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Around the year 1400, a traveller on an English road had until nightfall to reach shelter, because after dark the road belonged to the cold and the cutpurse. The inn that took him in was ruled by laws most of us have forgotten: the price of his ale was fixed by royal statute at roughly 2 gallons for a penny, its quality checked by sworn ale-conners, of whom London alone had around 100 by 1377. He would share a bed with strangers for a penny or two, his whole reckoning kept on a notched stick no one could forge, and when the curfew bell rang at 8 or 9 the fire was not put out but covered, banked under ash to keep till morning. Chaucer set the most famous journey in English literature in exactly such a house, the Tabard in Southwark, founded in 1307, where 29 pilgrims gathered to ride for Canterbury. Step inside, and stay until the door is barred.

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In this video, we talk about what one ordinary night inside a medieval English inn was truly like, including the traveller's arrival at dusk, the ostler and the stabled horse, the great fire, the alewife and how ale was brewed and sold, pottage and bread and the assize that priced them, the ale-conner and the leather-breeches legend, dice and songs and the news of the road, the Canterbury pilgrims and Chaucer's Tabard, the reckoning kept on a split tally stick, the curfew and the covered fire, the shared beds and the rushes by the embers, the rushlight, the barred door, and the medieval two sleeps of the deep night.

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Chapters:
00:00 Opening
20:46 The great fire
40:06 The room fills up
57:59 Dice and tables by the fire
1:15:43 The pilgrims' table
1:35:41 Covering the fire
1:54:08 Pallets and rushes by the embers
2:14:08 The waking hour
2:32:47 The house asleep

Sources:
Ye Ol' Bed & Breakfast: A Look at the Medieval Inn (Medievalists.net) https://www.medievalists.net/2015/02/...
Assize of Bread and Ale (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assize_...
Ale conner (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ale_conner
Alewife (trade) (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alewife...)
Curfew: the history of the word (Word Histories) https://wordhistories.net/2016/08/22/...
The Tabard, Southwark (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tabard
Tally stick (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_s...

DISCLAIMER:
This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from the sources listed above alongside primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional.

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