Rush Flooring Middle Ages

Herbs such as lavender and southernwood are added into the weave as the flooring is being made.

Rush flooring middle ages. Rushbearing is an old english ecclesiastical festival in which rushes are collected and carried to be strewn on the floor of the parish church the tradition dates back to the time when most buildings had earthen floors and rushes were used as a form of renewable floor covering for cleanliness and insulation. I was completely fascinated to find this page of notes about real life for the upper classes in the middle ages and it addresses one of the things i ve always wondered about. This page has this to say and started off my inquiry. All images via rush matters.

Sweet smelling herbs. By the time of the english tudors floor coverings in castles were mostly purchased rush mats. In fact i came upon it while specifically searching for information about rushes as floor covering. Traditional rush floor matting is also known as medieval or apple matting.

In the late medieval and early renaissance periods loose rushes gave way to woven or stitched rush mats on floors which provided similar benefits but wore well and were easier to replace. Following the black death a limited number of carpets and mats were introduced to replace the floor rushes but floors strewn with straw or rushes were still favoured. Threat to middle ages hygiene rush flooring the practice of covering floors with rushes was a a real threat to hygiene and health during the middle ages. A popular email hoax has spread all sorts of misinformation about the middle ages and the bad old days here we take a look at floors and straw.