Research

Personal hygiene and laundry

15th century people did wash, both themselves and their clothes. We can show and describe personal cleaning items, and remedies for ridding the body of lice etc. We can also explain some medieval aesthetics and ideals and describe how some of these were achieved (i.e. 15thC beauty creams).

Although women were actively discouraged from being in a military encampment, local women would have come into the camp to act as laundresses, to wash the soldiers' linen undergarments. In this way, both at domestic and military type events, we can demonstrate washing linen in lye made from hardwood ash, and show a glass 'linen smoother' used for ironing.

We also can also demonstrate the use of some specific stain removal recipes from a 15thC German nunnery.