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Catherine of Aragon - Tudor Style Icon and Power Dresser - Farthingales, blackwork embroidery and sumptuous fabrics

When fifteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon stepped ashore in Plymouth at 3 o’clock on the afternoon of 2 October 1501, she must have caused quite a stir. Imagine the scene when the lovely young woman walked down the gangplank, followed by her ladies, all dressed in the latest Spanish fashions.Townspeople jostled for spaces with the great and good of the West Country, hastily summoned to welcome the foreign princess who had travelled so far to marry King Henry Tudor’s heir. How impressed they …

Tudor Teenagers

 Guest post for The Historical Fiction Blog

Rosemary Griggs - A Woman of Noble Wit

Tudor Teenagers

Parents of today will recognise that moment when their cherubic, enthusiastic, biddable children seem to transform into moody monsters who sleep all day, never tidy their rooms and are generally out of sorts with the whole world.  I mean, of course, when they become teenagers.   It’s a difficult time for youngsters when hormones are racing around, they are changing both physically and mentally, and there are many new challenges to meet. The …

Partlets - or the art of making a little go a long way

         Sixteenth century women were a thrifty lot, and who could blame them.  Fabric and clothing were incredibly expensive.  According to The Tudor Tailor,

        “a day’s wage for a labourer would buy a yard of the cheapest cloth (canvas at 4d a yard) while his wages for six months would barely buy a yard of the dearest cloth …… and a fine cloak, at £20 would require more than three years labour.”

Neither Linen, used mainly for shifts …

Dartington Hall

Dartington Hall, with its mellow grey stone walls, glorious gardens full of birdsong and ancient trees, is a favourite Devon gem I return to again and again. Set in rolling south Devon parkland near Totnes, it is now a stunning centre of heritage, culture, entertainment, hospitality and innovative sustainability. 

The medieval hall, together with the Grade II listed garden that wrap around its grey stone walls, evoke a strong sense of times past and an air of peace and tranquility. What we see today has been shaped by many hands, a legacy of …

A sixteenth century Christmas

A sixteenth century Christmas

We know quite a lot about how the wealthy spent Christmas in the sixteenth century.  Surviving account books from Royal, noble and gentry households paint a picture of lavish feasts and costly entertainment.  For the less well off Christmas must have come as a welcome holiday, relief from the drudgery of life in the long, cold winter season.

On Christmas Eve men, women and children went out into the woodlands to cut greenery such as holly, ivy and mistletoe to decorate …