Fun Things About Medieval Hygiene

With Scarborough Fair season in full swing. We thought it would be fun to give you some interesting things about medieval hygiene.

Chamber Pots

A chamber pot was often kept under the bed so a person could relieve themselves during the night. The contents would be thrown over balcony or, out the window along with a warning cry of “gardeloo” meaning ‘beware of the water’. With excrements being thrown into the streets that brings us to our next topic.

Nosebags

Stepping outside and coming face-to-face with human waste, decaying food, and trash in the streets wasn’t always pleasant. To help with the smell, some people wore “nose bags”, which were fabric face mask filled with flowers and other fragrances.

There Was No Toilet Paper

If there was no toilet paper, what did they use? People would use leaves, moss, a rag, hay, sedge, straw, and pieces of tapestry.

Urine Was Used to Do the Laundry

Yup, you read that right! Back in the day people wore their same clothes for days on end. And to help remove these stains from days of wear, people would make a mixture of lye, ashes, crushed green grapes, and chicken feathers, which were mixed with urine.

Castles Were Surrounded by Waste

The moats that surrounded castles weren’t just used as a defense system. They were also designed so that waste products would flow straight into the moat that surrounded the castle.

Washing and Bathing

There’s a lot of back and forth on how often people bathed or if they did at all. Bathing wasn’t always an easy process back then, especially if you weren’t wealthy. But when people bathed in medieval times they would use a wooden tub, bathhouses, streams, rivers, and lakes. If you happened to be wealthy, you could employ someone to heat up and bring you your water. But, commoners on the other hand didn’t have it so easy. They were most likely using the bathhouses (which had multiple people using them at once) or natures streams and rivers. And when using natural resources during the colder months, people would have to go longer periods of time without taking a bath.

Toilets

There were many different styles of toilets. You had stone benches with holes carved in the top. Where multiple people would sit next to each other. Sometimes there would be conversations and or even business deals happening, all while sitting on the john. Castles had somewhat more privacy, castles had latrines built into the walls that extended out to were waste would just drop down a shaft into the moat or rivers below. They also had toilets on the ground floor which had their drainage channels.

Urine Was Used as an Antiseptic

Being out on a battlefield you didn’t always have access to clean water or even water at all. Urine was another alternative. During the reign King Henry VIII, the royal physician Thomas Vicary recommended that all the men in the kingdom have their battle wounds washed with urine.

Washing Their Hands

Contrary belief, people back then actually washed their hands and frequently. They were very aware of the linked between dirt and illness. Washing their hands and face in the mornings and before and after every meal. Note: also, because they didn’t use utensils. 

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