What were the worst jobs to do in medieval times?
The Worst Jobs – The Middle Ages. The Fuller Top of the list of worst jobs in the Middle Ages is the fuller, who washed out the grease and impurities from newly woven woollen cloth. The best way to do this was by putting it in a big vat of stale urine, yes urine, and stomping on it for hours on end. The stench was obviously horrendous and, even though the job was mind-numbingly tedious, the fuller couldn’t lose his concentration. Because the process also tightened the weave and thickened the cloth, if it wasn’t treated evenly for exactly the right amount of time, the whole bale could be ruined. Once the cloth was ready, the Fuller rinsed it in clean water, carried it up a hill and stretched it out to dry on ‘tenterframes’, – the origin of the phrase, ‘on tenterhooks’. The Lime Burner Lime was used for making building mortar, which was in demand for the cathedrals springing up all over the country. The lime burner had a thankless, if important, task, heating chalk in a kiln at 1,100°C t
