Life in Towns
Towns are much smaller than a modern person would expect, and much more crowded. The primary mode of transportation in a town is walking — this both prevents towns from sprawling, and allows the streets to be narrower.
These narrow streets are made of dirt only — there is no sort of paving. The owner of a house is responsible for maintaining the street in front of it. A gutter runs down the middle of the street. The gutter’s contents are truly disgusting — rainwater, human filth, and whatever garbage has been washed into it. One of the most strictly enforced laws in any town is the one against throwing garbage and trash into the gutter or on the street: if the gutter becomes blocked, it will overflow.
Houses are mostly made of wood, and are multi-storied. If the lower story is made of something more durable than wood, it is still not uncommon for the upper stories to be wooden. Windows are closed only with shutters — even the wealthiest merchants cannot afford glass. The upper stories of a building are wider than the lower — that way, bedpans can be emptied into the gutter from upper windows without risk of splashing the walls.
Merchants and craftsmen typically live and work out of the same building — working on the lower floors, and living upstairs. Most houses have a small fenced yard in the back, where a pig can be kept or a few vegetables grown.
Needless to say, towns are dirty, smelly, and disease-ridden. They are also firetraps.
The business of towns is manufacture and commerce — towns are chartered for that explicit purpose. The economic and political life of a town is dominated by its most powerful guilds. Towns serve as market centers for the surrounding area — peasants come from nearby villages to sell agricultural products and buy manufactured goods.
Nevertheless, the character of towns remains rural. Pigs and chickens are everywhere, and fields extend right up to the town limits. Many people in town still work at agriculture. Unlike modern cities, 11th century towns don't offer much in the way of nightlife. With only candles for light, towns are almost as dark after sunset as the countryside. Towns generally have a curfew by law, and anyone out after curfew had better have a good explanation.