. This article is for game masters of tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons. ![]()
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