Flooring In Medieval Times

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Flooring in medieval times. Artiquity oak hardwood in medieval oak finish. Obviously this cannot be the proper interpretation of how rushes were used on the floors of castles. Like everything else in medieval times their production was very labour intensive. They required someone to dig the clay which had to be cleaned and homogenised until it could be worked.

Early medieval art romanesque art and gothic art. Then it would be pressed into square wooden moulds. Straw was not needed to keep people from slipping on wet slate but it was used as a floor covering on most surfaces to provide a modicum of warmth and cushioning. In the case of tile which was likely to be the most slippery straw was seldom used to cover it because it was usually designed to impress guests in the castles of more powerful nobles and in abbeys and churches.

Herbs we know were strewn in handfuls over the rushes and expected to stay underfoot to scent the air when trod upon. Fresh rushes were sometimes spread on top of the old rushes and at other times the entire floor was swept clean of old rushes and debris and scrubbed first. The earliest known wood floors came into use during the middle ages. Then these were sanded or smoothed by rubbing them with stone or metal.

In medieval times bundles of these plants were gathered up and spread across some castle floors and the dirt floors of many medieval churches and cathedrals. The history of wood flooring begins in colonial america when the first floors were wide thick planks cut from the continent s abundant old growth forests. Mosaics on the floor of the torcello cathedral in venice italy. Tiles provided a far more upmarket floor surface.

Fragrant often medicinal herbs were sprinkled among the rushes partly to sweeten aging rushes and partly to discourage bugs and molds. At first rough planks were laid across the floor.