This is interesting.
One thing that makes these modern neighborhoods/villages different from their ancestral counterparts, is that back then, almost all people knew certain things.
(Tangent: I am using the word "ancestral" rather than "medieval" simply because "medieval" has such a strongly European connotation. Even though there was a medieval India, medieval Africa, medieval North America, East Asia and so on, I hope to broaden our understanding by switching the language a little bit--lots of cultures besides Western European had/have wonderful ways to look back on and remember!)
The tangent aside, in Europe, there would have been spinning of yarn in every house; likewise each would have vegetable gardens, and everyone would understand how to forage safely for wild vegetables, fruit, roots, seeds, etc. They would have understood how to make fire, too. Most people would have known some degree of woodworking, simple blacksmithing would have been common knowledge (I think?) etc. People would know how to ride horses, care for animals, grow, ferment vegetables, prune and graft trees, etc. This is because these skills were indispensable in that cultural and economic context.
Conversely, in modern times almost everyone knows how to make coffee, use a credit card, drive a car, use a smartphone, and so on, these skills replacing the older ones due to the changed cultural and economic context. I would love it if the former skills were more important to people than the latter, which would be more or less useless if not for the crazy context we find ourselves in.
