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At the top was the lord of the local manor. Below him were his officers, who were his steward, his reeve, and possibly such others as a hayward, whose job was to supervise enclosures, or a bailiff for the manorial court. Below these in rank were the serfs, though some of these might have been skilled and so more highly valued than others, including possibly a baker, a blacksmith, or a miller. Apart from most of this was the priest of the local church, who was in a different class structure from everyone else. During the Middle Ages, a village was distinguished from a hamlet by the fact that the village had a church, and from a town by the fact that the town had a permanent marketplace. The implication of this is that the village was rather rural in nature. Unlike towns, most villages were actually on manorial estates, and the lord of the manor owned the village.

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14y ago

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