Burgages

A plot of land in Medieval towns

A 'burgage' is the name for a plot of land found behind medieval town houses in England. It was typically narrow (the width of the house) and long. The origin and function of this plot of land is described in a short paper by Slater, 1981:

Burgages are the basic 'cells' in any analysis of medieval town plans. They are characteristically long and narrow and are arranged in series along the streets.

Slater continues shortly after:

The essence of the medieval borough was that labour and other services due to the lord had been commuted to an annual fixed money rent - the borough render, or firma burgi. This was levied upon particular townspeople - the burgesses - who might ultimately aspire to become a self-governing community under a charter of Incorporation. A man became a burgess through the freehold of a plot of land - the burgage.

I find Burgages interesting for a few reasons:

• They are an example of the peristent connection between land and rights in Medieval Europe
• Incorporation is a term that would later describe the self-organisation of industrialising cities, but clearly is a much older concept
• Burgages were size approximately to the amount of land a Medieval family would need to ensure that alongside their purchases of grains, some staple vegetables and meat/fish, the rest (herbs, vegetables, chickens, eggs, roots) would be provided by the Burgage plot. This idea of "how much land we need to sustain ourselves" is as important today, not just for food but for mental health too.
• The term 'burgage' stems from an idea linked to towns. Wikipedia confirms that the word originates from the old French/Latin for a town (Burgeis) and this also gives rise to the term 'bourgeoisie' later on which usually relates to those people of a certain social status and wealth living in urban areas. Note that the term 'burgage' or 'bourgeoisie' should not be confused with Germanic words that are related to 'Burg' (fortress) or 'Berg' (mountain)!

I wonder if we added up all the food, energy, clothes, tools, furniture, housing and technology how much land a family would actually need to survive (even if they don't own it) in the modern world? What standard of living is sustainable?

References

• The analysis of burgage patterns in medieval towns, T.R. Slater, 1981, University of Birmingham - see Jstor.org for the full reference
• Medieval corportaions, membership and the common good: rethinking the critique of shareholder primacy, Mansell and Sison, 2019