Is my town realistic?

Question

So, my setting is a small border town on the edge of the [x] empire- beyond the town is the Eastern Reaches and is mostly unexplored. The border has been explored up to around 60 miles by the feudal lord mentioned below- just plains and forests, no iron of any note beyond the small vein close to town or anything of much value.

When thinking of the town, think 8 farms of 60-70 acres surrounding a small area with a tavern, cobbler, grain mill, and smithy.

Pre-gunpowder medieval tech setting.

The planet is earthlike, mid-magic setting. Think mild European climate- very rarely goes above 85*f or into single-digit territory.

Town population totals to around 120 people, counting everyone in between the age of 10 and 50 as a working member

There is a distant feudal lord that owns the town and the area around it, who gives the townies relative freedom as long as they pay taxes.

Population dist. is as follows-

10%-ish in a central town

 7% skilled labor, 3% unskilled/support labor

3% townies as a bandit watch

   As pointed out below, most likely a single family or smaller.

80%-odd farmers- need to look up statistics for avg. laborers per farm

7% as a misc. labor workforce

Traders come through every few weeks, so that might make up for any missing resource production.

Question- is there anything I'm missing that is essential or recommended for a small frontier town? If not, is my distribution of peoples realistic?

Sorry for any points I didn't address, still inexperienced at making questions.

Answer 1

Honestly, from a medieval fantasy setting for a frontier town, I think you may have diversified your population a little too much.

Traditionally, 80-90% of peasants were farmers, and I'd imagine that number climbs above 90% the further outside of a kingdom you get. Here are my thoughts:

• There's probably no miners. A village on the outskirts of an empire probably doesn't mine anything because mining is specialty work that requires a lot of hidden infrastructure. You might have a dedicated potter, but if you do he probably collects his own clay in a village that size.
• There's probably only one guy and his sons on bandit watch, they probably double as local law enforcement and run a store or a farmstead near the village, since a village of 120 people doesn't have a problem with local bandits, and other bandits are called "raiders" and get everyone in the town organized into a posse in order to fight them.
• There's a not insignificant chance that everyone's homes are in a central village and that the farm lands extend into the land around them. A town that size likely works under 1800 acres of land (pulling some numbers from this post), which would cover a square less than 2 miles on a side. If your town is in the immediate center, then anyone could expect to reach any plot of land. Even if they aren't communal farmers, they could divide the land into long, thin strips which is also not unheard of in that time period. Edit: see this wikipedia entry on Ribbon Farms
• Normally, I'd expect a village to get anything it doesn't produce from travelling merchants, but if they are on the border of the wilderness, you can just expect them to be even more poor than normal as it will be difficult to find people to trade with for even simple necessities like iron.
• Edit: PcMan mentioned coal, which made me think firewood. I would expect a forest of around 20 acres to produce 4 cords of firewood from just the dead/fallen trees. That's probably more than enough to support a peasant through the winter. You could probably support the whole village on under 5 square miles of forest then. You might have a dedicated woodcutter then depending on how far from the farmland the woods are (the father the woods, the more likely there's a dedicated woodcutter).

Answer 2

Also consider.

• Mayor: As an alternative to having clergy-rule, elder-counsel rule or rule by Plutarchs - To generally organize distribution of any funds used for the public good (bandit protection, town boundary maintenance, streets if applicable), preside over secular ceremonies, negotiate territory boundaries with neighboring towns (if any).

• Tax collector/Book-keeper: Works closely with the ruling class, also acts as intelligence gatherer. Possibly in charge of ensuring food reserves meet the need between crops.

• Judge/Sheriff/Guard-Captain: To mediate disputes and arrange the keeping of the peace and guard effectiveness. As an alternative again to clergy mediated punishment, they can perhaps have a mandate to punish, execute if necessary, perhaps reporting to whoever's in charge.

• Smith: Versatile, should be able to work with iron and wood, turning bowls and plates. Ploughs, tools and horseshoes need making/replacing/mending, not to mention the vital task of making beer barrels for the tavern and pots for cooking in each household. If there's enough work (there would be) then an apprentice (maybe two).

• Potter: All households need flagons, bottles. The tavern needs the same. Bowls and plates for the privileged members of the community and sale at market.

• The Tavern-keep/Brewer: Self explanatory, family business. May need a certain expertise at calming heated disputes. A good listener, helps cohere society.

• Dogs: To keep the rat population down around any winter food-stores, and to alert dozing guards to a potential threat, and to scare-off the threats.

Answer 3

1 thing I dont see mentioned yet: How is fresh water accessed and laid out?

Rivers? Wells? Lakes? Ponds? What is the quality of this water? This effects agricultural output and quality.

Where does it originate? Who controls it at the town and upstream?

Precipitation? Seasonally?

Water is a main concern of agriculture, and often lords built defensive structures like guard towers to secure the main well or river.

Water body layouts can also affect town layouts as well as major defensive strategy--even against the bandits you mentioned, but also in times of war and border disputes, common in medieval times.

Answer 4

Consider:

• Brewer / barkeep. Water is typically contaminated with all sorts of nasty things in this time period, it's safer to brew it into beer and drink a low alcohol swill than water.
  • They may also double as an Innkeeper, or you may need a separate one - (depending on distance to next largest town and traffic through the town). It sounds like a lot of the income to the town comes from travellers on their way to the unknown and traders passing through. With small towns usually being set up a days travel apart from each other, an inn may be not only required, but the best source of income.
• Healer / apoticarian / friendly neighbourhood witch / midwife / etc. Someone who knows a little bit about the intricacies of human bodies and the herbs in the area.
  • People will be injured and need healing from mining, exploring, and general life.
  • Your town has 120 people aged 10 - 50, lets says 20 are children, (or chaste, or infertile) and exclude them, leaving 100 fertile people, 50 romantic pairs post puberty having unprotected sex - there'll be multiple babies born most months.
• Priest. While not essential, they'll come to you whether you want them or not, as the frontier towns are gateways to the unbaptised who need saving, and your towns leader wont have the courage to evict the church.