Bailey Hamlet
Bailey hamlets consist of a tightly-knit gathering of dwellings and buildings protected by an outer fortification, or bailey, which surrounds the hamlet's inner yard. It's not uncommon for the hovels of less important residents to be located outside the bailey's palisade and defensive ditch.
Contents
Such hamlets are always supported by a significant river, with individual farms and communal holdings besides. While they share many characteristics of communal hamlets, a sizable number of persons acting as artisans and skilled labourers accounts for a class of persons that are distinctly non-agrarian, and therefore apart from the communal ideal. While traditions are respected and observed, and especially religion also, an unmistakable divide exists between those who go afield during the day and those whose constant presence in the hamlet itself forms the community's daily mood and sense of locality.
Composition
| Form | Facility |
|---|---|
| dwellings | half-timbered house, hovel |
| bulk goods | granary |
| harvesting | communal holding, water well |
| transport | boat dock, carter post, ox tether, stable |
| upkeep | gong pit |
| vendors | bakery |
| workings | fulling mill, gristmill, saw pit, shearing station, winepress |
Because the consistent presence of a significant river enables reliance on watermills, windmills rarely occur in these hexes. This necessitates that some workings are built outside the hamlet's bailey, though in places a bailey may be extended over a narrow streamcourse, placing a mill inside. Saw pits must necessarily be built near the treeline, and therefore outside the wall, as well as gong pits, boat docks and communal holdings. About half the number of hovels possessed by farmers will also exist outside the bailey.
Half-timbered houses tend to be only one-story high. Expect a water well to have been dug per 35 residents, all located within the bailey. In some drier locations, a cistern replaces wells.
