This text outlines developments in the archaeological study of standing building, showing how they have contributed to our understanding of medieval domestic dwellings. Evidence from the buildings themselves, from excavation and from documentary sources is combined to provide an outline of the development of building techniques in the Middle Ages, and knowledge of the housing of the rich, the middling sort and the poor is reviewed. The specific adaptations demanded of domestic dwellings in the growing context of towns are also discussed. The volume is about ways of life and standards of living in the Middle Ages. It seeks to explain how we may obtain a better comprehension of all levels of society by understanding the houses in which medieval people lived.