The Middle Ages

The Fuller
Top of the list of worst jobs in the Middle Ages is the fuller, who washed out the grease and impurities from newly woven woollen cloth. The best way to do this was by putting it in a big vat of stale urine, yes urine, and stomping on it for hours on end. The stench was obviously horrendous and, even though the job was mind-numbingly tedious, the fuller couldn’t lose his concentration. Because the process also tightened the weave and thickened the cloth, if it wasn’t treated evenly for exactly the right amount of time, the whole bale could be ruined. Once the cloth was ready, the Fuller rinsed it in clean water, carried it up a hill and stretched it out to dry on ‘tenterframes’, - the origin of the phrase, ‘on tenterhooks’.

The Lime Burner
Lime was used for making building mortar, which was in demand for the cathedrals springing up all over the country. The lime burner had a thankless, if important, task, heating chalk in a kiln at 1,100°C to make ‘quicklime’. The dust the quicklime produced could cause blindness and spontaneously combust and burn. If that wasn’t enough, the carbon monoxide could make the worker dizzy and he could fall into the kiln with ease. Health and safety was obviously not a high priority in the Middle Ages!

The Treadmill Operator
This was definitely not a job for vertigo sufferers and was often done by the blind. Imagine a giant hamster wheel, precariously balanced at the highest point (up to 50m) of an almost built cathedral and you’ve got an idea of what a treadmill looked like. The operator would trudge for hours, turning the treadmill, which moved the winch on a crane. It was monotonous and dangerous because, if the treadmill was damaged by the weather or badly constructed, it could come crashing down.

The Arming Squire
This job was a cross between a roadie, caterer and lavatory attendant. The arming squire looked after his knight’s every need, offering him all the comforts of home during travelling army campaigns. This meant dressing, feeding and waiting on his master, as well as taking care of all his belongings on the ‘baggage train’, trudging for miles every day before setting up camp. But the worst bit was undoubtedly cleaning the knight’s armour after a heavy day on the battlefield. On the outside there was mud and blood, but the inside was far worse. Knights didn’t get toilet breaks during battle, so the arming squire had to clean what could be described as a big, metal nappy. To add to this, water was too precious to be used for cleaning so the squire would use a mixture of sand, vinegar and a little urine to clean.

The Leech Collector
These poor unfortunates collected leeches - used for medicinal bloodletting - by wading into marshes and letting the little bloodsuckers cling to their legs. One leech is uncomfortable; imagine pulling a whole bucketful off your body! The wounds often became infected and bacteria from the leeches could cause nasty stomach upsets.