Today’s school trip Friday was to the remarkable Imperial War Museum at Duxford, Cambridgeshire – home to hundreds of aircraft from both the First and Second World Wars, along with other military vehicles such as tanks, ambulances, and anti-aircraft guns.
Below are planes from the Battle of Britain now kept at Duxford.
Below are planes from the American Air Museum at Duxford
Along with considering the aircraft on display, today’s visit sparked a great deal of conversation from my child about the Second World War.  In particular, our discussions centred around life in Britain on the home front during the Second World War.  To support some of our discussions about life in Britain, we looked at cigarette cards in my collection – Churchman’s Air-Raid Precautions.  The date of these cards is 1938 – a year before the outbreak of war in September 1939.
A garden dug-out
A chain of buckets
Incendiary bomb cooling down
A first aid party
We also considered Second World War propaganda posters – particularly those by the cartoonist Fougasse and his series Careless talk costs lives.
I have long been a collector of old postcards – those evocative images conjuring up a bygone era. Originally, I was only interested in the pictures and scenes depicted on the front of the cards. But over the years my interest has switched to the messages on the back. Who are all those faceless people with their messages of ‘I’ll be home for tea’ and ‘I will be catching the 2pm train’?
Many many years ago, I bought a collection of First World War silk post cards. Within that collection are 12 cards all from the same man and are addressed to either his mother or his father. Each postcard is signed, ‘Your loving son, Fred’ and were sent to 101 Manor Road, Leyton, Essex in 1916.
It is interesting how Fred’s tone is different to his father than it is to his mother. Â To his mother, he writes of the weather in France and his sister, Winnie. Â To his father, he writes of ‘the line’, peace and Zeppelin raids (in 1916, there were several Zeppelin raids over Essex). Â The postcards cover the period from May to December 1916 during Fred’s time in France. Â So they cover the period of the Battle of Somme which started on 1 July 1916. Â I do not know if Fred took part in the battle – his postcards do not reveal this or any information on the trenches or the battles he took part in or the terrible conditions he lived through.
Read Fred’s cards and wonder at the sacrifice his generation made.
5/5/16 Dear Mother Just a card to let you know I’m all OK. Hope you are the same. We are having lovely weather, today sweltering hot. Will write and tell you all the news soon. Heaps of love & kisses.                                        Your loving son, Fred In the top left corner is written: Just this minute received parcel thanks very much
France, 17/6/16 Dear Mother Just a card to let you know I’m still around & well. Have you been getting my letter safely of late? Have just heard from Nancy that she hasn’t had a letter for about 10 days. I rather think the mail has been held up somewhere. Haven’t any news so thought you’d like a card.
Best love & kisses to all. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Your loving son, Fred
France, 27/6/16 Hello Mother Still another card for your collection. Do you like these? We are still having rotten weather, showery all the time. Hope all are well. Best love & kisses. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Your loving son, Fred
France, 12/7/16 Dear Mother Received Winnie’s letter safely yesterday. How’s everything at Leyton. Was very glad Nance managed to get down on Saturday. Would not have minded if I could have strolled in during the afternoon. Was too bad though. Winnie was disappointed at not seeing her beau. Hope everyone is well. Best love to all                                            Your loving son, Fred France, 21/7/16 Hello Dad Thought you might like a card from this side. Are you keeping well? Markers are beginning to look quite cheerful all along the line aren’t they? Guess they’re going to rob you of August Bank Holiday this year. Never mind. I expect everyone will make up for it when peace is declared. Please thank Winnie for her letter. Will write her later. Weather here is still rotten but am getting used to that now. Best love & kisses to all.                                              Yrs etc, Fred France, 23/7/16 Hello Mother, Just a card to let you know I’m all OK. Weather a little better for a change. Did John manage a visit to Winnie this week? Hope all are well. Best love & kisses to all                                             Yrs etc, Fred
France, 5/8/16 Hello Dad Hope you are keeping well. Did you get a glimpse of the Zepps during this last Raid? Am still keeping OK but wouldn’t mind a few days holiday. Guess you’ll miss Winnie for the next week or so. Best love to Mother & yourself                                     Yours etc, Fred
France 10/8/16 Dear Mother Hope you & Dada are well. Do you miss Winnie very much? I had a letter from her the other day & seems to be having a good time apart from a few mosquito bites. Have been having some lovely weather lately the best this year. Best love & kisses                                                       Yrs Fred France, 3/11/16 Dearest Mother, Just another card to put in the album & to let you know I’m OK. The weather here is fierce nothing but rain. I wonder whether its any better over home. Will be writing you soon. Best love to all, hoping everyone is well.                          Yr loving son, Fred France, 4/11/16 Hello Dad Hope this card will find you in the best of health. The weather here is nothing but rain all the time. I haven’t had very much time lately for writing so must forgive me for keeping you so long without a card. Best love & kisses to all at home                                 Yr loving son, Fred France, 6/11/16 Dearest Mother This card is going to bring you good news for I am leaving for the Base today. I may have some better event than that a little later. Don’t write again till you hear from me. Hope all are well. Have been enjoying contents of Winnie’s parcel. Best love & kisses to all                                          Yr loving son, Fred Hastings, 22/12/16 Hello Mother, A card to wish you all a pleasant Xmas. Its too bad I could not get home but still cheer up. I shall be with you very soon now. Expect to be spending the day with some residents in town so won’t be so badly off. Best love & heaps of kisses                                   Your loving son, Fred
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I have not been able to track Fred in the records of the  Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour, so hopefully Fred survived the Great War and returned home to his loving mother, father, and sister Winnie.  A Frederick H Sargeant married  Annie F Page, West Ham, September quarter 1917 – is this our Fred?  In the death indices, the only Frederick Sargeant with (nearly) the correct age and location died in March quarter 1954 aged 63 in Romford.  Is he our ‘loving son, Fred’?  I wonder why he was in Hastings at Christmas 1916 – perhaps this a convalescent home – had our Fred been wounded?
1891 Census – 31, London Lane, Hackney Alfred Sargeant, Head, aged 43, born 1848 Shoreditch, occupation Fancy Cabinet Maker
Amelia Sargeant, Wife, aged 37, born 1854 Marylebone
Alfred J Sargeant, Son, aged 5, born 1886 Westbourne Park
Frederick H Sargeant, Son, aged 2, 1889 Hackney
1901 Census – 101 Manor Road, Leyton, Essex
Alfred Sargeant, Head, aged 50, born 1851 Shoreditch, occupation Cabinet Maker
Amelia Sargeant, Wife, aged 43, born 1858, Marylebone
Alfred Sargeant, Son, aged 16, born 1885 Kensington, occupation Printer Compositor
Frederick Sargeant, Son, aged 12, born 1889 Hackney
Winifred Sargeant, Daughter, aged 6, born 1895Â Â Hackney
1911 Census – 101 Manor Road, Leyton, Essex
Alfred Robt Arthur Sargeant, Head, Married, aged 62, born 1849, occupation Carpenter
Amelia Elizabeth Sargeant, Wife, Married, aged 57, born 1854
Winifred Sargeant, Daughter, Single, aged 16, occupation dressmaker
Marriage Records Frederick H Sargeant to Annie F Page, West Ham, September quarter 1917
Death Records Alfred Joseph Sargeant, aged 22, died  September quarter 1908 (West Ham)
Amelia Elizabeth Sargeant died in 1926 (West Ham) Alfred R A Sargeant died in 1927 (West Ham)
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Last week I posted on my blog my first post about our School Trip Friday – trips that my child and I take as part of our home education programme. This week, my School Trip Friday is along the salt marshes of the Essex coast. Essex is much maligned on tv and in the national press but its coast-line has some of the most beautiful but wild, remote and isolated areas within East Anglia. This is a School Trip Friday which took place during late summer – hence the crops still in the fields! This School Trip Friday combined history and religion (St Peter’s Chapel at Bradwell), along with geography (Geocaching along the coastline) and science (butterfly hunting).Â
How else but walking through our beautiful countryside can we achieve the combination of teaching Roman history along with the Dark Ages and World War 2 all on one glorious day out!Â
The rough track leading to the isolated chapel
The view of the Chapel from the coast-line
In AD653, Cedd  arrived from Lindisfarne to spread Christainity on the request of the King of the East Saxons, Sigeberht the Good. The following year, Cedd became the Bishop of Essex and built his Cathedral of St Peters. It was built on the foundations of the Roman Fort where the gatehouse had been – hence its name ‘St Peter-on-the-Wall’. It is one of the oldest surviving churches in England.
From the approximately the 18th century until 1920, the Chapel was used as a barn for storage and the shelter for cattle. Â
A postcard from when the chapel was still used for storage and cattle
The door leading into the chapel
The late Summer light streaming into the Chapel
Inside the Chapel – the simple altar
Outside the Chapel on the sea wall. Â This part of the Essex coast-line is full of Second World War Pill Boxes – a line of sea defences built to protect England from any possible German invasion. Â The wild sea and mud of the salt marshes have reclaimed many of the pillboxesÂ
An ancient fishing structure still visible in the water even at mid-tide
The red sails of a magnificent Thames Barge clearly visible in the distance.
One of my most viewed blog posts has been Images of Medieval Cats from the British Library’s collection of exquisite illuminated manuscripts. So here to brighten up your day  are some more Medieval Cats, doing what cats do best – being magnificent.
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I have always been a traditional and conventional kind-of-a person (whatever ‘traditional’ and ‘conventional’ mean!). So it is with great surprise that, some 17 years after my eldest child took their first hesitant steps into a classroom, I found myself having to withdraw my youngest child – aged only 8 – from mainstream schooling. The reasons for this are serious and includes a diagnosis of severe dyslexia along with many other special educational needs.   Someone (who should have known better) wrote of my child that they are ‘academically challenged’. I am also dyslexic, so with my first class honours history degree and masters in local history from Cambridge University, I am proud to have the same badge as my child of being academically challenged.
So, for the past few months, I have had to educate my child at home – while the grown-ups fight out my child’s future in the Courts, and I have had to learn very quickly the educational laws of this land. There have been some positives, whilst I cope with the most stressful and distressing situation of my entire life (the legal battles, not the home education!).  For the first time in 17 years, I am no longer governed by term time, school holidays and half terms. Instead, we can roam and explore our beautiful country at our own pace, at our own time and in our own way – and in a way suitable for my child’s learning style.
Every Friday, we push the school books aside, switch off the computer with its bleeping educational apps, and head for the hills. For Friday is our ‘School Trip Friday’. We visit places that interest us – history, geography, geology – Tudors, Romans, Vikings – nature walks, bug hunting, Geocaching – anything and everything all rolled into one glorious day out each week.
Come join us on one of our School Trip Fridays for the Academically Challenged at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Chichester, West Sussex.
Storm clouds gathering over the market place.
Medieval Shop from Horsham, Sussex.
This is a pair of shops which were originally built in the 15th century.
Only one of the pair has stairs up to the jettied upper rooms.
This is our favourite house in the entire museum – great for playing ‘shops’ in!
Upper Hall from Crawley (circa 1500). Â The ground floor was divided into separate rooms and the first floor was one long open room (perhaps used as a meeting room). Â Both ends of the building are not the original (only one end is visible in my picture – in the centre) – they are modern ends added because the original ends no longer exist.
Market Hall from Titchfield, Hampshire.
A typical 17th century market hall – this one was built in 1620.
The lower level was used as an open arcade used by traders whilst
the rooms on the upper floor would have been used as the town’s council chambers. Â Under the stairs leading to the upper level there is a ‘cage’ (or village lock-up).
House from Walderton, Sussex.  This is a 17th century building constructed of flint and brick.  This was our 2nd favourite building of the day – mainly because one of the museum’s wonderful volunteer helpers spent a long time talking to my child about the house.  We were shown the indentations on the cobbles by the hearth (inside) caused by hob-nailed boots where the man of the house used to stand and shuffle, trying to warm himself in front of the fire.  We were shown how the building was constructed and altered over hundreds of years of occupation to suit each new generation.  The front door was of great fascination because of the over-sized lock!  All the nooks and crannies within this incredible house was scrutinized and studied in depth through the eyes of an 8 year old child. The volunteers and staff love their museum and I thank them for the patience and trouble they took with my child.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent. Â A timber-framed hall-house from the early 15th century.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the open fire place.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the kitchen area.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the kitchen area.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone.
Hall from Boarhunt, Hampshire. Â This building dates from the late 14th century and is an example of a medieval open hall.
Further information I hope you have enjoyed looking at some of our photos of our School Trip Friday into the buildings and architecture of England’s medieval and Tudor heritage. Â This is just a very small sample of the houses that can be visited at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum. Â We thoroughly recommend that you pay a visit.
Last week, whilst doing my normal Sunday evening past-time of hunting for treasures on a certain on-line auction site, I happened across this intriguing picture. Â Needless to say, as a collector of old postcards who verges on being a compulsive hoarder, I couldn’t resist but to buy him and give him a new home. Â Once he had turned up on my front door mat, further research revealed that this was Robert Scarlett, a grave digger of Tudor England.
Old Scarlett buried within Peterborough Cathedral no less than two queens of two countries – a queen of England and a Queen of Scotland: Katherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots. The tools of his trade are near at hand – the keys to the cathedral, along with his pickaxe and his shovel.  Nearby lies a skull – the ever present representation of death which was his trade.
A picture of a grave-digger or a picture of the Grim Reaper? Â You decide…
Old Scarlett, died 1594, in his 98th year. Peterborough Cathedral
You see old Scarlett’s picture stand on hie,
But at your feete here doth his body lie.
His gravestone doth his age and death time show,
His office by thies tokens you may know.
Second to none for strength and sturdye limm,
A Scarebabe mighty voice with visage grim.
Hee had interd two queenes within this place
And this townes house holders in his lives space
Twice over: But at length his own time came;
What hee for others did for him the same
Was done: No doubt his soule doth live for aye
In heaven: Tho here his body clad in clay.
My previous post, History Howlers – Henry VIII and History Howlers – Mary I looked at the school-child historical howlers relating to Henry VIII & Mary I, as depicted by the 1930s cigarette card manufacturer, Churchman. Today’s post continues this by displaying images of Henry VIII’s and Anne Boleyn’s daughter, Elizabeth I, and howlers relating to her reign. This was the larger cigarette card size and the card is number 4 of 16.
If you like my blog, please leave me a comment in the comments box. Â Please tell me what you think of my posts and how you found my blog. Â Thank you!
My previous post, History Howlers – Henry VIII looked at the school-child historical howlers relating to Henry VIII, as depicted by the 1930s cigarette card manufacturer, Churchman. Today’s post continues this by displaying images of Henry VIII’s daughter, Mary I, and howlers relating to her reign. This was a smaller cigarette card size and the card is number 5 of 40.
It’s wonderful that this card, without explicitly stating it, manages to totally capture that greatest of all Tudor historical howlers – the ‘fact’ that Mary I, Queen of England and Mary, Queen of Scots, was the same person!
If you like my blog, please leave me a comment in the comments box. Â Please tell me what you think of my posts and how you found my blog. Â Thank you!
Transcription of Tudor Great Dunmow’s churchwardens’ accounts (1526-7)
1. Item ffor ij scaynys of whyte threde ffor ye copys [Item for 2 skeins of white thread for the copys (corpus?) 2d]
iid
2. Ite[m] for lyne & pakthrede & whepcorde when p[ar]nell [Item for line and pack-thread and whipcord when Parnell]
iiiid
3. made the pagantes our corpuscryti daye [made the pageants our Corpus Christi day 4d]
4. Ite[m] payde ffor hornynge of the cherche <illegible crossing out> lanton [Item paid for horning(?) of the church lantern 8d]
viiid
5. Ite[m] for strekynge of ye Rodelyght [Item for striking of the Rood light 13d]
xiijd
6. Ite[m] for a peys lether ffor bawdryk [Item for a piece leather for bawdrick 8d]
viid
7. Ite[m] for mendynge of lede on the new chapell [Item for mending of lead on the new chapel]
iis
8. & on ye gelde on the same syde [and on the gild on the same side 2s]
9. Ite[m] ffor a li of wex for & strykynge a fore owr [Item for a pound of wax & striking before our]
viid
10. lady in the chawnsell [lady in the chancel 7d]
11. Ite[m] payde to dychynge for carryynge of tymber for ye frame [Item paid to Dychynge for carrying timber for the frame [2s]
iis
12. Ite[m] to Wylye[m] blythe for mendynge of ye glase wyndowes [Item to William Blythe for mending the glass windows]
iis iiijd
13. in the new chapell & in other plasys of the cherche [in the new chapel & in other places in the church]
14. Ite[m] pade to burle for the rest of the gyldy of owr lady [Item paid to Burle for the rest of the gild of our lady 6s 8d]
vjs viijd
15. Ite[m] pade to Robart Sturtons wyfe for wasshynge of [Item paid to Robert Sturton’s wife for washing of]
vjs viiid
16. the cherche gere for iij yere [the church gear for 3 years 6s 8d]
17. Item for the bordynge of hynry bode att doscetor & when [Item for the boarding of Henry Bode at Dowsetter & when]
xijd
18. the bell was a perynge [the bell was repairing 12d]
19. Ite[m] laynge of ij shovylls & a mattoke for ye cherche [Item laying of 2 shovels & a mattock for the church 12d]
xiid
20. Ite[m] for wode when the bell was pesyd [Item for wood when the bell was repaired(?) 12d]
xiid
21. Item payde to the belfowder in rernest of ye bargine [Item paid to the bell-founder in ? of the bargain(?) 3s 4d]
iijs iiijd
22. S[u]m[m]a Alloe lvijs ixd & rend ?? xxviijs ixd [Sum of 52s 9d remainder(?) ?? 28s 9d
Commentary Line 1-3: Great Dunmow’s Corpus Christi pageant. See the commentary below.
Line 6: Bawdrick –  According to Wikipedia, a bawdrick/baldric was a belt worn over one shoulder which was often used to carry a weapon (such as a sword). (Not to be confused with Blackadder’s sidekick, Baldrick!)
Line 7 & 8 and 12 & 13: Mending of the led, gild and glass in the ‘new chapel’. This must have been a side chapel within the church of St Mary the Virgin. It does not refer to a separate building, such as the small chapel which existed in the town’s centre.
Line 19: A mattock was a tool used for digging. It had a flat blade set at right angles to the handle.
Line 21: The bell-founder. This is possibly the same bell-founder in London which the parish of Great Dunmow commissioned to make their bells in the late 1520s. It is very likely that this is the same bell-foundry in Whitechapel which is still in existence today and cast the magnificent bells for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Bells & the London 2012 Olympic Bell.
Great Dunmow’s Corpus Christi Plays Lines 1-3 above record the expenditure for ‘lyne & pakthred & whepcorde when P[ar]nell made the pagantes on Corpus Cryti day’.  It has been suggested that this entry in Great Dunmow’s accounts signifies rope scourges and therefore, Great Dunmow’s Corpus Christi plays were Catholic religious set-pieces involving flagellation. (1)  Packthread is very strong thread or twine and whipcord is strong worsted fabric often used for whiplashes. This argument is further enforced by the claim that the P[ar]nell in the churchwarden’s accounts was one John Parnell who was active in 1505 in Ipswich.(2) This John Parnell of Ipswich was given 33s 4d by that town to find ornaments for their Corpus Christi plays for a period of twelve years.(3)  Ipswich’s Corpus Christi plays must have been a magnificent event because of the amount of money given to John Parnell. Therefore, if Ipswich’s Parnell was the same person as Great Dunmow’s Parnell, then this connection could be used to support a supposition that the town of Great Dunmow was trying to emulate the more prosperous town of Ipswich.
However, by not just looking at Great Dunmow’s churchwardens’ accounts in isolation but also analysing other primary sources from Great Dunmow, it can be established that a Robert Parnell was a Tudor resident of Great Dunmow. Whilst he is not listed in any of the parish collections itemised in the churchwardens’ accounts, he is listed in the Great Dunmow’s 1524-5 Lay Subsidy returns.(4) Moreover, a Roberd Parnell is also detailed in John Bermyshe’s 1526 will as living in one of Bermyshe’s houses in Great Dunmow.(5)  Robert Parnell was a resident of Great Dunmow. Therefore, the evidence suggests that Ipswich’s Parnell was not the same Parnell who supplied rope for Great Dunmow’s pageant. Moreover, as the rope was for ‘pagantes’, it is probable the rope was used to support the pageant’s scenery, and not used as rope-scourges.
Footnotes 1) Clifford Davidson, Festivals and plays in late medieval Britain (Aldershot, 2007) p55.
2) Ibid.
3) John Wodderspoon, Memorials of the ancient town of Ipswich in the county of Suffolk (1850) p170.
4) Hundred of Dunmow: Calendar of Lay Subsidy Rolls (1523-4), E.R.O., T/A427/1/1.
5) Will of John Bermyshe (1527), E.R.O., D/ABW/3/9.
Notes about Great Dunmow’s churchwarden accounts
Great Dunmow’s original churchwardens’ accounts (1526-1621) are kept in Essex Record Office (E.R.O.), Chelmsford, Essex, D/P 11/5/1. All digital images of the accounts within this blog appear by courtesy of Essex Record Office and may not be reproduced. Examining these records from this Essex parish gives the modern reader a remarkable view  into the lives and times of some of Henry VIII’s subjects and provides an interpretation into the local history of Tudor Great Dunmow.
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The kings and queens of the Tudor era, with their constantly changing religious policies and laws, have been much studied by academics and school-children alike. Â Whereas (hopefully!) the academics generally get their research and information correct, Â unfortunately it would seem that school-children are sometimes greatly confused by some of the more salient points of history. Â This confusion has caused many schoolboy and schoolgirl ‘history howlers’ where school-children have misinterpreted or misunderstood historical facts.
Churchman, the pre-World War II manufacturer of cigarettes, seized on these historical howlers, along with other howlers relating to science, geography and nature.  They produced two sets of cigarette cards with each card dedicated to one topic prone to school-child misunderstanding.  Topics covered were as diverse as Julius Caesar, volcanoes, fish and the zoo.  To my delight, three cards cover Tudor monarchs – Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth  I (perhaps Henry VII and Edward VI weren’t considered noteworthy enough to have produced ‘howlers’!)  Each illustration on the cards were drawn by Rene Bull and are a delight.
To my knowledge, it was not recorded where the ‘howlers’ came from, or, indeed, if they were made up or genuine.  I wonder how many of today’s school-children would be able to spot the howlers and correct them?  Can you spot the errors and correct them?
Below is Henry VIII’s card from the 1936 set of 16 large cards – card number 3.  I just love these howlers – especially the one about Titus Oates and the Latin bible – just how many ‘facts’ can you mangle in only one sentence!
If you like my blogs, please leave me a comment in the comments box. Â Please tell me what you think of my posts and how you found my blog. Â Thank you
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A garden dug-out
A chain of buckets
Incendiary bomb cooling down
A first aid party
France, 12/7/16
France, 21/7/16
France, 23/7/16
France, 5/8/16
France 10/8/16
France, 3/11/16
France, 4/11/16
France, 6/11/16
Hastings, 22/12/16
The view of the Chapel from the coast-line
In AD653, 
From the approximately the 18th century until 1920, the Chapel was used as a barn for storage and the shelter for cattle. Â 
A postcard from when the chapel was still used for storage and cattle
The door leading into the chapel
Outside the Chapel on the sea wall.  This part of the Essex coast-line is full of Second World War Pill Boxes – a line of sea defences built to protect England from any possible German invasion.  The wild sea and mud of the salt marshes have reclaimed many of the pillboxes 
An ancient fishing structure still visible in the water even at mid-tide
The red sails of a magnificent Thames Barge clearly visible in the distance.
Storm clouds gathering over the market place.
Medieval Shop from Horsham, Sussex.
Upper Hall from Crawley (circa 1500). Â The ground floor was divided into separate rooms and the first floor was one long open room (perhaps used as a meeting room). Â Both ends of the building are not the original (only one end is visible in my picture – in the centre) – they are modern ends added because the original ends no longer exist.
House from Walderton, Sussex.  This is a 17th century building constructed of flint and brick.  This was our 2nd favourite building of the day – mainly because one of the museum’s wonderful volunteer helpers spent a long time talking to my child about the house.  We were shown the indentations on the cobbles by the hearth (inside) caused by hob-nailed boots where the man of the house used to stand and shuffle, trying to warm himself in front of the fire.  We were shown how the building was constructed and altered over hundreds of years of occupation to suit each new generation.  The front door was of great fascination because of the over-sized lock!  All the nooks and crannies within this incredible house was scrutinized and studied in depth through the eyes of an 8 year old child. The volunteers and staff love their museum and I thank them for the patience and trouble they took with my child.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent.
‘Bayleaf Farmstead’ – Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent. Â A timber-framed hall-house from the early 15th century.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the open fire place.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the kitchen area.
Inside the Wealden House from Chiddingstone – the kitchen area.
