🏰 One of the hardest parts of building a believable medieval settlement is figuring out how many people actually did each job…this becomes even harder with trades commonly occupied by women.
The challenge is that history rarely gives us exact numbers. Historians instead piece together clues from tax rolls, guild records, manor accounts, court records, and other surviving documents. Even then, exact occupation numbers are challenging to pin down.
To make things even trickier, many women brewed ale, spun wool, sewed clothing, made cheese, and prepared herbal remedies as part of everyday life without those tasks necessarily being their “trade.” The needs of a village also varied greatly by region, season, and local economy.
So, why even put this list together? Think of these as very rough historical estimates to get you started, rather than hard and fast rules. Adjust as needed…but if you don’t even know where to begin it’s just overwhelming.
👉 Which trade surprised you the most?
Happy mapping!
- Josh
here’s a VERY rudimentary breakdown of my coloring process here. twitter doesn’t have the best formatting for something like this. so if you have more specific questions on layer types or why/how i did something pls feel free to ask!!
"Remember.
Remember us.
Remember that we lived."
"The rains have ceased
And have been graced with another beautiful day
But you are not here to see it."