Causes of mediaeval death

[Jim Webster]

I live in a farming community and they're all old especially sheep and dairy farmers. The only young ones are the ones doing speciality stuff

It does vary regionally, but the speciality stuff is often easier and cheaper for a young person to get into

[Nick Harbud]

Perhaps I should comment that a third of farm worker casualties last year were in men over seventy

Clearly this age group needs its own risk assessment if they wish to continue employment in agriculture.  I mean, one can hold a driving license indefinitely, but, after 70, the DVLA requires progressively more frequent check ups of sight and other faculties to ensure one is still competent to manage a vehicle.

Are all these fatalities related to the work being performed rather than, say, a sudden heart attack whilst taking a tea break?

four were crushed by machinery they were working with, two were drivers (who were just found dead under the machine, so nobody knows exactly what happened), two working with a younger person on the machinery. One died of head injuries having been knocked down by a cow whose calf he was treating

No country for old men 

It reinforces my point.  Clearly any employer of septuagenarians has a duty of care to assess their fitness to operate machinery, work with certain animals, etc.  Any individual whose risk of injury or death is too high must be removed from that particular task.  No arguments.

[Imperial Dave]

I live in a farming community and they're all old especially sheep and dairy farmers. The only young ones are the ones doing speciality stuff

It does vary regionally, but the speciality stuff is often easier and cheaper for a young person to get into

and more lucrative!

[Erpingham]

Perhaps I should comment that a third of farm worker casualties last year were in men over seventy

Clearly this age group needs its own risk assessment if they wish to continue employment in agriculture.  I mean, one can hold a driving license indefinitely, but, after 70, the DVLA requires progressively more frequent check ups of sight and other faculties to ensure one is still competent to manage a vehicle.

Are all these fatalities related to the work being performed rather than, say, a sudden heart attack whilst taking a tea break?

four were crushed by machinery they were working with, two were drivers (who were just found dead under the machine, so nobody knows exactly what happened), two working with a younger person on the machinery. One died of head injuries having been knocked down by a cow whose calf he was treating

No country for old men 

It reinforces my point.  Clearly any employer of septuagenarians has a duty of care to assess their fitness to operate machinery, work with certain animals, etc.  Any individual whose risk of injury or death is too high must be removed from that particular task.  No arguments.

Its getting wildly off topic but I think you may be missing the fact that many of these people are likely to be self-employed, working on their own farms.  This doesn't obviate the need for risk assessment but it does bring in a whole load of complications.

Similar complications probably occured in medieval farms, though with a much higher rate of casualties at younger ages, simply because the number of people over 70 was much smaller (maybe 2-3% ?)

[Imperial Dave]

maybe slightly off topic but very interesting nonetheless and there are always comparisons to be made

[Jim Webster]

Perhaps I should comment that a third of farm worker casualties last year were in men over seventy

Clearly this age group needs its own risk assessment if they wish to continue employment in agriculture.  I mean, one can hold a driving license indefinitely, but, after 70, the DVLA requires progressively more frequent check ups of sight and other faculties to ensure one is still competent to manage a vehicle.

Are all these fatalities related to the work being performed rather than, say, a sudden heart attack whilst taking a tea break?

four were crushed by machinery they were working with, two were drivers (who were just found dead under the machine, so nobody knows exactly what happened), two working with a younger person on the machinery. One died of head injuries having been knocked down by a cow whose calf he was treating

No country for old men 

It reinforces my point.  Clearly any employer of septuagenarians has a duty of care to assess their fitness to operate machinery, work with certain animals, etc.  Any individual whose risk of injury or death is too high must be removed from that particular task.  No arguments.

They're self employed. No employer, and not a lot of pension

[Jim Webster]

maybe slightly off topic but very interesting nonetheless and there are always comparisons to be made

Certainly it struck me as interesting to step sideways out of our usual way of looking at things. A lot of our medieval ancestors would just have worked until they couldn't at which point they're probably not long for the world

[Imperial Dave]

absolutely Jim. Another possible comparison I thought about with regards to this is the post Roman period in Britain where it is proposed that the population declined along with intensive farming practises. What we are not sure is which came first but at a guess the reduction in the market place caused by the downfall of central authority in Britain and Rome led to a reduction in the requirement for farming and essentially no one to buy produce. Subsistence farming creeps in, large farms are allowed to break up and farming/population reduces. In modern times we are seeing a reduction in market call for British farmed produce along with a reluctance for farmers sons and daughters to carry on and so we are left with aging farmers who when they are gone the land goes to a different use

[RichT]

Hmm is that true though? The internet informs me that "In the UK, the average age of a farmer is 59. In Kenya, it is 60. And in Japan, with the highest average age for a farmer, it is 67." But it also points out that in many cases there is a planned line of succession so the current elderly farmer fully intends to hand over to his son/daughter in due course, which skews the statistics. Also land doesn't often change use (thanks to planning regulations etc), but it is more likely to get concentrated into fewer hands - so fewer, larger, more mechanised farms - whether that's a good, bad or neutral thing I couldn't say. Which is more common in antiquity - the breaking up of land into smaller packets (to provide for multiple inheritance) or the concentration into fewer? I have no idea.

[Mick Hession]

Which is more common in antiquity - the breaking up of land into smaller packets (to provide for multiple inheritance) or the concentration into fewer? I have no idea.

I suspect that is an unanswerable question as within our time period we are dealing with multiple cultures, only some of them documented, where practices vary from culture to culture and even within the same culture over time

cheers
Mick

[Imperial Dave]

Also land doesn't often change use (thanks to planning regulations etc),

it does when the local authority which owns it sells it off to housing developers which is whats happened alot in my county recently. Believe it or not there are a few tenanted farmers around who rent the land off local councils and the like and then lose the land when they retire and/or die. Also we've had quite a number of privately held land sold off for developers in my county as well.....all bets are off when there's money to be had

[Erpingham]

Modern planning law is doubtless interesting but not particularly related to medieval farming practice.  The loss of agricultural land to urban development was probably not great in the Middle Ages, especially following the population fall from mid 14th century.  Some urban areas reverted in part to agricultural land for various reasons (French raids with silting of harbours shrank several towns - if you are ever on the Isle of Wight, I recommend a trip to Newtown).

Medieval agricultural conditions were probably a bit different to today too.  A much higher proportion of the population made their living on the land, a lot were tenants, some had small holdings and also laboured for others and quite a few were landless labourers.  lacking much in the way of social welfare safety nets (the elderly and infirm maybe got some support from the monastries, and family were expected to support their older members), quite a few probably worked till they dropped but fewer of them got much beyond sixty.

[Jim Webster]

Hmm is that true though? The internet informs me that "In the UK, the average age of a farmer is 59. In Kenya, it is 60. And in Japan, with the highest average age for a farmer, it is 67." But it also points out that in many cases there is a planned line of succession so the current elderly farmer fully intends to hand over to his son/daughter in due course, which skews the statistics. Also land doesn't often change use (thanks to planning regulations etc), but it is more likely to get concentrated into fewer hands - so fewer, larger, more mechanised farms - whether that's a good, bad or neutral thing I couldn't say. Which is more common in antiquity - the breaking up of land into smaller packets (to provide for multiple inheritance) or the concentration into fewer? I have no idea.

Part of the reason for older ages for farmers is 'Grandfather rights' and bureaucracy
Grandfather rights are where they bring new regulations in (for example having to do a test to buy sheep dip) but allow those who've been doing it for years to keep doing it because they know what they're doing because they've not been arrested yet 
Bureaucracy means that it's often easier to keep the old man's name on the paperwork because if you change names you end up with hassle and stuff getting lost. In an earlier period it might remind the authorities that you were there and young enough to conscript. I can see this reason having universal application