How do you use a medieval PEASANT HANDCART?

Jason Kingsley, the modern Knight, puts on peasant clothing and tries out an authentially built medieval handcart. How hard is it to use? How much can it carry and how fast does it go? Plus some interesting observations and thoughts.

Join this channel to get access to perks:

[hetrodoxly]

At 15 years old i worked as a barrow boy during the school holidays in Birmingham Smithfield fruit market, they had stays or legs at the handle end for keeping them level, the most important thing was loading them right, most of the weight went on the front almost lifting the handle end of the ground, i'd fly down Jamaica row which was a cobble stone hill with the handles under my armpits almost lifting me off the floor, the cart loaded with sacks of potatoes, i'd use animal fat to lube the wheels the sound would drive me crazy, not to mention every man and his dog would here you coming from miles away not to mention your dinner, rabbit or a partridge etc.

[badwolf]

When I was a young child of 4 to 9 years old, my family lived all over Asia from Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. This would had been the late 1950's to early 1960's and carts very similar to this were ubiquitous especially in the countryside. When these carts were pulled, the carters would have a bar connecting the two handles and push on that crossbar. Also when pulling the cart, the carters used a rope tied to their waist or to some kind of harness which was connected to the frame of the cart and they would pull with their hands on the handbars and with their body. There was this one old man (with the eyes of age) who sold noodles out of his cart. He started with a push/pull cart and about a year later he got a tricycle cart. Everyday just before noon when he arrives, he would announce his presence by using a pair of wooden clapper. To this day over 60 years later, I can still remember the sound of those wooden clappers.

"Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

[APinchOfHistory]

"There are very few straight lines as we understand them now"
Handcarts are an example of an object we never think of when talking about the past, yet it gives us an insight into the materials and techniques you had to work with to build anything in the Middle Ages. The sound is also a great little observation done by the experience with the actual object.
Another very wholesome video of yours, thanks, Jason!

[Not-a-fancy-name]

Most millionaires buy super cars, Jason gets himself a medieval handcart. You are such a geek, and that is wonderful. Thank you for doing what you do!

[robingray]

Even though this cart was done "by eye", it's quite lovely. There's just something about all the wood being left to look like tree parts, instead of manufactured into "clean lines", that gives it an aesthetic all its own.

As ever, thank you for another delightfully educational video.

[simonelorandi]

Interesting! Here in northern Italy miners used to say that pitprops sing before they snap. That's why they preferred wooden props over the iron ones . Iron may have been stronger, but it gave no signals that's going to break apart.

[randalthor]

I absolutely love these "slice of medieval life" videos. Things that would have been common, everyday items back then that we just don't really think about these days. Videos about weapons, armour, knights, battles, and all of that are great too (that's what first got me interested in history in general, and medieval history specifically), but there are a lot of channels that do great vids about those things (including this channel of course), and this is one of the few channels that really delves into the more mundane things that are rarely discussed (another channel that's been doing something similar lately with videos about medieval logistics is thehistorysquad). And those mundane things are absolutely fascinating! They give a great window into things that we usually just take for granted.

[TVPiles]

You are right about the "singing cart". In Galica (Northwest of Spain) the Roman fixed axle cart pulled by cows still was widely in use in the 1960s and 1970s, and they "sung" and the Folk song says: "Because nobody sings anymore, my cart sings".

[joehodgson]

You can still see working men with hand-carts like this in certain parts of India. You'll see them sleeping in them at an angle on the streets at night. Different continent, of course, but presumably the ways people live day-to-day with such a simple form of trade/tool are fairly universal.

[johnevans]

I know that you must have heard this thousands of times, but you are one of the few who truly keep medieval LIFE alive. So many people forget that history is more than some paragraphs in books, but it was the world and its people, Thank you for helping to bring that world to life in your own special way.

[NikozBG]

"The song of the wheels" is the name of a Bulgarian 20th sentury short story about a master wagon maker. And the song in this story is the specific creaking sound of the wooden wheels and the way you can tell who the master is by the "song" of the wagon. So yeah I think Kingsley is 100% correct in his assessment of the phrase.

[Kishandreth]

Hand carts are completely under appreciated. They allow a person to basically carry another person (or two) for a marginal reduction of speed and a little bit of effort. Compared to having someone being carried on your back it is a godsend.

I would have added a wall on the handle portion of the cart to prevent the load from tipping out. Not as simple of a solution as yours and you lose the ability to access the cart easily from the handle side but well within the realm of possible solutions. As a bonus, if you were tipping the cart to sleep under it, your load wouldn't fall out.

Lubrication: Try wax or lard or any product that was known. If it is easier to push with a simple lubrication it would have been done (humans are willing to use their brains to be lazy in the long run).

Harness: How about a simple rope or twine. You'd be surprised how effective a strong bit of string will be as a harness.

I wouldn't be surprised if the axle was included at the wheelwright if you were buying 2 wheels entirely. The construction looks segmented, which would allow for quick and easy repairs/replacements.

[marcogenovesi]

The smile at the "this is my authentic medieval handcart" is so lovely. You can feel the passion behind it

[BeingJapan]

These sorts of videos are really important to historians. Taking recorded designs (even from a simple manuscript) and recreating them brings history to life and demonstrates what life was like. Thanks so much for this video!

[Blondie]

As a woodworker myself, I think your cart is quite lovely.
And I also enjoy the sound it makes as it moves. 👍

[htothebeee]

"Since they were exactly the same as us, they'd have come up with that solution as well." I love this guy. Along with the plain facts of historical technology, he teaches us to understand that the people of this history were people like us.

[RonRay]

There is no data on this (as I know of), but I can imagine that the medieval people might use a mixture of lanolin (from the rendering of wool), and beeswax, smeared into the grain of the wood. To my imagination, this would waterproof it and lubricate it as well. I'm sure they had their (today's), little known tricks to preserve and waterproof their wood, but those two substances would have been readily available.
I have enjoyed your brilliant wooden "time machine" cart.

[Leto]

How interesting! I can imagine different people who visit the same 'wheel-shop' having the same wheels, obviously, but the other parts of the car being all personal. I can picture people back then stopping on the road admiring each other's carts, sharing ideas and compliments.
And yours looks amazing - a great mixture between authentic and practical still.

[Nuts-Bolts]

Whilst the wheels may not wonder much now, in time as the wooden bearing wears, they may start to wobble as seen on Asian ox carts. Counter intuitively, this make going over rough uneven ground easier, as it allows the wheels to follow the path of least resistance. Look at videos of ox carts in motion and you’ll see what I mean.

[BeedleTheBardcore]

I love the sound of that handcart! Great video as always