Sharing session on Wednesday 27th March

The first activity invited participants to match pictures of seventeenth century domestic chores to their modern day equivalent. We discovered:

Seventeenth century domestic chore/appliance	Modern day equivalent
Women in a bleaching field*	Tumble dryer
Two wooden tubs, a dolly and a mangle board	Washing machine
A big wooden tub filled by hand	Bathing
Broom	Vacuum cleaner
Salt and sage would be rubbed onto the teeth to clean off dirt and freshen breath	Toothpaste
Flowers would be added to bowls of water	Washing hands
Wood ash and lime soap	Washing powder
Pomander (clove studded orange)	Air freshener

*        Bleaching fields were enclosed areas outdoors where sheets and linens would be left to naturally dry and bleach in the sun. 

After Sir Thomas Holte’s death…

After Sir Thomas Holte’s death an inventory was taken of all the items in his household and valued at one thousand and sixty one pounds. This was not as much as would have been expected from a grand estate, however Aston Hall had been ransacked after the Civil War. 

Servants in Sir Thomas Holte’s will (1637) provided from Rosie’s research 

Sir Thomas Holte requests that his heir, George Holte “keep his sister Elizabeth Holte, my daughter, with convenient diet and lodging both for her and her woman, until Elizabeth is married.”    

He requests that his funeral is “without worldly pomp but rather with charitable distribution to the poor with bestowing of blackes upon my children and serving men.”

To Mrs Anne Pennant, servant “in consideration of the good service that she hath heretofore done and performed not only to my wife, now deceased, in her lifetime, but also since then unto me…various plots of land.”

Sir Thomas Holte requested his executors raise enough money to build “one convenient Almshouse or hospital of brickworks in the town of Aston for the habitation of ten poor persons, whereof five shall be men and the other five shall be women.” He also left them two shillings a week, money for a new gown every year, a cart of coal every year, and money for sermons from a preacher.

He set aside money for making gardens, orchards, and bleaching grounds.

“I give and bequeath to every one of my household servants…that have dwelt with me for the space of four years at the time of my death one whole years wages; every one of my household servants…that have dwelt with me by the space of two years, one half year’s wages; and if any household servant dwelling with me who has served me for no wages, the trustee should decide how much to give them.” Every servant was also to be given meat, drink and lodgings for three months after he died.

Other servants named in his will:

Edward Mercer, clerk (chaplain): £10

Thomas Birch: £10

Richard Walter (steward): £10 


Research was also conducted into other household items used during the seventeenth century. We discovered several interesting items:

Cups made from cow horn

A block used when teaching children to read

A hair curler

The next activity saw the group split into two teams: the rich and the poor. Rosie held up cards with images of different food items and asked the group to decide which group ate which food.

Food	Eaten by the rich or poor
Tomatoes	Rich – tomatoes were very new to the country during the seventeenth century and were considered a strange food that people didn’t really know how to use. The acid from tomatoes also caused a reaction and stripped some of the lead from the pewter plates.
Sugar	Rich – sugar was extremely expensive during this period and was so precious it was kept locked in cupboards.
Fruit (apples, pear and cherries)	Poor – apples, pears and cherries were easy to grow in England and were in abundance.
Fruit (oranges and apricots)	Rich – they were imported from Spain and therefore an expensive fruit.
Meat	Rich – keeping an animal was an expensive business. The poor might catch some rabbits or hedgehogs.
Vegetables	Poor – vegetables were the main part of a diet for farmers. Rich people would eat vegetables but they were seen as an everyday food and would never be served to guests.
Potatoes	Rich – potatoes only came into the country one hundred years before Aston Hall was built. Sir Walter Raleigh brought them into the country for Queen Elizabeth.
Fish	Rich and Poor – everyone had to eat fish on a Friday in accordance with religious practices.
Honey	Rich and poor
Milk, cheese and eggs	Rich and poor – milk would be less popular with adults.
Cakes and sweets	Rich – sugar was expensive
Tea and coffee	Rich – tea and coffee had not long come into the country.
Water	Very few people – very few would have access to clean water. The only people with access to clean water would be those living by a stream, but the city’s water supply would have been polluted.
Beer	Rich and poor – as there was little clean water, beer would have been the main drink source. Children drank what is known as ‘small beer’, an, almost, non alcoholic beverage.

Ali then recapped some of the information Dr Chris Upton had discussed within his lecture, heard by the group on Inspiration Day. This would make the next activity easier and allow participants to develop some useful questions for interviewing a farming tenant character. The main points about Aston Hall and the Holte estate were:

*        The Holtes had five to six acres of land, however the land wouldn’t all be together, but spread put across Aston.

*        There was a wood settlement in the village

*        The farming tenant would work typically work four days on his land and then two days for the estate owner, in this case Sir Thomas Holte.

Les took on the role of Henry the farming tenant and was interviewed by the group. Henry details the type of work conducted on a seventeenth century family run farm. He rents his land from Sir Thomas Holte and pays his rent in service by working two days a week on Sir Thomas’s land. You can listen to the interview on our SoundCloud, simply click on the recording name: Les as Henry the farming tenant.