The Tudor Day at the Museum of Farnham

Teachers’ Resource Pack

Produced by the Education Team The Museum of Farnham

Willmer House, 38 West Street, Farnham, Surrey, GU9 7DX

01252 715094

museum@farnhammaltings.com

wwwfarnhammaltings.com/museum

© Museum of Farnham, 2012

Contents

1. Farnham in Tudor Times: which buildings already existed

and how were they built?

2. A map of Tudor Farnham

3. An Elizabethan lady’s wardrobe

4. Tudor Medicine

Farnham in Tudor Times

Farnham was already well established in Tudor times, but it was growing rapidly

during this time. In 1566 there was a new Farnham charter in which people were given

responsibility for their own trade and behaviour. The Bishop also appointed two

bailiffs at this time: John Clark, a builder, and Robert Quynby. Along with the twelve

burgesses of the town, they held court every three weeks in the market house. Here

they dealt with crimes of assault and debt, as well as fines for people who failed to

do things such as clean their gutters.

Farnham was an important place. It was well known because of the Castle and the

Bishops of Winchester. Henry VIII visited the castle and hunted deer in the park,

and Elizabeth I is known to have visited at least six visits. Farnham’s position

between the coast and London meant it was on a main trade route. Wheat for London

from Hampshire and Sussex was sent via Farnham. It was a good halfway point to

stop off at, and so prosperity must have increased during this time.

Looking closely, it is possibly to see some of the remnants of Tudor Farnham. Many

buildings with Georgian fronts actually mask a much older one behind. Sometimes if

you look to the side you can often see the original Tudor frame.

However, other buildings in Farnham are not as old as they look. The Lion and Lamb

courtyard and the front of Clinton Cards are 1920s copies of Tudor style. The

chimneys on the Bailiff’s House look Tudor but are Victorian copies.

In typical Tudor houses the second storey often projected out over the ground floor.

The lower storey would be brick and stone and the top storey and roof would be

timber. The inside would be open to the roof except for the first floor sleeping area

at one end reached by a ladder. The white bits between the timber frames were

made from a mixture of wattle and dab. Wattle was made from thin hazel stems

woven in and out like a basket. Daub was a mixture of earth, lime, cow dung, chopped

straw mixed with water. The use of brick in-fill and terracotta tiles between the

timber frames increased as bricks became cheaper and less scarce.

The Bailiff’s

House, The

Borough

This building (which is now Café Rouge) is the

architect Harold Falkner’s 1930s interpretation of

Stuart and later styles. The chimneys are Victorian

mock Tudor. The original building was probably built

1657. What remains of the early building is rugged-

textured brickwork which looks towards C18th

styles. It had fallen into a bad state by 1830.

Lion and

Lamb Yard

The yard is mock Tudor, although a reconstruction of

a building that existed before. The curved timber

used here is a sign of good quality. There is a brick

plaque with date 1537, but most of the building a

reconstruction by John Kingham in 1921. The yard

must have been a busy thoroughfare from the C16th

to the C18th with horses and carriages going in and

out and people stopping for food and drink.

The William

Cobbett Inn,

Bridge Square

This pub was originally called ‘The Jolly Farmer’, and

was the birthplace of William Cobbett. The three

windows at the bottom replace an earlier shop front.

There are five bays on two floors. It is constructed

mainly of brick and tile.

Windsor

Almshouses,

Castle Street

These were built by Andrew Windsor in 1619 to house

‘poor, honest and old people’. There are eight houses

on two floors, built from brick, timber and tile. There

is a continuous roof ridge that runs parallel with the

street. Five gables project west. Four houses have

carved barge boards and finials. The windows are

made of eight wooden casements (frames) headed

with hood moulds (drip stones) The doors are barge

boarded with a finialled hood. The white circles on

the central gable are the iron tie-ins that hold the

structure of the building together.

Tanyard,

Bridge Square

Tanyard is one of the oldest buildings in Farnham,

dating from before 1500. A Tanyard was where animal

hides were turned into leather by treating them with

a tanning agent. It would have been built by an

important and wealthy citizen.

This building has two main floors, an asymmetrical

façade, and a timber frame infilled largely with brick.

Parts of south and east fronts are plastered. The

windows are placed irregularly with leaded casements.

The street front of the house was restored in the

early C20th, but designed to retain the original

character. The upper windows relate to those

originally there and much of the original structure is

clearly exposed inside. By 1827 the house was sub-

divided into four smaller buildings. You can still see

the herringbone brickwork pattern between the

timber frames and the irregular windows. The second

floor would have projected out over the ground floor.

The solar wing and service rooms still remain.

Note from the map (see further on) where the

Tanyard is located. One can imagine it was placed out

of the centre of town because of the bad smells that

it would have produced!

31 Lower

Church Lane

This is probably as old as Tanyard. There is evidence

of an even older building beneath it and it still has its

original Tudor fronting. The wall to the right of the

timber frame is a later addition. This was once a shop.

The façade is with recessed three-pane-wide sash

windows. The chimney piece is dated 1623. This house

is connected with the Vernon family who lived at

Vernon House (now the Library)

108-110

West Street

This was originally all one building. In 1604 it was run

as the Swan Inn. By the 1680s it had been divided

into three dwellings.

80-81 West

Street

There is a mural upstairs in this house. It is

constructed as an asymmetrical attached pair of

brick and timber built cottages under a continuous

tile roof. Each house has two bays on two floors. The

ground floor is also in bays and has three wooded

framed casements. The first floor is similar but 2/3

of the height.

32 West

Street

There is a timber framed building hidden behind the

current one. It is made up of three brick shops on two

floors. The roof is slated on the north and west and

tiled to the south. There are timber-framed and

brick-filled wings at the back. The west and back are

hung with slate. The windows are in four-pane wide

sashes in bays on first floor. To the west side in the

yard are the remains of the Marquis of Lothian’s

stables, once fronted with series of brick arches.

28 West

Street

(Vernon

House)

Originally known as Culver Hall, this house is mainly

brick, with two main floors, on a U-plan. The

parapeted, symmetrical street front is rendered in

cement. The east wing pre-Renaissance character.

38 West

Street

(Willmer

House)

The current building which now houses the Museum of

Farnham was built in 1718, but it has a Tudor Cellar,

the remnant of an earlier house.

The Market

House, Castle

Street

The Market House was built in 1568. Town business

was carried out here until it was knocked down in

1863. (This photograph was taken in 1850) It was a

timber-framed building supported by oak posts which

gave lots of space underneath for market stalls and

town business. It was built by John Clarke, the senior

bailiff when the town was governed by a corporation

of two bailiffs and twelve burgesses. It measured

about 56ft by 20ft.

You can just see the ladder in the middle of the

structure which led to a trapdoor. This is where

citizens would have been held prisoner for crimes

such as debts or robbery.

St. Andrew’s

Parish Church

The church looked different in Tudor times. This

picture shows the earlier, smaller tower which was

demolished in 1758. Henry VII donated money for a

window in the church to thank the people of Farnham

for nursing his son, Arthur, back to health.

The Bush

Hotel,

The Borough

The hotel might have been built in the C14th, but is

more likely to date from the C17th. It is built from

yellow brick with seven bays over three floors. An

archway from the Borough leads through to a

courtyard. Lots of changes were made to it in the

1930s, lots of the east section was reconstructed.

Farnham

Castle

The Castle was built by Henry de Blois in 1138, so it

had already been standing a good few years by the

Tudor period. All the Tudor monarchs (except Edward

VI) spent time at the Castle, they would have stayed

with the Bishops of Winchester who resided there.

Mary Tudor stayed at Farnham Castle on a progress

to Winchester. Elizabeth I stayed in 1583. The

Catholic Bishops in Tudor and Elizabethan times were:

Thomas Wolsey (1529-1531), Stephen Gardiner (1531-

1551), John Ponet (1551-1553), Stephen Gardiner

(1553-1556), and John White (1556-1560). Protestant

Bishops were Robert Horne (1560-1580), John

Watson (1580-1584), Thomas Cooper (1584-1594),

William Wickham (1594-1595), William Day (1595-

1597), and Thomas Bilson (1597-1616).

A Map of Tudor Farnham

An Early Crondall Will:

An Elizabethan Lady’s Wardrobe

These details are taken from the will of Elizabeth Taverner who died in 1580. It is an

unusual one for the period. The inventory consists almost only of her clothes and

jewellery. She would have had quite a different life from most of the farmers in the

local area at the time. She was linked to the Earl of Southampton, but little else is

known about her. She may have been a gentlewoman, but not very rich as ‘old’ and

‘broken’ occur quite a few times in the will. Her wardrobe was not the height of

fashion but the fabrics were expensive and would have lasted a long time. It was

usual practice to bequeath items to others.

The Inventorye of all the goodes movable, monnye and jewels of Mistris

Elizabeth Taverner who departed the 8 daye of June 1580.

Imprimis in money £29 3s 4d

one jewell of goulde £6

4 gould ringes and 2 other small hookes of goulde £3

1 tablett of sylver, 2 hookes of sylver and 2 corrall

braslettes and 1 small payor of hookes and 1 broken ringe

6s 8d

2 bugles for to weare about her neck and 1 small broche 2s 6d

6 vellett hoodes, 8 cripins, 5 upper billiments, 4 fored

clothes, 1 muffler of vellet, 2 bongracis of taffeta

30s

7 ribond girdles, 7 purses, 2 pinpilles and 2 girdles of

bugle

12s 8d

6 seede perles, 3 stonns and 1 claspe of golde 5s

6 onces of broken sylver 21s 8d

Certen lace of golde and sylver, olde and newe, with one

olde crippin and 1 older bande of sylver and gylt and

certen bon lace

11s 8d

2 quarten of whit thread 16d

3 buttons for a scarf, 2 payer of knyves, 1 payer of shers,

3 small bookes, 4 payer of gloves and 1 fether

5s

1 partlet and ruffe, 1 call of red sylke and sylver and 2

shades

20s

2 gownes of taffitta and 1 gowne of black saten being

verie old and ryppt

£6

2 gownes of vilit clothe and 1 olde gowne of wosted £4 10s

3 kyrtles of taffitta, 1 of satin and 1 kyrtle of damask,

one kyrtle of sylk grogran and 1 half kyrtle of red satin

£4 10s

1 riding savegard and a cloke 5s

1 moccado petticott and 1 peticott of flannell 40s

Certain sewing sylke with olde laces and olde peces of

velvet and sylkes with samplers, with a glas, 1 comb and 2

brusshes

6s

1 trunck and 1 chest and certen boxes 13s 4d

7 olde bandes and ruffes 6s 8d

17 payer of hand ruffes 13s 4d

18 bandes 36s

5 olde calls 2s

1 coussin 5s

6 payer of sheetes £4

1 dioper damask table clothe

1 dossen of dioper napkins

Smokes and other lynyn 40s

Serten sleves of sylk and other implements of sylk £6 6s 8d

Certen pewter cupps and glasses and potes and trenchers 6s

1 lytell fosser of small linin 20s

Total= £78 19s 10d (about £12,000 in today’s money)

Glossary

Bande: probably neckbands

Biliment: the decorative front of the French hood. The upper biliment adorned the

raised curve at the back of the crown.

Bon lace: ‘bone lace’, made with bobbins

Bongracis: a sunshade worn at the front of a bonnet.

Bugles- very large cylindrical hollow beads about 1-2 inches in length, often gold or

silver and studded with jewels. Worn around the neck with smaller beads in between.

Calls/Caul: a close-fitting cap, possibly of net

Cripins/Crepins/Crepine/Crespine: a net, often of gold or silver thread for the hair.

Fored: forehead

Fosser: probably ‘forcer’, a chest, coffer or casket.

Grogran: a coarse fabric of silk, mohair and wool.

Kyrtle: at first was a bodice and skirt, joined by sewing or ‘points’ with laces. The

upper was called a ‘pair of bodies.’ (Bodice) Later this came to mean the stays or

corset. A half-kyrtle was the skirt only. After 1545 the bodice and skirt were

separate items and meant the lower part only. Hence the word ‘skirt.’

Moccado: a material introduced to England by Flemish immigrants. Probably made of

wool, usually considered inferior to silk and velvet.

Pinpilles: ‘pin-pillow’ or pin-cushion

Ruffes: this developed from the simple form of the 1550s-60s to a very large and

elaborate style in the 1580s. It was often supported by a wire framework called an

‘under-propper’ or ‘supportasse.’ Elizabeth’s was probably a small circular one.

Savegard: a riding safeguard, worn over the skirt for protection

Smokes: smocks

Tablett- a flat ornament worn about the person

How might Elizabeth Taverner have looked?

Tudor Medicine

In the 16th century many people died in epidemics of sweating sickness (possibly

influenza). Many others died of smallpox. (Queen Elizabeth I almost died of it.

However she was given the most advanced medical treatment for smallpox -she was

wrapped in red cloth.) Even if you survived smallpox it could leave you disfigured with

pox marks or blind. Syphilis was also rampant. Dysentery was also a killer and many

women died in childbirth (usually because of infection).

Doctors were very expensive and they could do little about illness partly because

they did not know what caused disease. They had little idea of how the human body

worked. Doctors thought the body was made up of four fluids or 'humours'. They

were blood, phlegm, choler or yellow bile and melancholy or black bile. In a healthy

person all four humours were balanced but if you had too much of one you fell ill.

If you had too much blood you would be bled either with leeches or by cutting a vein.

Too much of other humours would be treated either by eating the right diet or by

purging (taking medicines to cause vomiting or diarrhoea).

Doctors also thought infectious diseases, like plague, were caused by poisonous

'vapours', which drifted through the air and were absorbed through the skin.

One of the main ways of diagnosing sickness was uroscopy (examining urine) by its

appearance, its smell or even by its taste!

It is often said that Tudor surgeons did not use anaesthetics. That is not quite true.

They did have opium (from poppies) and hemlock. However both of them were very

dangerous. The wrong dose could kill and Tudor doctors had only a vague idea about

correct dosages. Many surgeons refused to use these substances because they were

too dangerous.

Astrology also played a part in Tudor medicine. Most doctors believed that different

zodiacal signs ruled different parts of the body.

Since doctors were so expensive many people went to see a wise woman if they were

ill. The wise women would have a great knowledge of different herbs and their

properties and might be able to help. Unfortunately many Tudor folk-cures were

absurd e.g. a cure for asthma was pigeon droppings boiled in milk!

Actual operations were performed by a barber-surgeon. He was the barber, the

surgeon and the dentist combined. Barber-surgeons had lower status than doctors.

Lower still were the apothecaries who made up medicines.

The average life span in the 16th century was shorter than today. Average life

expectancy at birth was only 35. That does not mean that people dropped dead when

they reached that age! Instead many of the people born died while they were still

children. Out of all people born between one third and one half died before the age

of about 16. However if you could survive to your mid-teens you would probably live to

your 50s or early 60s. Even in Tudor times some people did live to their 70s or 80s.

(Information taken from: http://www.localhistories.org/tudor.html )

Tudor Cures

Cure Ailment

Cut up a swede, cover in brown

sugar. Leave overnight and drink

the juice.

Croup and coughs

Hang a mouse around the neck Whooping Cough

Brains of hen rubbed onto affected

area

Toothache

Mouldy apples and mouldy cheese

applied to affected area.

Wounds, boils, septic throat

Infusion of Marigold flowers and

distilled water, applied to affected

area.

Headache

Two straws knotted together and

put in bag and leave at cross roads.

Whosoever

opens the bag will get the ailment.

Warts

Touch coin that has been touched

by reigning king or queen.

Scrofula (primary tuberculosis of

the lymphatic glands)

Rub honey or spider’s web onto

affected area

Wounds

Carry around nutmeg or potato on

your person.

Rheumatism