The Tudors at Weald & Downland
By Ian Mulcahy
This article first appeared in the July 2019 edition of Tudor Life, the magazine of the Tudor Society.
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I first visited the Weald & Downland Museum on a school trip when I was 7 year old back in the early 1980s and have returned several times since, my latest excursion being on an unfortunately changeable (weather wise and, therefore, photograph wise) day in August 2018 with my wife and children in tow. Set in 40 acres of the South Downs National park in Singleton, 5 miles north of the Roman City of Chichester in West Sussex, the museum was established in 1967 by a group of enthusiasts and opened its doors to the public for the first time in September 1970. Perhaps that school trip was the seed of my appreciation of old buildings?
The original aim of the museum was to rescue and preserve historic buildings that were under threat of destruction and at the time of writing there are over 50 historic buildings on the site, ranging from an Anglo-Saxon hall house reconstruction to an Edwardian tin church! For this tour, I will be concentrating on buildings that were built, or would have been used and lived in, during Tudor times, but it is strongly recommended that anyone who subsequently visits the museum obtains full value for money by spending time at the exhibits from all eras.
On first entering the museum, you will find
yourself immediately drawn towards the Market Square area and the first
building that you will reach is the Medieval House from North
Cray, in Kent, with its vivid red timbers which are painted as
such on the basis of evidence that this was the colour scheme when the
house was originally built in the 15th century. The building is a
typical 4 bay Wealden hall house of the time, that is it has a 2 bay
central open hall between two storey, single bay, ends.
Moving along the Market Square, the next building is the Upper Hall, from Crawley in West Sussex. Constructed during the 15th century, this building was originally a ‘moot’ (meeting) hall and stood at the northern end of the High Street behind the extant Tree House, the original Manor House of Crawley and now the local museum. When first built, the hall was five bays long, but by the time it was rescued from demolition it had been reduced to three. These three bays have been restored and the missing bays at either end have been reconstructed using modern materials.
Attached to the rear of Upper Hall is a House Extension from Reigate, in Surrey. This dates from the early 17th century and was originally an addition to a medieval house, which the extension outlived, in Reigate High Street. It was dismantled and brought to the museum in 1981, where it was added to Upper Hall in 1987.
Next to Upper Hall is a Medieval Shop from Horsham in West Sussex. Built in the late 1400s, this three storey, double jettied structure originally housed a pair of shops in Butchers Row (now Middle Street). This presents as a typical pair of Tudor shops insofar as not only is there a door for entry, but also a very large window. At night, the window would be protected by a pair of horizontal shutters which, when opened for daytime trading, would provide both a counter (the lower shutter) and a shelter (the upper shutter). Both shops have a smoke bay at the rear running all the way to the roof where the timbers display heavy sooting, suggesting that open fires were part of daily life in these shops. With the building coming from ‘Butchers Row’ this points to the smoking of meats and the baking of pies. Whereas the ground floor is divided into two, the first and second floors are not and access to the upper floors was from within the shop on the right hand side meaning that the left side shop was probably rented out as a single unit or run as a separate entity by another member of the family. Museum volunteers can often be seen in period costume retailing from the windows of the shop, which was dismantled in 1968 and was re-erected in the Market Square in 1985.
Standing in front of the Medieval Shop and
Upper Hall is the Market Hall from Titchfield, in Hampshire. Although it
is thought to have originally been built around 1619, slightly after the
end of the Tudor period, I have elected to include it because it
completes the street scene of the era and secondly, it is typical of
those that were in use during Tudor times.
As you leave the Market Square and follow the trail west you will come to the Thatched House from Walderton, in West Sussex. The exterior of the building is made from flint and brick and was built in the 17th century, but hidden inside is the structure of a 15th century medieval hall house which has undergone many changes during its existence. At the time that the walls were rebuilt, a new upper floor was added along with a large chimney in the centre of the house. In the late 18th century a second chimney was added, adjacent to the existing stack, most likely to facilitate the division of the property into two individual cottages. In the latter part of the 19th century, the eastern half became the village Post Office. By 1930 the western half was uninhabited and by the time the house was dismantled for removal to the museum in 1980, had become derelict with holes rather than windows and corrugated iron instead of thatch, though the eastern half remained maintained as a private residence. The house was reconstructed in 1982 and is said to be quite unique amongst exhibits at the museum in that it is able to demonstrate two phases of building; the 17th century exterior and the 15th century, soot stained interior. Unfortunately I was unable to view this for myself at the time of my most recent visit due a private event taking place inside.
Shortly after passing the early 18th century School House, you will reach Sole Street Medieval House. Sole Street is a tiny village some 6 miles south west of Canterbury, in Kent and the house was rescued in 1970 having been deemed to be unfit for human habitation, but it was a further 21 years before it was reassembled in Singleton. This building is historically significant because it had a surviving aisled hall, that is a hall with roof supporting posts rather than one that is completely open. This sort of design is more commonly found in older houses dating back beyond the 13th century, but it is believed that this particular example is from the 15th century, with the cross wing being added in the 16th.
A short way along the trail we come to the farmstead exhibit
area, which includes your author’s favourite building at the
museum, the Bayleaf Farmstead from Chiddingstone, a small
village some five miles to the east of Tonbridge in Kent.
Another typical Wealden Hall House, the hall and service end
date back to the early part of the 15th century whilst the solar
end was added around 100 years later, most likely as a
replacement for an earlier structure which stood in its place.
The house is presented as it would have appeared in the middle
of the 16th century and has a large hall, open to the sooted
roof timbers, with an open hearth in the middle. The hall was
floored over in the late 16th century and a brick chimney stack
was added in 1636, but neither of these features have been
included in the reconstruction.
Behind the farmhouse is the thatched Barn from Cowfold, in West Sussex which dates from the late 1530s and was erected in 1988, having been dismantled in 1980.
Often, in 16th century Kent, a house would have a detached
kitchen and this has been represented on the Bayleaf Farmstead
by the inclusion of Winkhurst Tudor Kitchen
from Sundridge. Originally sited just half a mile from Bayleaf,
this building was also rescued from the creation of Bough Beech
Reservoir in 1968 and was erected in 1969 as the museums first
exhibit building, though it has subsequently been moved to
create the farmstead scene.
Having left the kitchen and passed Pendean Farmhouse
from Midhurst, an interesting and revolutionary post Tudor
timber framed house from 1609 that was built with a chimney,
rather than having it inserted at a later date, we reach the
Medieval Hall from Boarhunt, near Fareham in
Hampshire. Seemingly the oldest original building within the
museum, this small house dates back to the mid to late 14th
century and would have been inhabited by peasant farmers. The
house, which was built shortly after the ‘Black Death’, is
single floored throughout with a small central hall containing
an open hearth in the centre. There is a screened storage area
at one end and a fully enclosed inner room at the other, which
would have served as the private quarters of the residents. At
some point in the buildings history a second floor had been
inserted above the hall, which must have been very cramped, and
the inner room had been replaced by a much larger, and higher,
extension. Because of this, the room in this reconstruction is a
recreation based on expert knowledge of what it would have
looked like. A chimney was also added to the main hall.
As we follow the winding path into the woods, the thatched
Medieval Building from Hangleton, a lost
medieval village nestled just south of Devils Dyke in what is
now the City of Brighton & Hove, comes into sight. The decline
of Hangleton is thought to have begun when the increase in
population during the latter part of the 13th century became
unsustainable due to the poor agricultural quality of the chalky
land and this was exacerbated by a succession of poor harvests
across the south east of England in the years 1315-1322. When
the plague arrived in 1348, up to 60% of the remaining
population of the village was wiped out and by 1428 only two
households remained. The village was effectively wiped out and
all traces of the village are now buried under a modern housing
estate, though the church of St Helen’s survives.
After visiting the Anglo-Saxon Hall House, a reconstruction based on evidence from a site in Steyning, West Sussex which dates back to 950, we can gaze down the hill to the Market Square as we make our way along the final part of the trail to Longport Farmhouse from Newington, near Folkestone in Kent, tucked away in the far south eastern corner of the site. The farmhouse has been added to over several centuries with the oldest part dating back to 1554; a surviving cross wing of a large medieval hall house which was demolished in the 18th century. The cross wing walls are constructed of stone at ground floor level, with a timber framed and jettied first floor.
For more information on the Weald & Downland museum, please visit their website https://www.wealddown.co.uk/
Text & photographs © Ian Mulcahy. Contact photos@iansapps.co.uk or visit my 'Use of my photographs' page for licensing queries (ground level photographs only). |
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