Carlisle, with its imposing castle and Roman past, was once a strategic lynchpin on the Anglo-Scottish border, changing hands multiple times during wars. Meanwhile, Stamford in Lincolnshire remains one of England’s finest stone towns, barely altered since medieval merchants filled its market squares.

In Hertfordshire, the Clock Tower in St Albans was built by the townspeople as a symbol of civic pride and autonomy, allowing them to ring their own bell independent of the Abbey’s tolls. Likewise, Royston Cave, an enigmatic underground chamber covered in carvings of knights, saints, and strange figures, has sparked endless speculation—was it used by the Templars? A medieval hermit? No one knows for certain.

Craft, Commerce, and the Dirtier Side of Towns

London in the Middle Ages was noisy, cramped—and terribly smelly. The five worst smells? Tanneries, reeking from rotting hides and urine; privies, poorly drained and often overflowing; fish markets; offal from butchers; and the Thames itself, an open sewer by summer.

Tanning was essential: leather was needed for everything from shoes to book bindings. Tanneries were placed at the edge of towns or downstream to keep their stench at bay. Public latrines, or garderobes, were equally notorious, often emptying straight into rivers or pits. Yet these were facts of life in bustling medieval cities.

Pilgrimage and Crusade: The Wider Medieval World

Beyond Britain, medieval life was tied to pilgrimages and holy wars. A guide to Acre in 1272, on the Mediterranean coast, would have shown a city bustling with European merchants, Templars, and pilgrims seeking indulgences. The Knights Templar, whose mysterious wealth and eventual downfall still fascinate, left traces across Europe, from London’s Temple Church to remote Scottish and Yorkshire lands.

Meanwhile, Islam’s victories over the Crusader states underscore how the campaigns, for all their pious rhetoric, were often doomed by disunity and logistical disasters. The grandeur of mosques and learning centers from Damascus to Cairo far outshone the Crusaders’ fragile holdings. shutdown123