Worldbuilding 5j: Country Towns

Whether or not the reader chooses to go the route I'm taking, i.e., building a thorough generated world that goes on and on, I encourage creating as much distinction as possible between one habitation centre and another.  All towns are not the same!  Some are frenetic, some are sleepy, some are old and staid, others are new and bursting with energy.

On the whole, I've decided to classify my world's common towns into three forms, occurring in type-3, type-2 and type-1 hexes.  These forms are "country town," "artisan town" and "commercial town."  Commercial towns are filled with middle-tier entrepreneurs buying and selling goods accumulated from others.  Artisan towns make things; they're Medieval industrial centres.  Country towns are of the "third rank," being inactive, tranquil places whose defining qualities are administrative.  Yes, there's some manufacture, and yes there's some commercial taking place ... but these things are happening on such a small scale compared to first rank and second rank cities and towns that country towns are still essentially self-governing.

That is, most of the decisions are still being made by local authorities, without much intercedence by provincial lords or monarchs.  Wealth is generated by agriculture; from this, the authorities skim payments in the form of taxation, returning writs, farming payments of fee (food turned over to the local noble), selling offices, presiding over the marketplace, holding land, issuing by-laws, wielding a minor degree of judicial authority ... which minor authorities gain while being ignored by the greater authorities elsewhere in the realm.  A small stipend is sent up the chain, but most of it remains in the local lord or lady's hands, to be spent as they will.  Ultimately rents contribute more income than taxes, creating payments that are not sent upstream into the general coffers of the realm.

In this environment, a wealthier class dwells in "messuages," a dwelling house with outbuilding and land assigned to the owner's use for various applications — tanning, perfuming, quarrying, raising horses and so on.  These messuages are dispersed over a wide area and not contained by a town wall, allowing the residents to be "part of the town" while according a considerable autonomy.  Paths and roads wind through the "suburban" dwellings towards a central "main town," with this arrangement being different from the semi-clustered and relatively smaller village.  A country town has a population of anywhere between 500 and 2,000, though in and around 1,000 is most common.

The inner center is marked by two-story houses, usually half-timbered, workshops, commercial buildings such as a public house, a bakery, an inn and a blockhouse for a small constabulary.  Adjacent to this center is a large bare area for the by-weekly market and stockyards, with areas for temporary pens to be set up ... and near the market is the "demesne," consisting of the lord or lady's messuage, potentially complete with small moat, tower or low walls.  A legitimate noble dwells here, most likely a baronet or baron, very rarely a count, though such persons are most likely represented by a bailiff or steward.  Attached to the demesne is a barracks with the noble's retainers, including a hayward and a reeve to manage the fields and enforce the noble's authority.  Unlike the village, the local authority has almost entirely fallen out of the locals' hands.  There is still a town council and elders, but these gather to decide how best to put their requests to the noble, not to pass edicts.  Townspeople do not regain their power again until the election of a burgher and the presence of a town hall, which occurs when manufacturing expands the country town into an artisan town.  We'll talk more about that another day.

The best times for the residents are market days.  Games and contests (not jousting, but things like apple bobbing and blind man's bluff) are complimented with opportunities for public bathing and eating rare foods — sometimes offered as free samples or gifts on holy days.  The noble might lay out a meal once or twice a year.  Younger members of the town might steal away into the bushes surrounding the town's centre, especially in the summer.  In winter, there may be no market days for two months at a time, since there are no products to sell and the weather may be onerous to potential customers, particularly those from outside the town.  This suspension is broken by feast days like Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday.

A "bailiff's court" is held on market days; often called a "three weeks court," because it meets only every three weeks.  The bailiff adjudicates disputes, orders payments that haven't been made, consigns individuals to the town stocks if need be, and holding others for final judgment by the lord or lady if torture or death is commended.  One or two cells may exist in the demesne, but often those awaiting judgment are confined in an outdoor gibbet or weighed down with shackles and chains, making flight from the town very risky and impractical.  Everyone outside the town, encountering a stranger dressed in heavy chains, would have no reason to trust such a person as anything but a deserving criminal.

No house or building could be built, nor sale of land made, without approval of the bailiff and, by extension, by the local lord or lady.  The players would find it difficult to "move in" to such a place without having first established a positive reputation through service or action of some kind.  Nonetheless, they would find it more comfortable than a village, with more to buy and with greater opportunities to acquire good labour.  Setting themselves up with a sizable messuage, then hiring a steward to look after the day to day, the party could provide a reasonable regular income for themselves while continuing to adventure — along with a sound, strong place in which to store goods and hoard some of their wealth.

Here, then, is a break-down of the facilities to be found in a type-3 hex, where a country town exists:

Everything on the list above would exist in a country town, many things in multiple numbers.  For example, there'd be more than one bakery, more than one temple and probably more than one religious group (though the secondary group would be no more than 3-8% of the whole).  A waterfront would have 2-3 quays, creating a wharf and adding warehouses.

I've changed "modest temple" to "lower temple;" this is a one-room worshipping space relying on an adjacent house and outer building for tools and seasonal materials.  The "middle" temple takes these and puts them in one building, so that the priest lives in a back room with an attached kitchen and yard for a dairy animal, chickens and workspace.  A cellar stores food and offers room for church stores, festival clothing and other items, wine, host and so on.

But as before, I'll be writing overview posts for most of these things that I haven't touched upon yet.  For those unable to search a dictionary, a "glebe" is a piece of land forming part of a clergy's benefice ... essentially, land the cleric is able to work or give to others to work.  This can be managed however the local priest sees fit, as it's his or hers, to raise money for use as charity, improvement of the parish or otherwise to exploit in an unbefitting (but all too common) personal manner.

Until the next post, then.