Free Hamlet

Free hamlets are unchartered rural gatherings of several dozen hovels and half-timbered buildings surrounding a "common," that might be an open green, a ford or road. They occur in Type-5 hexes that lack the presence of significant rivers with 2 pts. or more. They are too small to be considered a village, but are much larger than hamlets that occur in Type-6 hexes, with much greater food production as well as a wide variety of facilities.

Though they may occur in hexes with streams, such places are largely dependent on groundwater wells. While predominantly agrarian, these communities also focus upon storage, the collection of food and cartage, especially the need to supply food to the realm. Thus, in addition to farmlands both close-by and scattered among the nearer environs, free hamlets possess a definite "driftway," as the lane most commonly used for moving flocks, herds, carts or goods out of the hamlet becomes recognised. It is along this driftway that the various facilities can be found, though still in the scattered sense of a semi-organised locality. In terms of their interpersonal associations, they are not as tight-knit as communal hamlets, so that often multiple people reside in these hamlets with no immediate family — yet they are not yet large enough to provide a henchfolk, which requires a village.

Population

In addition to those facilities associated with the communal hamlet, free hamlets are also sure to include a bakery, carter post, granary, graveyard, waterpump and storehouse. In addition to 6 half-timbered houses and one bunkhouse, there will be 13-18 hovels (d6+12). This accounts for a certain total of 86-199 people.