Fellside Community Primary School

We visited the exhibition at the Shipley Art Gallery to learn about life for the rich and poor in Tudor times.

Our afternoon started by meeting Tracy, our guide, who was dressed as a rich Tudor lady. Children from Year Five then dressed up in rich tudor attire as shown in these photographs. After learning about appropriate table manners for a Tudor banquet, we learnt to dance The Pavanne, a well-known dance in Tudor times.

A Collection of Classy Tudors

Rich Tudor Gentlemen

Affluent Tudor Ladies

After a while, we made our way through to the activities room where we learnt about poor Tudor life. Children made Orange Pomanders for freshening up those unwanted Tudor odours and tried their hand at wattling and daub. Daub and wattle are building materials used in constructing walls in Tudor houses. A latticework of wooden stakes (called wattles) were daubed with a mixture of clay, sand and straw (or sometimes animal dung) to create solid walls.

View the pictures below to see the class in action.

Anyone for an Orange Pomander?

Wattling and Daub

We also learnt how to kill or cure patients with various ailments, use a mortar and pestle to grind spices and discovered the differences between the diet of the rich and poor in Tudor times.

All in all, we had a super afternoon. Many thanks go to Tracy and Claire and the whole team at the Shipley for all their hard work. To find out more about this exhibition click the link below:

www.twmuseums.org.uk/shipley