Last Saturday members and friends of SI Cannock & District spent an afternoon at Tutbury Castle where they enjoyed lunch followed by a talk from Lesley Smith, Curator of the Castle.
Lesley is an historian, specializing in Tudor history as well as other areas; she is also an excellent speaker. On this occasion Lesley wore a Tudor costume made of velvet and with embroidery detail which would have been worn by a woman of the middle class – the costume itself weighs around 3 and a half stone! – and she spoke with her wonderful enthusiasm and wit about the life of a Tudor Housewife. We learned that many marriages were arranged with the average of age for marriage being 22 or 23 for women and 25 or 26 for men. They would have many children, though the average number to survive would be 4.
One of the main roles for such a middle class woman would be to look after and often make the medicines which were prepared for anything from bad breath to the plague. She would be responsible for the food to be served – with up to 32 different dishes at any one meal; for brewing beer, growing flax …and so much more. She would have 6 or 7 servants to run the household – these would all be male. As well as her responsibilities for the household women were instructed to be quiet at all times!
It was very unusual for a girl to be taught to read or to write though there were some accomplished women writers of the time. Women then, as now, took a pride in their appearance and hair colour was very important to them: they used urine or liquorice to dye their hair!
Lesley showed some of the clothes worn by Tudor children, they were all beautiful and in many instances very similar to clothes worn by young children today.
Photo: Lesley Smith in the costume of a Tudor Housewife with members of SI Cannock & District in the Great Hall at Tutbury Castle