The Medieval Falconer: The Skilled Keeper of the Nobles Hunting Birds

The Medieval Falconer: The Skilled Keeper of the Nobles Hunting Birds

I want to continue our look into medieval jobs. Today I want to talk about the medieval falconer. It is a job that many people may think was quite glamorous because it involved beautiful birds of prey, but being a falconer needed real skill and patience.

Falconry had been very popular in Europe for a long time before the medieval period. By the Middle Ages it had become very important to the nobility. Owning beautiful, trained birds like falcons, hawks, or goshawks was a sign of wealth and status. Many lords, ladies, and kings enjoyed the sport. Some birds were so valuable that they were considered luxury items. They could also be given as gifts between nobles.

This popularity created the need for skilled falconers. A falconer was responsible for caring for the birds. They started work early in the morning and often worked into evening. They had to feed and care for these birds carefully. Also ensuring that they were healthy. They had to make sure that the equipment and mews were also clean and looked after. The mews was where the birds were housed. They also had to inspect the feathers, claws, and beaks for any signs of injury or illness.

Training a bird of prey was one of the hardest parts of the job. Falcons and hawks are amazingly powerful wild birds and they have strong instincts. It would not have been easy to train them. The falconer would have had to build up trust. They used controlled feeding and rewards to encourage the bird to return.

During hunts, the falconer travelled with their lord or lady and handled the birds at exactly the right moment. Timing mattered, releasing a bird too early or too late could ruin a hunt. The falconer needed good observation and to stay calm under pressure. They also had to understand the bird’s behaviour, the weather, and the movement of prey. That must have been a huge responsibility, especially when handling birds worth a small fortune.

Although falconry is often connected with nobles, falconers themselves were not always nobles. Many were skilled servants or specialists employed by wealthy households, castles, or royal courts. However, because they worked so closely with valuable animals and important people, they often held trusted positions. A talented falconer could earn considerable respect and be reasonably well paid.

During the reign of Edward III, royal falconers received wages as well as extra money to help care for the king’s birds. Senior falconers often earned better pay than many ordinary servants, and with food and lodging often included, they could live quite comfortably.

Medieval falconers were not just trainers. They built relationships with these beautiful birds, that  were powerful, intelligent, and still partly wild.

Were medieval falconers more skilled than many people realise?

Salaria Kea: The American Nurse Who Fought Racism During the Spanish Civil War and World War Two

Salaria Kea: The American Nurse Who Fought Racism During the Spanish Civil War and World War Two

Today I want to tell you a little bit about Salaria Kea.

Salaria Kea was born on the 13th of July 1913 in Milledgeville, Georgia. Her father was tragically killed while she was still just a baby. She was then raised mainly by her older brothers in Akron, Ohio.

Salaria had wanted to be a nurse since she was a child, but racial segregation made this extremely difficult. Many nursing schools refused to accept Black students. But she refused to give up. She moved to New York City and graduated from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1934. Even during her student years, she challenged segregation and fought for better treatment of African American nurses.

In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Salaria volunteered to serve in Spain. She became the only African American nurse working with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. She helped to establish a field hospital near Madrid and then served as a head surgical nurse. For perhaps the first time, she worked in an environment where her skill mattered more than the colour of her skin. That must have been emotional.

Salaria was captured for a time, but later escaped, and she was badly injured in a bombing raid. While she was in Spain, she met Irish volunteer John O’Reilly, who she went on to marry.

During the Second World War, Salaria served again. She became one of the very few African American nurses recruited by the United States Army in 1944. In spite of her service and sacrifice, she was still forced to face racism at home.

After the war, she continued to nurse. She worked to help desegregate hospitals. Salaria sadly died on the 18th of May 1990 at the age of 76.

What is amazing to me is her determination. Salaria Kea did not just heal the wounded. She also challenged injustice. 

Had you heard of Salaria Kea before?

The Victorian Lady’s Maid: The Servant Trusted with the Elegance and Fashion of the Lady of the House

The Victorian Lady’s Maid: The Servant Trusted with the Elegance and Fashion of the Lady of the House

Today I want to continue our look into Victorian servants. I want to take a look at the Victorian lady’s maid. She was one of the most trusted female servants in a wealthy household. Her job was really important, and it required skill, patience, loyalty, and attention to detail.

The role of a lady’s maid became especially popular during the 19th century. Fashion, appearance, and social status had become hugely important to upper-class society. Wealthy Victorian women usually owned large wardrobes full of dresses. There were dresses for every occasion including, morning dresses, visiting dresses, dinner gowns, mourning clothes, riding habits, and the elaborate evening wear. The lady’s maid was responsible for managing all of this.

A lady’s maid usually worked for the mistress of the house. She was unlike the other servants who answered to the housekeeper. This made her position quite special. She was considered a senior servant and often earned a better wage than maids that were lower down the hierarchy. Many lady’s maids were experienced women who had worked their way up through domestic service, maybe beginning as a house maid before being trusted in this role.

Her day often began early. Before her mistress even woke up, she might already be preparing clothes, warming the curling irons, be laying out any accessories, and making sure that everything was spotless. She helped her mistress dress, which could take time. Victorian fashion was not easy. There were corsets that had to be tightly laced, layers of petticoats to be sorted properly, boots to be buttoned up, gloves to ensure they were perfect, and jewellery to carefully select. 

The lady’s maid was also responsible for doing her mistress’s hair. Victorian hairstyles could be complicated. A lady’s maid could spend a long time styling her mistresses hair, especially before important events. She also looked after the expensive fabrics like the silk, lace, satin, and velvet. She would have had to repair any small rips or tears, remove any stains, and ensure that the garments stayed in excellent condition.

It was the laundry maid who washed everyday items like the mistresses underclothes, petticoats, stockings, and simpler dresses. But it was the lady’s maid who was usually trusted with her mistress’s finest clothing. 

By the later Victorian era, some women were able to receive more professional training at dressmaking schools, hairdressing academies, or domestic service institutes, especially in cities like London. There they could learn skills like hairdressing, sewing, corset fitting, fabric care, and proper etiquette. But, formal training was still very rare, and most lady’s maids learned through years of practical work in service.

Because she worked so closely with her mistress, a lady’s maid would often know about private family matters. She might overhear arguments, worries about money or marriage problems. She would have expected to be discrete. Trust was everything. A good lady’s maid knew when to speak and when to stay silent.

Despite the higher status, life was not necessarily easy. She needed to be polite and attentive, even if her mistress was demanding or difficult. Some mistresses treated their maids with kindness and respect, some even formed close bonds over the years. They may have even felt almost like companions. But as ever the social divide was always clear. In other homes, a lady’s maid may have felt invisible. 

As with all servants, her life revolved around someone else’s comfort and appearance. 

Hanna Chrzanowska: The Nurse Who Served Through World War Two

Hanna Chrzanowska: The Nurse Who Served Through World War Two

Today I want to tell you a little bit about Hanna Helena Chrzanowska. 

Hanna was born on the 7th of October 1902 in Warsaw, in what was then part of the Russian Empire. She came from a well-educated family. Her family included both Roman Catholics and Protestants, which gave her a broad view of faith.

As a child, Hanna often struggled with bad health and she spent a lot of time in hospitals and sanatoriums. This may have shaped her compassion towards patients. During her childhood a poor boy that was in hospital had clothes that were so worn out that they had to be thrown away. He would have nothing to wear home, so Hanna arranged for him to get new clothes. Even as a young girl, she saw suffering and wanted to help.

In 1910, her family moved to Kraków. After doing well in school, she decided to train as a nurse in 1920. Nursing at that time was not always seen as a respected profession, but Hanna believed in it. She later continued her studies in France and also visited Belgium to learn more about modern nursing.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Hanna had become an important figure in Polish nursing. She worked as a teacher, helped to train future nurses, edited a nursing publication, and encouraged higher standards in healthcare. She also helped establish a Catholic association for Polish nurses.

When the World War II started, Hanna’s life changed dramatically. The war brought terrible personal loss. Her father died in a concentration camp, and her brother was killed in the Katyn massacre. Despite this overwhelming grief, she continued to serve others.

During the war, Hanna organised nurses to provide care in people’s homes, helped refugees find food and shelter, and assisted orphaned children, including Jewish children separated from their families. Every day she would have witnessed fear, suffering, and heartbreak, but she kept going.

After the war, she focused on caring for the poor, the elderly, and the neglected in her own parish. She believed nobody should suffer alone. Her faith became closely connected to her nursing, and she joined the Benedictine oblates.

 Benedictine oblates are people who follow the spiritual teachings of Benedict of Nursia but do not live in a monastery. They live normal daily lives while trying to follow values such as prayer, humility, and helping others.

In 1966, Hanna was sadly diagnosed with cancer. She died on the 29th of April 1973 in Kraków, at the age of 70.

In 2018, Pope Francis approved her beatification, recognising the extraordinary compassion she showed throughout her life.

I think Hanna’s story is such a powerful reminder that heroism is not always loud or dramatic. 

Do you think that everyday compassion can change the world?

The Victorian Crossing Sweeper: The Poor Workers Who Helped People Cross the Road

The Victorian Crossing Sweeper: The Poor Workers Who Helped People Cross the Road

 Today I want to continue our look at Victorian jobs, and I want to take a look at the Victorian crossing sweeper. It is one of those jobs that many people may not know much about, but crossing sweepers became a really familiar sight on busy city streets in the Victorian era. Their job may have seemed simple, but it was a reminder of what people in poverty had to do to survive.

Towns and cities were growing rapidly in the 19^th century, and as a consequence the streets became much busier than ever before. Places like London, Manchester, and Birmingham were packed with people, horses, carts, carriages, and omnibuses. This caused a problem, the roads often became really filthy. Before modern road cleaning and paving improved, many streets were covered in mud, horse manure, rubbish, and dirty water. After heavy rain, some crossings could become thick, slippery, and extremely unpleasant.

This created the need for crossing sweepers. Their job was to clear a path across the road, mainly at busy crossing points, so pedestrians could cross without ruining their shoes or dresses. Using a broom, brush, or sometimes just a handmade sweeping tool, they would push away mud, manure, and rubbish to clear a path.

Many crossing sweepers were extremely poor. Some were elderly people who couldn’t do  heavy labour. Others may have been disabled people, widows, or children. They were all people with few other ways to earn money. Some homeless children also took up the work. For many people in this work, it was not a proper paid job with wages from an employer. They survived on tips from the people they helped to cross the street.

That must have been really worrying, not having a secure income. A crossing sweeper could work for long hours in all weathers and still earn very little. Some days they may have earned just a few pennies, other days, maybe nothing at all. Their income depended entirely on the kindness of strangers.

Crossing sweepers often stood in the same spot every day, hoping that regular passers-by would recognise them. Sadly, not everyone was kind to them. Wealthier Victorians sometimes ignored them completely, others looked down on them because they lived in poverty.

Children working as crossing sweepers may have had it hardest of all. Instead of going to school or enjoying their childhood, they spent hours on dangerous roads. There was always the risk of getting hurt by traffic. Life for poor Victorian children could be incredibly tough, and crossing sweeping proves just how young children were when they were forced to work simply to survive.

Some crossing sweeps were  even famous literary figures-most notably Jo the Crossing Sweeper from Bleak House, which helped draw public attention to child poverty.

By the late Victorian period, street cleaning improved, road surfaces became better, and organised municipal services extended. Slowly, the need for crossing sweepers began to reduce. Their role became less common as towns modernised.

Did you know about Victorian crossing sweepers?

Trekking During in WW2: When Thousands Slept in Fields for Safety

Trekking During in WW2: When Thousands Slept in Fields for Safety

Today I want to continue our look into life on the British Home Front during the Second World War. I want to look at something that many people may never have heard of, and that was trekking. It was not an official evacuation, and it was not organised by the government. It involved ordinary people leaving cities at night to sleep somewhere they thought would be safer.

When the Blitz started in September 1940, Britain was suddenly facing night after night of air raids. For many families, the evenings were the hardest part. Night brought with it fear and a lack of sleep.

In London, many people sheltered in basements, public shelters, or even in the London Underground. Some Londoners also began leaving the city each evening, travelling to the quieter outskirts or nearby towns. A few even slept in their cars. But compared with other cities, large-scale trekking from London was relatively small, partly because London had more shelters available.

It was in Britain’s smaller cities that trekking became especially common. Places like Bristol, Coventry, Kingston upon Hull, Plymouth, Southampton, and Swansea often had less shelters and less protection. Many families just did not feel safe staying at home.

Can you imagine how draining this must have been. After a full day of working and maybe even volunteering for the war effort, instead of relaxing, thousands of people packed up blankets, even taking their children if they had them, and set off into the countryside. Some people walked for miles. Others caught the bus, used their bike, or car if they were lucky enough to have one. 

In early 1941, trekking reached huge numbers. After heavy bombing in April 1941, at least 30,000 people left Plymouth each night, with numbers rising to around 50,000 on some evenings. In Belfast, they were nicknamed “ditchers”, and large numbers also left after devastating raids. Many ended up sleeping in roadside ditches, fields, barns, churches, or any shelter they could find rather than sleeping in their warm bed.

The British government initially worried that trekking showed that morale was reducing. Some officials believed that it was only nervous or weaker-minded people that left. But that was unfair and misunderstood what people were actually feeling.

Most trekkers were not giving up. They were adapting.

Research later showed that the main reason people trekked was simple: they desperately needed to sleep. Imagine trying to rest while there were bombs going off. Fear and exhaustion built up night after night.

Many people were frustrated with the government. They believed they had not been given enough protection. 

Over time, the government began providing more rest centres and support. But by May 1941, the worst phase of the Blitz had passed, and large-scale trekking gradually declined.

To me, trekking says something about human survival. These people were not cowards. They were exhausted mothers, fathers, workers, and children doing whatever they could to protect themselves while still carrying on with daily life. Even after sleepless nights in fields or barns, many returned to work the next morning and kept going.

I think that shows incredible resilience.

Could you imagine leaving your home every night not knowing if it would still be there in the morning?

The Medieval Chandler: The Merchant Who Were in Charge of Candles.

The Medieval Chandler: The Merchant Who Were in Charge of Candles.

Today I want to continue finding out about medieval jobs, and I want to take a look at the medieval chandler. It is a job that many people may not recognise by name, but chandlers played a huge role in every part of medieval life. Without them, homes, churches, workshops, and castles would have been much darker.

The word chandler comes from the Old French word chandelier, which was linked to candle-making. In the early medieval period, once the sun went down, light was gone. There were no electric lights, street lamps, or easy ways to brighten a room. People relied heavily on their fires, oil lamps, and of course candles. This meant that anyone who could supply them provided something valuable.

The word chandler did not originally describe a candle maker or shopkeeper. In large medieval households, the chandler was at first the official responsible for managing the candles and other lighting. They oversaw the stores of wax, tallow, and oil, making sure that the household had enough. The name gradually became associated with the skilled workers and merchants who made and sold candles.

In the earlier medieval centuries, many households made candles at home when they could. Poorer families usually used rushlights, which were dried rush plants dipped in animal fat or grease. These were cheap but burned quickly, they also gave off unpleasant smells, and they produced a weak flickering light. Wealthier households demanded something better, and this created the growing demand for skilled chandlers.

During the middle medieval period  towns were expanding and trade was increasing, chandlers became more common. Their main job was making and selling candles, but their work could be much more than that. Some chandlers also sold soap, lamp oil, wax, and other household essentials.

There were generally two main types of chandlers. Tallow chandlers who worked with animal fat, usually from sheep or cattle. Tallow candles were cheaper and affordable for ordinary people, but they had drawbacks. They often smoked, melted unevenly, and could smell quite unpleasant. I don’t think working with tallow every day could have been pleasant either. The smell must have clung to the workers clothes, skin, and the workshops must have smelt awful.

Wax chandlers, on the other hand, worked with beeswax, a much more pleasant substance. Beeswax candles burned much cleaner, were brighter, and smelled much better. But they were also more expensive.

Making candles was skilled work but it was repetitive work. A chandler had to melt the fat or wax, prepare wicks, and carefully built up the layers by dipping or pouring. This process had to be repeated over and over until the candle was the right thickness. It required patience and precision. Too much heat could ruin the mixture, and poor-quality candles would burn badly which would damage a chandler’s reputation.

They often worked long hours, especially during winter when days were shorter and demand for candles increased. Religious festivals like Christmas or Easter also would have increased their orders for churches. A good chandler could build themselves a reliable business, especially in busy towns. Some even joined guilds. Guilds were important. They brought together workers from the same trade. They helped to set standards, kept prices fair and also made sure that the goods were made properly. Being part of a guild often businesses protection and also helped customers to trust their work. Joining a guild was often seen as a sign of success.

 A good medieval chandler was able to earn a pretty decent living.  In particular in busy towns where demand would have been high. Tallow chandlers earned a steady but modest income, but wax chandlers supplying churches, monasteries, or wealthy households could sometimes become quite prosperous. Although the work was hard and messy, their skill provided them with both stability and a better life for their families.

The medieval chandler is easy to overlook, but their work affected almost every part of life.

Have you ever considered just how important something as simple as a candle could be?