Changes in towns and villages: towns and trading patterns; village life,…

The idea

After 1066 the Norman kings reshaped settlement and economy. Towns grew as fortified centres and markets; trade linked England to Normandy and the Low Countries through ports such as London, Southampton and Chester, exporting wool and importing wine and cloth. In villages, the manor and open-field strips organised peasant labour, with villeins owing week-work and boon-work. The king claimed vast royal forests as hunting reserves, governed by forest law enforced in forest courts; offences such as poaching venison or clearing woodland brought heavy fines, and forest boundaries could displace villagers. Slavery declined gradually: the Church discouraged selling Christians abroad, manumissions increased, and lords found rent-paying tenants more profitable, so by about 1100 the slave class had largely merged into the unfree peasantry.

What earns the marks

• Explains how towns functioned as markets, mints and fortified centres, and how overseas trade connected England with Normandy and the Low Countries.
• Describes village life: the manor, open-field strips, villein tenures, week-work and boon-work, and the role of the lord's court.
• Explains that royal forests were legal hunting reserves under forest law, not simply woodland, and that forest courts imposed fines for offences such as poaching or assarting.
• Accounts for the gradual disappearance of slavery through Church teaching, manumission, and lords' preference for rent-paying tenants.
• Uses specific places or commodities, such as London, Southampton, Chester, wool, wine or cloth, to support the explanation.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating 'royal forest' as any wooded area.

  Put it right by explaining it was a legal jurisdiction reserved for the king's hunting, which could include fields and villages.

• Assuming slavery ended instantly by royal decree.

  Put it right by describing gradual decline through manumission, Church pressure and economic change.

• Confusing villeins with slaves.

  Put it right by noting villeins held land and owed labour services, whereas slaves were property with no land tenure.

Exam tips

• Link each economic change to its cause or consequence, for example trade growth to urban markets, rather than listing features.
• Use precise terms such as manor, week-work, forest court and manumission to show secure knowledge.
• When discussing forest law, refer to enforcement and penalties to demonstrate understanding of its impact on ordinary people.