Category: Daily Life in the Past

By Tim Lambert The Origins of St Valentine’s Day The Romans held a fertility festival called Lupercalia in mid-February. However, it’s not clear if there is any link between the Ancient festival and modern St Valentine’s Day. 14 February was not associated with romantic love until the late Middle Ages. In the 14th century, people… Continue reading A History of St Valentine’s Day

By Tim Lambert Ancient Surgery Surgery was invented in the Stone Age. Some adults had holes cut in their skulls. At least sometimes people survived the ‘operation’ because the bone grew back. We do not know the purpose of the ‘operation’. Perhaps it was performed on people with head injuries to release pressure on the… Continue reading A History of Surgery

By Tim Lambert Early Sweets People have always liked eating sweet food. The earliest sweet was, of course, honey, which people have eaten since prehistoric times. In the Middle Ages, rich people ate desserts like preserved fruits, jelly and dried fruit, and wafers made from batter. The Tudors were also fond of sweet foods (if… Continue reading A History of Sweets

By Tim Lambert Early Swimming Swimming was a common skill in the Ancient World. People in Egypt and other parts of the Ancient World went swimming. It was popular with the Greeks and Romans. Roman soldiers were trained to swim well. In the Middle Ages knights were expected to be able to swim well. In… Continue reading A History of Swimming

By Tim Lambert Today television is the main form of entertainment for millions of people worldwide. The word is made up of the Greek word ‘tele’ meaning ‘far off’ and the Latin word for vision ‘sight’. John Logie Baird the man who invented television was born in 1888. Baird invented a primitive system of television… Continue reading A History of Television

By Tim Lambert The Family in The Ancient World Most children in Ancient Egypt did not go to school. Instead, boys learned farming or other trades from their fathers. Girls learned sewing, cooking, and other skills from their mothers. Girls from well-off families were sometimes taught at home. When a father died his sons inherited… Continue reading A History of the Family

By Tim Lambert The Poor in Tudor Times In Tudor times there were thousands of people without jobs wandering around looking for work. There were also disabled beggars. Some people pretended to be mad or disabled to beg. Tudor governments tolerated people who were disabled begging. However, they did not tolerate able-bodied people without jobs… Continue reading A History of the Poor Law

By Tim Lambert About 650 BC a people called the Celts migrated to Britain. Then in 43 AD, the Romans invaded. It is impossible to accurately estimate the population of Britain before the Romans came. However, the population of Roman Britain was probably about 4 million. Roman towns would seem small to us. The largest… Continue reading A History of the Population of England

By Tim Lambert The Right to Vote in Britain In the 18th century, only a small minority of men in Britain could vote (only those who owned a certain amount of property). But in 1832 the government introduced a reform but the franchise was only extended to about 14% of men. The working class was… Continue reading A History of The Right to Vote

By Tim Lambert Toilets in the Ancient World In the ancient world, people were capable of designing quite sophisticated toilets. Stone Age farmers lived in a village at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands. Some of their stone huts had drains built under them and some houses had cubicles over the drains. They may have… Continue reading A History of Toilets