Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
Just as now, Tudor towns were made up of the rich, the poor and those who managed to get by quite comfortably. The architecture of the buildings of course reflected this mix in the financial positions of the inhabitants. We can still see the impressive town houses of the well-to-do, but unfortunately for the architectural historian the dwellings of the poor have long since disappeared.
Written sources can provide some insight into the way people lived. One contemporary description of the Herefordshire countryside is the Itinerary of John Leland, who travelled throughout the county in the 16th century. King Henry VIII appointed John Leland "keeper of his libraries". In 1536 Leland received permission from the King to search the libraries of monasteries and colleges throughout the country for "monuments of ancient writers". Leland's extensive travels brought him to Herefordshire. Luckily for us he kept a diary describing the places he visited. In keeping with his time, Leland was interested in castles, monasteries, churches, geographical features and, to some extent, in agriculture and trade; he was not, however, interested in the domestic arrangements of the poor. Of Leominster, for example, he says:
"The towne of Leonminstar is meatly large and hathe good buyldinge of tymbar ... The towne of Leonminster by reason of theyr principall wolle usyd great drapinge of clothe, and thereby it florishid. Syns of later dayes it chauncid that the cities of Herford and Worcester complainid of the frequency of people that cam to Leonminstre, in prejudice of bothe their markets in the shyre townes, and also in hinderinge their drapinge. Whereapon the Saturday market was remevid from Leonminstre, and a market on Friday was newly assignyd onto it. Syns that tyme the toun of Leonminstar hathe decayed." (Part V, pp. 73 and 74)
Another useful written source is probate inventories. In 1529 a law was passed that if a person died with possessions valued at more than £5 a valuation of their goods would have to be made. Even in the 17th century one had to list a person's possessions to the last spoon to prove a will. These lists, called probate inventories, can tell us much about respective lifestyles. However, even though these lists, many of which are held by the Hereford Record Office (from 1600 onwards) often include those of very modest means, they only deal with people who have something to leave. The very poor have left no traces unless their names were recorded in a court proceeding.
The inventories do not only list the possessions, but do so room by room, which helps us to gain a picture of the types of rooms houses had and how they were furnished. The inventory taken on the death of John Markye (1667) of Alton Court, Ross-on-Wye, for example, lists the following rooms: the hall, the parlour, the kitchen, the cellar, the "buttery" (pantry), top landing ("Stayres heade"), the study, the great chamber (master bedroom), middle chamber, the chamber over the kitchen, the garretts (attic with "2 truckell beddsteeds") and the "backhouse chamber" (a further bedroom). (Pat Hughes and Heather Hurley, The Story of Ross, Logaston Press, 1999, pp.159-165)
The house where John Markye lived, Alton Court (HER 6955), came into the hands of the Markye family in 1602. It still exists, but has been much changed over the years. It has been suggested that the house originally had a medieval-type hall (Hughes and Hurley, p.167). In any case, it is a two-storey timber-framed house with cellars and attics. In the 17th century the central range was cased in stone and another wing added.
Even without listing the possessions, one can see that John Markye was quite well off. The inventory calls him a gentleman. Apart from his clothing and the household furnishings and silver, he had some cattle, sheep, pigs, some corn, malt and a horse. All told, his goods came to over £114.00, a respectable sum of money in the 17th century.
Is it possible to equate prices with those of today? How much would £114.00 be worth in today's terms? In this case, £114.00 in 1667 would be worth about £12,000 today. Is this a fair comparison? J.W. Tonkin, who has researched many Herefordshire inventories, suggests that multiplying the figure by 300 would lead to a more reliable estimate (in D. Coleman, Kingstone: The story of a Herefordshire village from Domesday to the present time, Lapridge Publications, 1996, p.131). In that case, John Markye's estate would be worth more than £34,000, which seems more reasonable considering the quality of his possessions and the size of his house.
One of the reasons it is so difficult to make monetary comparisons between earlier periods and the present day is the relative value of goods. The most valued piece of furniture, for example, was the bed. In wills people would specify which bed a person was to inherit. One William Popkin of Kingstone, for example, in 1607 left to his daughter Joan, "the second feather bed now in my house with appurtenances thereto belonging viz; one bedsteed, one double canvas, one pair of flaxen sheets and 2 pair of hurden sheets." (D. Coleman, p.136)
Another difficulty one must keep in mind is that often a kindly appraiser would undervalue goods - a lower figure on the assets would mean lower probate fees. The inventory of Alice Kyrle, whom we will encounter next, values her "twenty two pewter dishes, small and great, five saucers, one great plate and three little plates, two basons one cullender, and one Cestern all of Pewter" at 26s 8d (Hughes and Hurley, p.167). Was pewter really that cheap, or was the appraiser being generous?
A perhaps unexpected feature of townhouses is that most people, if they could afford to, kept some animals. Even John Kyrle, the gentleman of Ross who has been immortalised by the poet Alexander Pope as "the Man of Ross", kept a number of animals behind his impressive timber-framed townhouse. Once again we gain this information from a probate inventory, this time that of his mother Alice Kyrle, who died in 1663. She left an estate worth £450.00. According to the inventory Kyrle House, which is situated in a prime location in the market area next to the market hall, had a stable with a hayloft at the back, a hut for keeping a couple of pigs, wood and coal, and a brewhouse next to the kitchen (Hughes and Hurley, pp.166-173).
The Old House in Hereford's High Town (HER 415) is one of the finest Tudor timber-framed townhouses in the country. This picturesque three-storey house was built in 1621 and is furnished in 17th century style. The Old House is open to the public free of charge.
Herefordshire is full of pretty country inns and pubs, many of which are very old. Not all started out as public houses and not all have remained in the business of serving the public. A series of books on the pubs of Herefordshire has been published by Logaston Press, so only a few examples of the many interesting public houses in the county will be discussed here.
The Man of Ross pub in Ross-on-Wye became a pub in 1847. It takes its name from the John Kyrle who was mentioned earlier, and is a good example of a brick and rubble building from the 17th century which has been re-faced (Hughes and Hurley, p.41).
The King's Head, in High Street, Ross-on-Wye, which also is built of brick now has a 19th century front. Inside, however, are still some late 17th century panelled doors and cellars. It became a coaching inn from the early 18th century.
According to Heather Hurley, only two pubs in Ross were in continuous use from the 17th century without a change of name. One is The King's Head, the other the Crown and Sceptre on Market Place (Hughes and Hurley, pp.51, 63). This 17th century building, however, is timber framed. The Great Fire of London in 1666 caused new building regulations to be introduced in London and spelt the end of timber buildings there. As a much safer alternative to timber, brick became fashionable in towns everywhere.
The Church Ale House in Colwall is an interesting example of a community gathering place where the drinking of ale was condoned. This particular timbered building has been dated by dendrochronology to 1530. The puritans, however, disapproved of ale houses and the Church Ale House in Colwall was turned into almshouses; other ale houses became schools.
Pubs, too, sometimes changed their use, as for example the 17th century timber-framed house in Leominster which used to be the Old Cross Keys pub and is now a private dwelling called Preservation House (Ron Shoesmith and Roger Barrett, The Pubs of Leominster, Kington and North-west Herefordshire, Logaston Press, 2000, pp.235-236). Likewise, the New Inn at Brilley also ceased being a public house (Shoesmith and Barrett, pp.62-63). In the 1920 sale particulars, numerous outbuildings are mentioned: a two-stall stable and fowl house. a cider mill with press, a barn with a mixing shed, a two-tie cow house, a coach house and a store room. Orchards and pasture totalling four acres were also included in the sale. It must have been useful having a cider mill and press attached to a pub!
Collecting pub names and investigating their origins can be a diverting pastime. The New Inn in Pembridge ironically is one of the oldest in the county, dating to the early 17th century. This timber-framed building, which used to be called Cooke's Public House, is situated on the north side of the picturesque market square in Pembridge, and was previously the court house before becoming a public house.
The Greyhound pub in Pembridge has in recent times been a visitor centre and tea rooms. Note that the timber framing is more close-set in this 16th century building than in the previously mentioned New Inn. The name "Greyhound" is probably derived from the use of greyhounds in hunting, although a mail coach which ran between London and Birmingham was named the "Greyhound" and stopping off places along the way were occasionally called "The Greyhound". Interestingly, although the Greyhound in Pembridge had been out of use as a public house for many years, it was converted back into a pub and restaurant in 2003 and is now known as The King's House. (Shoesmith and Barrett, pp.262-263)
If buildings could speak then The Green Man in Fownhope would have lots of interesting stories to tell. This pub, which the landlord claims dates from 1485, was once a magistrates' court and a coaching inn. During the Civil War, Colonel Birch was said to have stayed here after his siege of Goodrich Castle in 1645, and during the 19th century there are associations with Tom Winter (also known as Tom Spring), England's bare-knuckle boxing champion, who was born in Fownhope. He later became a pub landlord in London. (Shoesmith and Barrett, pp.148-149)
[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2003]