Inspiration

Participants were invited to a snow covered Aston Hall to gain inspiration for the seventeenth century aspect to the project. Dr Chris Upton began the session by detailing the history of Aston Manor.    

We discovered some interesting facts about the Hall during the seventeenth century that will be extremely useful as we compose our drama and attempt to imagine working life during this period.  

Notes from Dr Chris Upton’s lecture ‘Five-hundred Years of Aston’

Aston’s roots

Aston Manor is mentioned in the Doomsday Book in 1086.The total population at forty four households was very large and the area yielded a lot of tax. Thirty villagers or families, twelve smallholders, one slave and one priest lived in Aston at this time. The mention of a priest indicates that there would have been a Catholic church in Aston.

Interestingly, Birmingham did not have a church at this time, or a mill. Aston was a thriving community and worth five times the value of Birmingham at five pounds to Birmingham’s one pound. The Aston area stretched over three thousand acres and included the prison, Brownell Hold, which would have been located close to where the Rainbow Pub in Digbeth currently stands. Legend has it that beer was sold to the prisoners.

You can view all this information online at Domesday Map. Have a look at the entries for Aston and Birmingham and compare the areas.

Sir Thomas Holte and the building of Aston Hall

Sir Thomas Holte was an extremely ambitious man that wanted to create a grand country house to reflect his status and ambition. The building of Aston Hall began in 1618 and took sixteen years to complete.

Thomas made his money through renting land from his estate. He also had a mill, an iron forge and a blade mill. 

Life took an unexpected turn in the 1640s when a British Civil War broke out between Parliament and the King. This period was referred to as a time when the world was turned upside down.

Man could be at war with his son and women ran estates and businesses while their husbands and sons were at war. There is some interesting information to be found in reference to women at this time. The Early Modern Web is once such website.       

Aston was at the forefront of this civil war and supported Charles I. Sir Thomas Holte was a friend of the king and knighted by Charles’s father. King Charles passed through Aston the day before the war and lodged at Aston Hall. In December 1643 Aston Hall was sieged and damage caused to the great staircase by a cannon ball can still be seen today. Aston Hall surrendered and had to pay a fine for supporting Charles.

Sir Thomas Holte’s staff: 

*        Sir Thomas employed about forty servants at Aston Hall. His servants lived at the Hall or at lodgings on site or close by.  

*        There was a hierarchy of servants divided into upper and lower class servants. The lower servants reported to the upper servants and referred to them as Mistress and Mister. The lower servants would be referred to by their first name.

*        Servants did have the chance to move up the hierarchy.  

*        Servants employed at an estate like Aston Hall had job security if they were good at their jobs and polite to their masters.

*        Servants often remained unmarried as their long working hours made it difficult to meet prospective spouses. However some did marry other servants at their place of work.

*        Maid is short for ‘maiden’ meaning an unmarried woman.

*        Servants at Aston Hall had a better diet than the average labourer as they would have had access to their employer’s leftovers. It was quite probable that Sir Thomas Holte’s servants had access to venison as Sir Thomas had deer on his estate.

Servant hierarchy

Upper servants:

*        Steward of Hall and Estate – responsible for overseeing everything upon his master’s estate e.g. checking all servants completing their jobs to an acceptable standard, collecting rent from estate tenants. The Holtes often left money to their Stewards in their wills.

*        Ladies in Waiting – responsible for dressing their female employers and being a companion. Ladies in Waiting had a minor education and often came from families of the minor gentry.  

*        Cook – part of the gentry the cook was always a man. He didn’t prepare food or cook but gave orders to his female kitchen staff.  Seventeenth century food was very elaborate and what the food looked like mattered as much as the taste. The cook also received a perquisite (perk). He was allowed to sell and profit from the spare fat from meat used in his employer’s kitchen.      

Lower servants:

*        Kitchen Staff

*        Laundry maid

*        Dairymaid – often also had to look after chickens

*        Grooms

*        Gardeners

Rooms of domestic service:

*        Kitchen

*        Scullery

*        Pastry

*        Buttery

*        Wet Larder

*        Dry Larder

*        Brewhouse

*        Bake house

*        Laundry

Participants were then treated to a private tour of the house and we identified some key areas for performance.

Below are some photos of Aston Hall with some interesting facts relating to servants.

The Kitchen

Sir Thomas is rumoured to have killed his cook by hitting him on the head with a cleaver.

It was a neighbour of Sir Thomas’s, William Ascrick, who took the matter to court, suggesting that the cleaver had split the cook’s head in half. However there was no evidence for the cook’s death so Ascrick was sued for slander and ordered to pay Sir Thomas damages. This verdict was later overturned.       

The Entrance Hall

There is an inscription above the fireplace that details how to be a good servant. It reads:

‘If service be thy means to thrive, Thou must therein remain.

Both silent, faithful, just and true

Content to take some pain.

If love of virtue may allure

In hope of worldly gain.

In fear of God may thee procure

To serve do not disdain.’

It was probably inscribed after Sir Thomas’s death but is a good indication of what a seventeenth century gentleman would have expected of his staff. 

Dick’s Garret

This low attic was used as accommodation for servants. During the siege of Aston Hall during the Civil War, Parliamentary troops used the attic for their sleeping quarters.

The hooks on the left would have been used for hanging meat.

The room is named after the tale of a ten year old boy called Dick who committed suicide. He was found hanging from the meat hooks after he had been dismissed for stealing bread. It was a cold winter and Dick would have been expected to walk home – he knew he would not survive the walk so ended his life quickly.     

 

Images from external sources:

1) Aston Manor’s entry in the Doomsday Book taken from <http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP0889/aston/  > [accessed 14.03.2013]   

2) John Taylor, ‘The World Turned Upside Down’, 1647, taken from < http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://redfellow.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/world-turned-upside-down2.gif&imgrefurl=http://redfellow.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/the-world-turned-upside-down/&h=542&w=400&sz=45&tbnid=gqdPQyBsO53XFM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=59&zoom=1&usg=__BnH-ZvhUeO_LM_Z4TBmW9YgcvDU=&docid=hS5c92yHvqsK9M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0rJBUaHJGIf7PPK1gcgE&ved=0CDEQ9QEwAA&dur=3078>[accessed 14.03.2013]