Bolling Hall Tudor Trail
ANSWERS
1) There will be a large delivery of 3 sacks of oatmeal which will be used in the next
months to make bread – where in the kitchen are you going to store the oatmeal?
In the Meal Ark. Flour was very expensive so people stored large quantities of
barley and oatmeal.
2) Which of these meats that Tudor guests like to eat is hanging ready to go in a pie?
Rabbit. Though Tudors would have eaten all of the other meats as well !
3) There’s so much to cook you will need more fuel for the fire- what are you going to
bring in from outside ?
Wood
4) Bolling Hall is like most Tudor Houses and there are lots of mice in the kitchen– can
you find something to help get rid of the mice? What is it ?
A wooden mousetrap – this is on the table. It was very common to find mice and
rats in Tudor homes.
5) They’ll be a delivery of goods from other countries to impress the guests .They are
very expensive. Can you find some money to pay for the delivery? Look next to the
money to help you write a list of 3 things that might be delivered:
Potatoes ,cocoa, coffee beans, tea, cloves, spices
6) There are cows kept near to the hall to provide food and milk.
You will need to make some butter for the feast.
Find and draw one of the things in this room that you would use to help you make
butter.
Students may want to draw the butter churns by the side door (these are not
Tudor but look like those used in Tudor times), butter moulds, butter stone or
butter moulds located in the dresser.
8) The hall will need to look its best for the guests. The Tempests are very proud of
their expensive stained glass windows - The glass windows will need to be nice and
clean with special attention paid to the Tempest family crest and shield. Can you find
them in the window?
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What can you see on the crests that will help you remember which ones they are?
Students to study crests in window
9) The morning after the feast there will be a hunt in the woods surrounding Tudor
Bradford. Which animals are mounted up on the walls that have been killed on hunts
before?
Deer. There are deer’s antlers and heads on the wall.
Boar. There is a boars head on the wall above the dresser.
10) Your rich guests will eat lots of sugary food at the feast. If someone gets a
toothache while they are staying at Bolling Hall it would be your job as a servant to pull
out the aching tooth – can you find something to do this with?
There is an instrument used to pull teeth in the Tudors case by the library door.
Rotten teeth were common in Tudor times especially amongst those rich enough
to be able to afford and eat sugar.
11) Can you find these things in the ceiling and draw them in the boxes below:
Students to draw parts of the ceiling.
12) How many guests will you be able to fit in this room – how many single wooden
chairs are there?
10 Chairs.
13) What kind of food do you think they might ask you to make in here using stale
bread and the special metal tool near the fireplace?
Toast – Bread in Tudor times was often stale so people liked toast!
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14) The beds will need to be made – the mattresses are held up by pieces of rope
which need to be tightened. Can you find an iron bed key that you would use to tighten
the bed ropes?
The bed key is in the Tudor objects case .Tudor beds were constructed with lots
of ropes and mattresses stuffed with feather if you were rich, straw if you were
not. Beds were often passed on down families as an important possession.
15) In the corner of this room is a smaller room with a curtain ‘the garderobe’. There
are no other rooms like this in the rest of the house and no one has told you what it is
used for. Can you look at it and try to work out what it is used for?
The ‘garderobe’ was a toilet. This was a hole with a seat over it where everything
would have fallen down into a pit below. The smells in these rooms was
welcomed by the Tudors who would hang clothes in these spaces to deter
moths and where the name ‘garderobe’ or ‘guarding the robes’ comes from.
16) You will need to hang up the mistresses best clothes up in the garderobe. This is
to make sure they pick up some of the smells to put off the moths ! What else can you
find that you could use to help the clothes or mistress Tempest smell better? Circle the
things that Tudors would have used to help them smell nice!
Balls of soap
Pomanders.
Rich Tudors probably washed quite often using a bowl of water, soap and a
cloth .A poor Tudor who could not get clean water probably hardly ever washed!
Pomanders were often carried on waist chains and were thought to ward off
disease and help mask unpleasant odors.
17) There are lots of storage chests in the room. You will need to tidy clothes into one
of them and valuables in the other. Which chest will you put clothes in, which will you
put valuables in – why?
Valuables were stored in heavy metal chests which could be locked using
padlocks and keys. Clothes would have been stored in the larger wooden
chests. Tudors didn’t have wardrobes!
Scores
15- 17: Hired Well done promoted to serving staff
10 – 14: Hired allowed to work out of sight
Under 10: Fired ! thrown out of the hall !
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