Harvington Hall Key stage 2 Resource Pack
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Harvington Hall
Key stage 2 Resource Pack
Contents
Timeline
A Working House
Life on the Harvington Estate
Tudor Food and Drink
Tudor Furniture
Tudor Social Hierarchy
Tudor Clothing
Tudor Pastimes
Tudor sayings you might know
Gardens at Harvington
The Hall past and present
The secrets of Harvington
Information about people connected to the Hall can be found in a
separate document.
Timeline
British History Harvington Hall Nicholas Owen
and John Wall
1500
HENRY VIII 1509-47
1529 Manor of Chaddesley sold to JOHN
EDWARD VI 1547-53 PAKINGTON
1551 Manor inherited by his nephew JOHN
PAKINGTON
MARY I 1553-58
1555 His son, HUMPHREY PAKINGTON
born 1578 Manor inherited by HUMPHREY
ELIZABETH I 1558-1603
1582/3 New Hall at Harvington built for 1588 NICHOLAS
HUMPHREY PAKINGTON OWEN begins to build
1600 1600 New staircase built at Hall hides
1601 HUMPHREY marries BRIDGET
JAMES I 1603-25 KINGSMILL 1606 NICHOLAS
1606 BRIDGET dies OWEN captured at
1607 HUMPHREY PAKINGTON marries Hindlip Hall and died
ABIGAIL SACHEVERELL under torture at the
1610 Daughter MARY born Tower of London
1613 Daughter ANNE born
CHARLES I 1625-49 1620 JOHN WALL
1631 HUMPHREY PAKINGTON dies born
1642 ANNE AUDLEY (HUMPHREY'S
daughter) dies
COMMONWEALTH 1649-60
1657 ABIGAIL (his wife) dies, MARY YATE
(their daughter) inherits Harvington 1656 JOHN WALL
1659 MARY's husband, SIR JOHN YATE returns to work in
dies, MARY returns to live at Harvington England
CHARLES 11 1660-85
1661 MARY YATE's granddaughter MARY
born
1666 Hall assessed for tax at 25 hearths
1679 JOHN WALL
1680 CHARLES YATE (MARY YATE's son)
executed
dies
JAMES 11 1685-88
1690 Her grandson SIR JOHN YATE dies,
WILLIAM & MARY 1688-1702
unmarried
1696 MARY YATE dies, aged 85.
Granddaughter MARY (who had married
ROBERT THROCKMORTON), inherits
1701 Part of Hall demolished, down to 14
hearths
1700
ANNE 1702-14
A Working House Many Tudor houses like Harvington Hall were more like ‘villages’ than houses. People not only lived in them but, often, worked in them as well. Harvington Hall had its own kitchen with roasting and boiling fireplaces, bakery, dairy, brew house, and other domestic offices. It also had its own stables, blacksmith’s forge, coopers (barrel makers), workshop and carpenters yard. Many of these buildings were across the moat from the Hall. The Hall had its own gardens, vegetable plots, piggeries and herb gardens. In the surrounding fields there were crops, orchards, and pasture for cows, sheep, pigs and poultry. The people who worked in and around the Hall lived either in the Hall itself or in the many cottages that surrounded it. Harvington was the focus for their lives; they depended on it. The Tudor family often included aunts, uncles, cousins, in fact anyone related to the owner and they could all expect to be welcomed at the Hall. Tudors were also hospitable to visitors. Guests would be offered food and somewhere to sleep by their host. The Hall needed many servants, servants who worked in the kitchen and others who attended to the cleaning, lighting of fires, fetching and carrying of water and wood, and all the other domestic chores of the house. On a large estate like Harvington, many skills were needed. A letter about repairs to the Hall mentions masons, coopers, carpenters, a joiner, a plumber, a glazier and a painter. There were also butchers, a locksmith, wheelwrights, innkeepers, a doctor and a lawyer
Life on the Harvington Estate As well as owning land at Harvington in Worcestershire, Humphrey Pakington also owned land in Shropshire and London. In order to keep his estate at Harvington working he needed a large workforce as well as the craftsmen, such as carpenters, blacksmiths and masons that he employed. Sheep seem to have been the main livestock and provided the main income from the sale of their wool and meat. The inventory taken after his father’s death also lists cattle, pigs and chickens. Estate map 1745- 6 The map of the estate shows that there were farm buildings where the present day farm is. Pigs were grazed on the area where the front lawns and car park are today. The main crops were wheat and barley, with some rye and oats. Additional income came from letting land, buildings and houses to tenants. Life on the estate followed the pattern of the seasons. Sowing and planting in the spring, harvesting in the late summer and late planting for winter crops in the autumn. Lambing added to the workload in spring. In the winter walls and hedges etc. were maintained, trees were cut for fuel, and undergrowth cleared to provide more open land for grazing the following year. Many of the ‘estate workers’ would only be employed during the busiest seasons (spring, summer and early autumn). Tenants were allowed their own plot of land on which to plant a few crops and raise chickens and pigs to feed themselves. When they were in the fields, the workers took their midday meal with them. This was often bread, cheese and a costrel (a small barrel) of ale.
Tudor Food and Drink With so many people living and working at Harvington, the Hall needed a large kitchen and many people to work in it. The whole of the ground floor was where the servants worked. The kitchen duties began very early in the morning, no later than six o’clock in summer or seven o’clock in winter. If breakfast was to be served, (often the Tudors didn’t eat breakfast) it was a light meal, perhaps some oatmeal, brawn (boiled pigs head and ox feet) and mustard, or eggs and butter, washed down with ale. The midday meal was served at about eleven o’clock and the evening meal at about four o’clock. On Wednesday and Friday meat was usually replaced by fish or eggs. Various pies and pastries were popular with the Tudors. Wheaten bread was an important part of the Tudor diet, and helped to keep everyone healthy. Queen Elizabeth only ate the new form of ‘white’ bread. She had a passion for sweetmeats and suffered from regular toothache, and almost everyone who met her commented on her ‘blackened teeth’, (though, presumably, not in her hearing!). The Tudors ate many different meats and the cook had to know how to prepare and cook them all. Beef was usually boiled, while mutton and lamb were roasted, pigeons, doves and rabbits would be baked, or used as pie filling. On special occasions, veal, chicken and baked venison pie would be prepared, and occasionally turkey, swan, and ducks such as teal and mallard would be added. Fish dishes included salmon, turbot, herring, cod, eel, tench and carp, which were bred in the surrounding ponds for the table. Sweet dishes took the form of Florentines (a sweet custard pie), jellies, tarts, jam and marmalade, gingerbread and marzipan. There were cheeses from the dairy, milk dishes, eggs (both chicken and wildfowl) and butter. These were sometimes called ‘white meats’.
Beer and ale were made in Malt House and Brew House. In Tudor times adults and children drank ‘small’ (very weak) beer; this was usually brewed in March each year. Wine, sherry or port would only have been drunk on special occasions. All these drinks would have been stored in wooden barrels or ‘butts’ in the Buttery. Many of the fruit and vegetables which we know today were available in Tudor times. However potatoes and tomatoes only arrived in the country toward the end of Elizabeth I ‘s reign. With the enormous range and quantity of food to be prepared and cooked, work in the kitchen was often hard. However, Sunday was a day of rest. There were also various ‘Holy days’ and public holidays. During Humphrey Pakington’s and Lady Mary Yate’s time, two rooms were used for eating and drinking. The Great Hall (now demolished) was the general eating area, where servants and other workers were fed and entertained. The Great Chamber was used for the family and their friends. Servants carried the food in enormous serving dishes from the kitchen to the tables in the Great Chamber and the Great Hall. Almost certainly the newel staircase would have been used for this purpose and, unlike many other houses, the distance it was carried was relatively short. At least at Harvington the food arrived on the table still reasonably warm! The food was served in the strict order of merit. The family at the high table always had the first choice, unless they were entertaining someone who was their social superior, e.g. a peer of the realm. The dishes were then passed to the tables at which their guests and visitors sat, and finally the servants and other workers would help themselves to what was left. People generally ate with their fingers, washing them between courses in finger bowls at the table. Knives were only used for cutting and ‘spearing’ food into the mouth. (Forks were still unusual). Guests were entertained by musicians or singers while they ate. These entertainers were fed after they had performed. Children who lived in the house did not usually eat with the adults, but ate their meals upstairs in the nursery. As a special treat the eldest child might be invited to stand at the table and read from the Bible for the adults, but it was an important day in the life of a child when he or she was invited to sit at the table because that was a sign they were accepted as a grown-up.
MENU
First course
Boiled Chicken, Eggs in broth, Turbot broth
White Herring, Turbot Pie
Fresh Salmon
Baked Venison
Second course
Salmon,
Roast Rabbit
Roast Chicken
Trout
Roast Kid (young goat)
Boiled Side of Beef
Roast Moorfowl
Roast Tench
Roast Lamb or Boiled Mutton
To follow
Florentines
Tench in Jelly
Tarts (Various)
Sweet Pies (Various)
This Tudor menu gives you an idea of the variety of food served. Nobody was expected to eat
everything, the variety of dishes made sure that everyone had something they enjoyed.
Tudor Furniture Furniture in the Tudor period was usually made from oak. Tables were often made from a board placed on two trestles, this meant they could be moved and stored easily. At the start of the Tudor period, tabletops were sometimes used for sleeping on instead of a bundle of straw. The board would be removed from their trestles and placed on the floor. Benches were made in a similar way. Buffet cupboards with air holes in the doors were a safe place to store food away from the mice and rats. A buffet cupboard was also used for displaying wealth. The number of shelves on the top indicated the wealth and importance of an individual. For example a King might have seven shelves with gold plates on each shelf; a Lord might have only five, and silver or pewter plates. Chests were used to store clothes and were sometimes elaborately carved. These chests were sometimes large and very heavy; some had an iron ring at each end so that an iron pole could be pushed through for servants to lift and move them more easily. Harvington Hall has many pieces of oak furniture as well as other furniture from later periods.
Tudor Social Hierarchy In 1577, a church minister called William Harrison wrote a book called ‘A Description of England’ in which he divided the population into four groups below the Queen. First, came the lords and noblemen (princes, dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts and barons) followed by the knights, esquires and those simply called gentlemen. Second, came the citizens and burgesses who lived in the cities and had important jobs in government, the law and specialist trades. Third, came the yeomen who owned a certain amount of land which was frequently farmed by tenant farmers. The yeomen were quite well off. Fourth, came the labourers and craftspeople. These were the farm workers, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, bricklayers etc. This was easily the largest group of people making up approximately 70% of the population. They had no say in anything and no power. They were the workforce. Below these, and clearly not worthy of a mention, came the beggars and vagabonds who owned nothing more than the clothes they stood up in, and who travelled from place to place looking for shelter and work. Tudor people were well aware of this hierarchy and the need to show respect for their ‘betters’. They were expected to know their place and dress accordingly.
Tudor Clothing
Did you know?
For many people in Tudor times the cost of a set of clothes was equal to a whole year’s salary.
In fact, the Earl of Leicester was said to have paid more for one item of clothing than William
Shakespeare paid for a house in Stratford-upon-Avon!
Nearly everyone began their life and ended it wrapped up in linen of some kind. Most people
would wear it every day as a shirt or smock next to their skin. It was easy to wash and
protected their clothes from their bodies (which could be smelly). It also protected their skin
from rough outer clothing. These garments could be plain or highly decorated, depending on
whether you were rich or poor.
Labourers and craftspeople
Their clothes had to be hard-wearing and needed to be made from fabrics which were easy to
find. Wool from sheep’s fleece and linen made from plants were used. At the beginning of the
Tudor period a man would wear woollen hose and a linen shirt. In later Tudor times he would
wear breeches with a woollen doublet or jerkin. Underneath his woollen flat hat he would wear
a linen coif.
Working women wore a linen smock and on top of this, a kirtle or petticoat (or possibly both).
On her head, she wore a white linen coif.
The yeomen and their wives
They wore similar clothes to the labourers and craftspeople but these were of better quality.
Citizens and Burgesses
They were able to afford more fashionable styles. Their clothes might be decorated with braid
of various types, and some kinds of braid showed the job that they did.
The lords, ladies and nobles
They made up the top 3% of the population; they were able to afford the very best fabrics and
styles and kept up with the latest fashions. Rich men wore linen shirts which were very highly
decorated, with venetians or trunk hose and a doublet which could be embroidered or covered
with jewels and pearls. Their flat caps were made of the same expensive material and would be
decorated with jewels, pearls and feathers. They often wore a cape and a gentleman was
allowed to wear a sword.Rich ladies wore the very best fabrics and the latest fashions. Over her decorated and embroidered shift a lady wore a Spanish farthingale. This was a series of hoops spreading from the skirt helping to emphasise the amount of fabric and therefore the wealth and power of the lady wearing it. It gave the cone shape to the skirts, and then around her waist she might to tie a bum roll which emphasised that part of her body and supported the weight of the skirts. A petticoat went over this, it was often red. Over this a decorated forepart was tied around the waist. On top of this went the gown which could be expensively decorated. Finally no outfit was complete without a string or two of pearls. Ladies and gentlemen both wore white starched linen ruffs; these started as a small frill round the neck and became bigger and bigger throughout the Tudor period. In the case of the full wheel ruff it completely separated the head from the body; the open fronted fan shaped ruff framed the face. At the beginning of Tudor times the gable hood, which you can see on portraits of Queen Katherine of Aragon was fashionable for women. Anne Boleyn introduced the French hood when she returned to the Court from France. As ruffs became larger, hoods were put aside in favour of hair decorations. Clothes showed where people fitted into society.
The Sumptuary laws
These were made to control the type of clothing that people from different classes were
allowed to wear. These laws existed since the 14th century but Henry VIII enforced them
much more strictly during his reign; breaking these laws could result in a fine.
• gold and purple could only be worn by royalty;
• sable could only be worn by an Earl or above;
• silver or satin, blue or crimson could only be worn by a baron or someone above that
rank;
• silk could only be worn by a knight or a lord’s son or someone whose land was worth
more than £20 per annum;
• scarlet and violet could only be worn by someone with an income of £5 per year or
more.
.
Humphrey and Abigail Pakington
On average, the 16th century was colder than today by 2 degrees Celsius and during many
winters the River Thames froze so deeply that people could walk across to the other side
quite easily. In these colder conditions, wearing several layers was essential to keep warm
whatever level of society you belonged toGardens at Harvington The gardens at Harvington played an important role in everyday life providing vegetables, fruit and herbs for the household. In Tudor times manor houses had gardens; formal, herbal or vegetable, and often orchards for growing fruit trees. The vegetable and herb garden would have been near the kitchen, and at Harvington the position of the present Herb Garden is almost certainly where it has been since Tudor times. Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, the vegetables that were grown included cabbages, cauliflowers, and broccoli. Herbs were important, for adding flavour to other dishes, as a dish in their own right, and for medicinal purposes. They were used to treat illness and other complaints either as a drink or as a poultice (a kind of ointment) applied like a bandage to broken skin and joints. The ‘formal’ garden with flower beds and grassy paths laid in a strict geometric pattern was at the north end of the island where the Hall stood. The Elizabethan Great Garden was a walled area where today the upper car park is found, and to the rear of St Mary’s Church, you can still see part of the Elizabethan wall. In one corner of the Great Garden was a dovecote. After 1593 when his movements were restricted by law, Humphrey Pakington devoted himself to these gardens. Gardening was one of his great passions in life. He was a friend of John Tradescant, the royal gardener to King Charles I, and introduced the Double Blush Anemone into England. At that time sailors brought back many new and exciting species of flowers and shrubs from their voyages, and the gardens at Harvington may have included many of these.
Tudor Pastimes In Tudor times people enjoyed a variety of pastimes. Masques (a play with singing and dancing where the characters wore masks) and Balls were a popular form of entertainment, and the Great Chamber would often have been used for these, with the whole house illuminated by candles and rush lights. Minstrels and travelling players would have been employed to entertain the guests during their meals, and afterwards while they warmed themselves before a roaring log fire. The ladies of the house would have been accomplished players of the harpsichord and other instruments. Elizabethans loved ‘tall stories’, and would have been thrilled and excited by travellers tales of the Great Armada destroyed at sea, of priests being hunted throughout the land and of a distant land called ‘America’. The game of ‘Bowls’, which Francis Drake is reputed to have been playing when the Armada was sighted, was very popular at Harvington. Humphrey Pakington had his own bowling green laid out where the front lawn is now. Hunting with dogs or falcons was also popular, especially on Sundays and other holidays. It is believed that the dogs were housed in kennels in the quarry below the Hall and the map of 1745 refers to this quarry as the ‘Dog Kennels’. This quarry may also have been used for the increasingly popular sports of cock-fighting and bear baiting, though it is unlikely the Pakington family would have attended these events since they were not considered ‘proper entertainment’ for well bred people! More proper, but no less violent, was the game of football. This was not the same game as football today. The goals were usually set anything up to two or three miles apart, teams were unlimited in number, and there were no rules saying what you could or could not do to prevent the opposing team scoring. Often players were more interested in settling old scores and quarrels than in scoring. There are reports of football matches ending with the field of ‘play’ resembling a battlefield with arms and legs broken, cuts and bruises and numerous other injuries. Less violent, but more enjoyable games for members of the family, were card games , Backgammon and Chess.
Tudor sayings you might know Turn the tables and taking the rough with the smooth Tables only had one finished side. The other side, less expensive to make, was rougher. When the family was alone, they ate on the rough side to keep the good side nice for company. When company came, the whole top lifted off and was turned to its good side. A square meal Your dinner plate was a square piece of wood with a "bowl" carved out to hold your stew that was always cooking over the fire. The kettle was never actually emptied and cleaned out. New ingredients were simply added to the soup. You always took your "square" with you when you went travelling. Sleep tight The bed frames were strung with ropes on which straw mattresses were placed. After some time the ropes would loosen and one of the young men would pull them tight. Mind the bugs don’t bite This referred to the small bugs that were inside the straw mattresses that would bite you as you slept. Upper crust When the bread was baked in the bread oven the bottom of the loaf was very ashy, the bottom was cut off and given to the servants and the family ate the upper crust.
The Hall past and present When Lady Mary Yate died in l696, Harvington Hall was left to her granddaughter, Mary, who had married into the Throckmorton family. The house was owned by the Throckmortons until 1923. The Throckmorton’s main house was at Coughton Court, however the Throckmorton family carried out the most extensive rebuilding of Harvington Hall since Humphrey Pakington’s time. One wing of the house was demolished (the wing facing the main gate) and to the north of this a tower block with bedrooms and downstairs rooms were added. The roof space in the main building was altered to provide attic accommodation for servants. These alterations have resulted in the odd-looking archway visible in the courtyard. The date stamped onto the drain spout beside this arch, 1701, shows when this work was probably done. In 1730 the drawbridge was replaced by a stone bridge, and another bridge built between the Brew House and the Malt House. In 1743 the top floor of some of the outbuildings at the end of the garden was opened as a Georgian Chapel. By this time the persecution of the Catholics had almost died out. The only suggestion of secrecy in relation to the Georgian Chapel was the building of two parallel walls 10 feet high between the courtyard and the Chapel. These may have been built so that visitors to the chapel weren’t seen from the surrounding fields. Priests continued to live at the Hall, sometimes under assumed names, e.g. Father Hugh Tootell who assumed the alias ‘Doctor Dodd’. After about 1720 the Throckmortons only used the Hall for estate business, and tenants lived in it. The parlour, now the restaurant, appears to have been used as an ‘estate office’. In 1823 the Georgian Chapel was damaged by fire shortly after the local priest’s housekeeper discovered some valuable records and relics, and left them under the altar for safe keeping. They were all lost! In the 1850s, the stripping of the Hall began. First the furnishings were removed, then much of the wooden panelling, and finally in 1910 the Great Staircase was removed to Coughton Court. The building was then opened as a village school and continued to operate as such until 1913 when there were only 8 children on the register; the old house, once so exciting and full of life, had become a sad and silent ruin. By 1923 when it was bought from the Throckmortons and given to the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, it was empty and almost derelict. Its windows were broken, its floorboards torn up and its roof and walls overgrown with ivy.
The secrets of Harvington In 1894 a young man, Bernard Lloyd, who had been playing in the House, dislodged some bricks in a wall and stumbled on a priest hole which had remained hidden for 300 years! How many priest holes did you see on your visit? Some people think that there may be more priest holes waiting to be discovered. Restoration Work Old houses like Harvington Hall need a lot of work, not only to stop them from falling down, but also to make them more enjoyable and interesting for visitors. Restoration work has been going on at Harvington ever since the 1930s. Floors and windows have been repaired, furniture for the different rooms has had to be found, and a Great Staircase has been built to replace the original one which was taken out in 1910. When the house was given to the Archdiocese of Birmingham, nobody suspected how interesting and important the house would turn out to be. Even today fresh discoveries about Harvington’s past are being made. In 1985 a major restoration programme was begun which will continue for a number of years. Work has been done on the restoration of the wall paintings in the house. The Malt House containing an interesting exhibition is now open to the public. We hope that Harvington Hall has a future just as exciting as its past!
Further information Information about people connected to the Hall can be found in the People connected to the Hall PDF document on this site. Web sites suitable for KS2 http://www.tudorbritain.org/ All about the Tudors from the V&A and the National Archives http://tudorhistory.org/wives/ Henry and His wives http://www.brims.co.uk/tudors/ Henry VIII and the Tudors http://www.headlinehistory.co.uk/# You can write your own Tudor article at Headline History http://www.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk/spotlights/rich_or_poor/default.htm Site written by pupils with good pictures of artefacts and the inventory of a poor Tudor. http://www.snaithprimary.eril.net/ttss.htm Snaith Primary School site http://www.burbage-jun.leics.sch.uk/HTML%20files/tudors/index/index_page.htm Burbage primary school site http://www.objectlessons.org/index.php Good site with Tudor artefacts. Type in the word Tudor in the search box
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