elizabethan england people were smaller average man 5’6” average woman 4’8”

Elizabethan England

• People were smaller

• Average man 5’6”

• Average woman 4’8”

Elizabethan (Shakespeare’s) England

•Life was not as glamorous

•No indoor plumbing.

Elizabethan EnglandAt Home

• Roofs were straw “thatch.”

• Pet dogs and cats, mice, rats, and bugs lived in the roof.

• If it rained the roof got slippery and it rained “cats and dogs.”


• Nothing to stop animal droppings from landing on one’s bed

• Attached posts with a sheet on top, creating a “canopy’ to catch the animal doo-doo.


• Folks slept in beds cross-wise

• Anne Hathaway, had a queen-sized bed she shared with two sisters and six servant girls before she married Will Shakespeare.


• Anne Hathaway’s 6 brothers shared their room with 30 field workers. They all slept on the floor wrapped in blankets.

• There was no indoor heating beyond the ambient body heat.


• The floor of most thatched houses was dirt. Only the wealthy could afford slate flooring.

• Everybody else was “dirt poor.”


• Slate floors slippery when it rained.

• Spread “thresh” (straw) to keep from slipping.

• A piece of the wood at the door kept the thresh from slipping out, acting as a “thresh hold”.


• People cooked over a fire in the fireplace.

• They hung a kettle over the fire and everyday added stuff to the kettle.


• Mostly folks ate veggies. Meat was scarce.

• They ate stew and then the leftovers stayed in the pot for as long as a month.


• Once in awhile they got some pork. They’d display the luxury bacon on a rack in the parlor to show it off.

• Sign of wealth if someone “could bring home the bacon”


• Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom, family got the middle, and guests got the “upper crust.”


• Lead drinking cups caused a powerful reaction with whiskey or ale

• Knocked out the drinker for days.

• Couldn’t tell if they unconscious person was dead or alive.


• They laid out the unconscious person on the kitchen table to see if they would “wake” from it. They held a “wake.”


• England is old and small. They started running out of places to bury people.

• So they dug up old graves to reuse. They noticed some of the old coffins had “scratch marks” on the inside. OOOPS!


• Tied a string to the corpse’s wrist that was attached to a bell “topside.”

• Someone had to sit near the grave in case the bell rang, in essence doing a “graveyard shift.”

Elizabethan EnglandHygiene

• People usually bathed once-a-year, in May.

• Men first, then women, then the kids – in the same water.


• As the water got dirtier, and dirtier, they had to be careful not to “ throw out the baby with the bathwater.”


• Most weddings were in June, when couple and the guests were still relatively body odor-free.

• It was believed baths caused illness.

Elizabethan EntertainmentMusic

Folks were expected to be musical, to be able to read and play music. Almost everyone could play the recorder or lute and sing in 8-part harmony.

Barbers kept lutes customers could play while they waited for a new do.

Elizabethan EntertainmentFashion

• Fashion was a major pastime. Most Elizabethans wore their fortunes on their backs. They’d rather be well-dressed and penniless than rich and poorly dressed.

• Most folks dressed in the clothing of the social class above them.

Elizabethan EntertainmentCards

• People loved playing cards and frequently bet on the outcome.

Elizabethan EntertainmentTennis

• Tennis was played on a walled court with a roof and was very popular when it arrived as an import from France.

Elizabethan EntertainmentBear Baiting

• Bull- or Bear-baiting was popular.

• Dog turned loose on a tethered bull or bear. People bet on the dog or the bear.

• Dogs became famous for evading death: The Great Sackerson, Tom of Lincoln, and Harry Hunks were famous.

Elizabethan EntertainmentPublic Executions

• Public executions were hugely popular and drew large audiences.

Elizabethan EntertainmentCock Fighting

• Cock fighting was the rage! People bet in the fights between specially-bred roosters with sharpened beaks and metal spurs.

• School boys were encouraged to bring their birds to school for fights. People bet on the fights.

Elizabethan EntertainmentHuman Competition

•Sporting opponents thumped each other with cudgels and quarterstaffs (very bloody).

Elizabethan Entertainment“Football”

• Opposing sides tried to get a leather ball from one end of town to the other, while fighting each other. Fights resulted in broken bones and damaged businesses.

elizabethan england people were smaller average man 5’6” average woman 4’8”

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