Milborne
Milborne is a small hamlet on the Churnett river. It is a major loading and unloading port for barges heading up and down the river. The population is highly fluid, with an influx of merchants and boatmen around harvesttime to take ore and goods downriver. During this time, the town's population can almost double, and both inns as well as the Exchange fill to capacity, with a number of visitors sleeping on the barges or in tents on the outskirts of town. During the winter months, when the mines shut down, the population dwindles to a few hundred.
The larger portion of the population is made up of farmers who live on the outskirts of the village, shepherds that range further afield, and itenerant miners working in the Carmen mines to the north.
Buildings are almost all of wood; only the Old Granary, the Mill House, and the Mansion House are of limestone (from the Blanryde Hills). Virtually everyone here earns a living either from farming or from mining in the southern Blanrydes for lead and copper. Near the town itself, most work is agrarian; the miners live in work camps just outside the mines, though they bring their ores into town to sell at the Exchange. Trade is fairly circumscribed. A handful of outside merchants visit periodically to negotiate prices for the ores, but the Carman family handles almost all ore sales, and newcomers to the trading business are given short shrift. Trading has been conducted between the same leading families for generations, and old habits die hard. Wood from the area's woodlands is good enough for local use but not worth the expense of conveying any distance to sell. There is some seasonal trade in fruit, especially from the Redwood, and in good years a little surplus produce or wool from local farming and herding.
Milborne is unlikely to grow any larger, simply because there is not much in the way of decent farmland which isn't already being used (the moorlands have poor soil, suitable only for grazing). Prices for goods are normal. Uncommon or rare goods won't be found here, unless encountered at Rastifer's shop.
The people of Milborne are fairly friendly but insular, quite happy that their town is a backwater. They hear tales of monsters and adventures and heroics from travelers now and again, and they think that kind of thing is all very well for people with more enthusiasm than sense. They are mostly decent, honest people, getting by day to day without much in the way of undue disturbance.
Maps
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Milborne
Founding Date
1448
Type
Village
Population
600
Inhabitant Demonym
Milbers
Location under
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Additional Rulers/Owners
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