Anglo Saxon Guide

Anglo Saxon foodThe Anglo-Saxons loved eating and drinking and would often have feasts in the Hall. The food was cooked over the fire in the middle of the house; meat was roasted and eaten with bread.They drank ale and mead - a kind of beer made sweet with honey - from great goblets and drinking horns.After the feast a minstrel would play a harp and sing songs of battles and heroes. Furthermore Anglo Saxons loved exotic foods such as potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, pineapples - fruits and vegetables of the New World, were unknown to the Anglo-Saxons.DrinkBarley was used to make weak beer, which was drunk instead of water. River water was often polluted. wine was imported from the Mediterranean but only drunk by the very rich.

Did you know ?

Most Saxons were vegetarians and that to Anglo Saxons pigs were more important food because they made more litters

Amazing Facts

• Early Anglo-Saxon buildings were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing.

• Anglo Saxons were the Germanic hordes who invaded east and southern England in the early 5th century AD

• Some Anglo-Saxons built their houses inside the walls of Roman towns.

Saxon clothes

• Anglo Saxons wore clothes that they made their selves made from wool and other fabrics such as animal skins. People wore clothes made from wool cloth or animal skins. Men wore tunics, with tight trousers or leggings, wrapped around with strips of cloth or leather. Women wore long dresses. Women spun the wool from sheep and goats to make thread. They used a loom to weave the thread into cloth.

• Clothing styles varied from region to region. For instance, an Anglian woman fastened her dress with a long brooch. A Saxon woman used a round brooch. Clothing also changed over time. The dress in the pictures is the kind worn by Angles when they first arrived in Britain.

Saxon houses• In an Anglo-Saxon family, everyone from babies to old people

shared a home. Anglo-Saxon houses were built of wood and had thatched roofs also their were hearths in the middle of the houses to keep warm and cook their food. At West Stow in Suffolk archaeologists found the remains of an early Anglo-Saxon village.

• They reconstructed it using Anglo-Saxon methods. They found that the village was made up of small groups of houses built around a larger hall. Each family house had one room, with a hearth with a fire for cooking, heating and light. A metal cooking pot hung from a chain above the fire.