Shambles

The tour guide asked, "Do you know why they call this the shambles?" I mumbled too loud, “Because they are a mess?” “Not exactly, but I will share with you shortly,” said the tour guide, throwing mystery words and rolling his eyes back in my direction.

The street is called the "The Shambles" because the road is full of shambles. I was like in my head, “Duh,” I am still not there. What the heck is a shamble? The suspense was stringing me along. Finally, we arrived at "The Shambles." Filled with anticipation, I was ready to see my first shamble. Was it metal, wood, or a combination of both? Turning the corner onto The Shambles, my eyes scanned high and low, looking for anything I had no term. The medieval scene drove us tourist imaginations into a curiosity of the life in those years long gone. The human’s ability to manage and interrupt the world in the 12 and 13th centuries was very different from the 21st century. Reading medieval history often feels cruel and unusual. So, what could a shamble be in the context of my literature readings about the early centuries when people believed in ghosts, evil spirits, and demons as real entities?

The guide stood before a shop window, leaning slightly on a large window ledge. Or at least what I thought was a simple large window sill. Then he explained using a visual illustration that the window ledge is the shamble. I spoke up; that shelf is a shamble? Yes, this is a shamble. The merchants hung their meats over the storefront window shelf. Above the shamble was an old rod with original metal hooks. The meat hung from the hooks, and some smaller pieces for sale were sorted on the shamble. The tour guide added that these hooks were originals and, in medieval days, hung meat for sale and that the large shelf below was also original and held other meat items for sale. The street became known as the Shambles, named after the storefront window ledge.

So, the word shambles entered my vocabulary with meaning and a visual. I had wrongly assumed that Shambles met something, being a hot mess. That was yesterday. Today, the word has meaning. :)