Taking a Tour of a Tudor Hall with Matthew Wainwright

This week is a very special one for me, because my new book, ‘Through Water and Fire’, was released on 31st October. It’s always exciting to have a new book out, and to watch it find its way into the hands of readers.

The reason I’m telling you this is because I want to talk a bit about the setting for the story. It takes place in the Tudor period – during the reign of King Henry VIII – and it’s mostly set in a grand manor house or hall, which I’ve called Lockwood Hall.

Lockwood Hall is fictional – I made it up – but it’s based on a very real place called Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. It’s quite a famous Tudor manor house, and brilliantly preserved. If you go there today you’ll find parts of it looking much as they would have 500 years ago - and I definitely recommend you visit if you can!

Haddon Hall, near Bakewell, Derbyshire (Image: Rene Cortin, Wikimedia Commons)

When I was researching the book I looked at a lot of photographs of Haddon Hall, and planned out where various parts of the story would happen (in my version, Lockwood Hall). My main character, Grace, is a visitor to the hall, so there was plenty of opportunity for her to find her way around and explore the various nooks and crannies along with the reader.

Here’s how I describe Lockwood Hall the first time Grace sees it:

“The Hall was vast; hardly a house at all, but more like a small village, with a dozen halls and buildings sprawled over half an acre and a high wall running all the way around. Tall roofs bristled with chimneys, red brick shone ruddy in the sunlight, and rows of glazed windows flashed and gleamed.”

You’ll notice I’ve picked out three distinctive features of these great Tudor houses:

1. Brick walls. Go to any Tudor palace from the time of Henry VIII (such as Hampton Court Palace) and you’ll see they were beginning to be made of bricks rather than stone. Haddon Hall is a mixture of the two, as it was built in the late medieval period, just before the Tudor period.

Hampton Court Palace (Image: DiscoA340, Wikimedia Commons)

2. Chimneys. Tudor palaces were famous for the number of fireplaces, each one served by a chimney. Fireplaces replaced the open hearth, and were more efficient and safer. Again, look at Hampton Court palace and you’ll see just how it ‘bristles’ with chimneys!

3. Glazed windows. Glass windows were still very much for the rich, and tended to be ‘mullioned’ – this means the panes of glass were very small, and joined together with strips of lead, often in a diamond shape. Poorer people still had open windows without any glass in them, and would have shutters that could be closed for warmth and privacy. Lockwood Hall also has stained glass windows in its main hall, which you would usually find in churches.

I think I’ve also made Lockwood Hall much larger than the real-life Haddon Hall – but I like to think that this is how it appears to Grace rather than it being the reality! We all know how big and confusing large buildings can seem on our first visit.

Here are some of the places that Grace comes across in the story, and the kinds of things that would have happened there.

Courtyard

Haddon Hall lower courtyard and front door. (Image: Rob Bendall, Wikimedia Commons)

In Lockwood Hall, the courtyard is the hub of all outdoor activity. It’s where visitors are received and groups of people prepare to ride out to hunt or visit local towns. Only the wealthiest Tudor families had enclosed courtyards – many manor houses were built in an E or H shape, with open spaces to the front or back.

Houses would have been self-sufficient, with everything the family needed provided on-site. This meant not just cooks and kitchens, but a blacksmith, a carpenter (or two), farriers (who took care of the horses’ feet specifically), dairy workers, launderers and more, all amounting to a small army of servants who kept the house and the family going.

In Lockwood Hall I’ve placed these trades around what is called the Lower Courtyard. This is probably a bit unrealistic, as the family wouldn’t want important visitors to be confronted by the sight of chickens being plucked! But it gives the house a real sense of life, so I’ve used some artistic licence.

Great Hall

Christmas revels in Haddon Hall (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Through the huge front door is a small antechamber (literally a ‘before-room’) where guests might wait to see the lord of the manor. Just off the antechamber is the Great Hall.

Coming out of the medieval period, the hall was still the absolute heart of any great Tudor home. This was where most of the life of the house took place: servants ate and even slept here, visitors were received and entertained, and the enormous room was filled with people and activity from dawn until dusk.

Haddon Hall Great Hall today (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

In smaller houses floors were of packed earth; in the case of Lockwood Hall it is stone. Rush mats were laid down for warmth and cleanliness, like a huge, stiff carpet laid down in sections. Trestle tables could be put out and cleared away quickly, along with benches and stools for guests to sit on and eat. Tapestries hung from the walls provided insulation and a riot of colour. An enormous fireplace would have provided warmth (along with a considerable fire hazard!)

Haddon Hall Great Hall fireplace (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Much of the action in the book takes place in the Great Hall – there are feasts, celebrations, homecomings, and even some hostage-holding!

Parlour

Haddon Hall parlour (Image: Elliott Brown, Wikimedia Commons)

Just off the Great Hall is a smaller room called the parlour. This is where the family would have received visitors more privately, and sometimes have eaten their meals together away from the noise and bustle of the hall.

The parlour in Lockwood Hall (as in Haddon Hall) is wood-panelled, with a generous fireplace. It would have been a warm and comfortable place to sit in the long winter evenings!

Haddon Hall, two carved figures in the parlour (Image: Michael Garlick, Wikimedia Commons)

It’s in this parlour that Grace first meets the Lockwood family – her aunt and cousins. She returns later in the book for two more important confrontations, where she is faced with a choice each time: betray someone else to save her skin, or stay loyal and end up in trouble or worse!

Chapel

Haddon Hall chapel (Image: John Salmon, Wikimedia Commons)

Back out the front door and across the courtyard is the chapel. Religion was the lifeblood of Tudor existence – everyone believed in God (to a greater or lesser extent) and everyone went to church. Rich families would have their own chapel for private worship, and for their staff and servants to use to take the mass – bread and wine that represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ (and which most people believed became the actual flesh and blood of Jesus by a miracle called ‘transubstantiation’ – try saying that seven times fast!)

At the time my book is set – 1527 — religion was undergoing enormous upheavals all across Europe. A movement that became known as the Reformation was underway, in which people were beginning to question the absolute authority of the Roman Catholic church, and instead turning to their own reading of the Bible to understand how God wanted them to lead their lives.

Martin Luther protesting against Catholic teaching, 1517 (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

This was a monumental change, and it was enabled by the translation of the Bible into the common languages that people read at the time: German, French, English and others. Until that time, in England, people had only ever had access to the Bible in Latin, and had relied on the priests and other church officials to explain it to them. Some people had translated the Bible into English around a hundred years before, but the practice had been outlawed and many of those Bibles burned.

Bibles being burned, from 'Foxe's Book of Martyrs' (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

In 1527, owning an English Bible – or even just reading one – was still illegal, and people who did were at risk of being arrested and executed for heresy and treason. The Lockwood family in my book are Reformation supporters, and so (to the surprise of Grace) they hold their worship services in English rather than Latin – that is, until a certain guest turns up …

Those are just some of the locations that feature in ‘Through Water and Fire’. There’s also a tense confrontation in a garden, a shocking slap in a bedroom, and a secret tunnel leading to a very mysterious location – but I don’t have time to go into that now. You’ll just have to read the book!

Writing challenge

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about some of the places in a Tudor house. I really enjoyed travelling through the hall in my mind and deciding what would happen where.

For your writing challenge this week I want you to do the same! You have two choices:

1. Download the map of Lockwood Hall, and plan out your own story of someone arriving at the house and discovering a thrilling secret. Maybe someone has got their hands on an illegal English Bible and is on the run from the law! Think what the purpose of each of the locations was, and plan your story around that.

Lockwood Hall. Right-click on the image to download and print it. (Image: Noami Berry, Wakeman Trust)

2. Draw a map of a building you know well. It could be your home, or your school. Plan out a story that takes place in every room. Think about what is in each room that you could use as part of the story. Maybe even add a secret passage of your own …!

Enjoy your writing challenge, and happy Time Tunnelling!

About the author

Matthew Wainwright is an author of children's historical fiction, and a member of the Time Tunnellers. His first book, 'Out of the Smoke' is set in Victorian London and was inspired by the work of Lord Shaftesbury with chimney sweeps and street gangs. His second book, 'Through Water and Fire', is set in Tudor England and features Anne Boleyn and the English Reformation.

For more information on Matthew and his books, visit his website: matthewwainwright.co.uk

You can buy 'Through Water and Fire' online, or from your local bookshop. Buy here.

The World's Deadliest Book, by Matthew Wainwright

Throughout history there have been many dangerous books.

Sometimes books are labelled as ‘dangerous’ because they contain ideas that the authorities consider dangerous for people to read. Sometimes it's how people react to the books that is dangerous: people have been threatened, or even killed, because they had read, written or possessed some books. Sometimes the books really are dangerous, because the people who wrote them are trying to encourage people to hurt or attack others.

But why are books in particular objects of such contention? Why have people banned books, and why do they continue to ban books?

It's because books are vehicles for ideas—they’re one of the main ways that people express themselves to the world at large—and if humans are good at anything it’s getting upset at other people’s ideas!

The book we’re talking about today is perhaps one of the most contentious in the world. Certainly many people have died because of the things that it says, and because they have either supported it or disagreed with it. And yet it’s a book that many people in this country will have read, even if it’s just in part, and you’re probably never far from a copy.

'Tyndale's Bible' (Wikimedia Commons)

The book is called The Bible, and it’s the book that most Christians use as their guide for life and faith. It can be called a ‘dangerous’ or ‘deadly’ book for two of the reasons listed above: various people throughout history have said that its ideas are dangerous; and people have sometimes reacted dangerously to those who read or possess it.

The Bible is a fantastic example of how people react to books, and it helps us to think about the power of books and reading. Let’s go down a Time Tunnel and find out a bit about one of the most influential (and dangerous!) books ever written …

'Gutenberg Bible' (Wikimedia Commons)

The name ‘The Bible’ comes from a Greek phrase ‘ta biblia’, which simply means ‘the books’. It’s made up of several dozen parts, which were written and brought together over the course of about two thousand years. It includes Jewish religious writings, history, and poetry, as well as letters and accounts written by the followers of Jesus.

The first parts of the Bible (called the Old Testament) were written (for the most part) in ancient Hebrew. These parts were carefully handed down by the nation of Israel, and they were translated into Greek during the reign of Alexander the Great (about two or three hundred years before the birth of Jesus). Greek was the main language of the Middle East at the time, and people wanted to be able to read the Jewish holy texts in their own language.

After Jesus arrived, and founded what came to be called the Christian religion, his followers added their own writings (the New Testament) to the Jewish books, this time writing in Greek. By this time the Roman Empire had taken over most of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Romans spoke Latin, but most common people still spoke and wrote in Greek.

Page of the Bible in Latin (Wikimedia Commons)

Over time, however, Latin took over as the main language of the Empire, and as Christianity grew and spread and became an important part of Roman society, the Bible was translated again—this time into Latin. Once again, people wanted to be able to read this important book in their own language.

Eventually Christianity grew into the dominant religion in Europe, and the Christian Church, led by the Pope, became a powerful religious and political entity. After the fall of the Roman Empire Latin faded away as the language of common people, replaced by the various languages and dialects of the new European kingdoms—including the kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, ruled by Alfred the Great, in what we now call England.

Statue of Alfred the Great in Winchester (Wikimedia Commons)

At this point the Bible was still in Latin, and for the most part only those who were educated could read it. Various people, including King Alfred and a monk called Bede, translated parts of the Bible into the language of their people—but there was no complete Bible translation until the 1300s, when a man called John Wycliffe (with others) translated the Bible into English for the first time.

The Church of Rome was not happy about this, however, and in 1401 a law was passed that made Bible translation illegal. Many English Bibles were burned, and those who possessed them were arrested.

For over a hundred years there was no more Bible translation—until, in 1525, a man named William Tyndale printed a new English translation of the New Testament. At this point Bible translation was still illegal in England, however, so Tyndale had to work from Europe, in Antwerp.

Reconstruction of an early moveable type printing press (Wikimedia Commons)

Tyndale’s efforts were supported by the invention of the moveable type printing press some years before. Instead of having to hand-write each new copy, hundreds of copies of Tyndale’s translation could be printed at a time, meaning that his New Testament could be read by thousands of people very quickly, in their own language.

Tyndale’s supporters smuggled these printed copies of the New Testament into England, sometimes by hiding them in bales of hay. Those who did so literally risked their lives—the punishment for heresy and treason was execution by burning.

Religion in Europe was changing. Academics were beginning to question the absolute authority of the Roman Church, and King Henry VIII of England was beginning to wonder why he should have to obey the word of a Pope who lived in a city thousands of miles away.

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (Wikimedia Commons)

Spurred on by his desire to get rid of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and marry the much younger Anne Boleyn, Henry broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Church of England, with himself as its head. Gradually, opposition to an English Bible faded, and the first official English Bibles began to appear in churches.

This came too late to save Tyndale, who was betrayed, arrested, and burned at the stake in 1536. Some historians also think that Anne Boleyn’s eventual arrest and execution was partly due to her over-enthusiastic support for those who wanted religious change—along with her failure to give Henry the son he so desperately wanted.

Statue of William Tyndale, Victoria Embankment Gardens, London (Wikimedia Commons)

What followed was a time of immense upheaval. Allegiances and religious opinions changed sometimes overnight, and the wrong word could easily lead to arrest and execution. Many people suffered and died because of their beliefs at this time, on both sides of the argument. Some of the tensions continue to this day!

Now the Bible has been translated into nearly every language in the world, and there are numerous English translations to choose from. It is still a ‘dangerous’ book, and people still use it to justify doing terrible things to each other—but there are also many people who find its message life-changing, and who use its teachings to guide them into acts of kindness and charity.

All this helps us to understand the power of books. It’s amazing to think that paper and ink can hold such sway over the hearts and minds of people. But after all, it isn’t the paper or the ink that influences people, but the ideas they communicate.

No matter what you think of the Bible—or the Qur’an, or the Talmud, or the sacred texts of Hinduism or Buddhism or any other religion—they are remarkable objects, because they help us to travel through time and hear the thoughts and beliefs of people living thousands of years ago. Those people are long dead, but they still speak to us today through these books.

Whether it is a religious text, or an epic Greek poem, or a play by Shakespeare, or a novel by Dickens, or the latest bestseller that we read on a Kindle—books help us to communicate through time and space. They really are remarkable, and they should be treasured.

Writing challenge

For this week’s writing challenge we’re celebrating books! It’s a really simple challenge (hardly a challenge at all): just write a couple of lines about something you have read that you think everyone should read.

It could be a long book, a short book, a comic book, a poem, or anything else that you have read. Tell everyone why they should read it, and why it means so much to you.

That’s it! Happy reading and writing, and keep time tunnelling!

 

Matthew Wainwright is an author of historical fiction for children and teenagers.

You can preorder Through Water and Fire (released 31st October 2023) here. (Free UK postage on all preorders)

Out of the Smoke is available at all good bookshops and online.

You can find out more about Matthew and his books on his website.

Greenwich Palace: London's Lost Palace by Matthew Wainwright

The Mary Rose: Ship of Stories

In my Tudor-set adventure, The Queen’s Fool, my heroes, young orphan girl, Cat Sparrow and her new-found friend, French boy, Jacques Bonhomme find themselves voyaging across the English Channel to Calais as part of King Henry VIII’s entourage bound for the grand Anglo-French peace celebrations at the Field of Cloth of Gold in June 1520.

Contemporary painting of Henry VIII's flagship, 'The Mary Rose'

The sea journey presented a brilliant opportunity to include an exciting chase scene with the villain which results in poor Jacques falling overboard and which leads on to a dramatic ‘reveal’ that hopefully young readers won’t see coming.

To write these shipboard scenes meant that I needed to understand the layout and construction of Tudor ships, how you might have boarded them – by small boats and a set of ropes, ladders and nets as it turns out – and what life both above and below deck was like for passengers and crew.

A key primary resource proved to be an ‘old friend’ – the wreck of King Henry’s favourite warship and flagship, The Mary Rose, which had been part of the king’s escort of ships that day on the journey across to France.  I’m fortunate enough to live within an hour’s drive of Portsmouth Harbour where, over four centuries after her dramatic sinking at the end of Henry’s reign, the remains of The Mary Rose were discovered and, in 1982, brought to the surface in an event broadcast across the world.

A miraculous resurrection 

In fact it was as a teenager that I paid my first ever visit to see what was left of The Mary Rose, not long after she first went on public display in the mid 1980s in a covered dry dock

at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard – though at the time the surviving timbers of the wreck were heavily veiled in plastic and being sprayed with water to keep them from drying out. I returned several times over the years as they were further treated with preserving chemicals and then, finally, air-dried. 

'The Mary Rose' as she looks today on display at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

I was also keen to see the amazing artefacts which had been excavated from the wreck and put on display after conservation, in a new, purpose-built museum on the site. So in a small way I got personally caught up, like so many other visitors over the years, in the story of the exciting discovery, ground-breaking excavation and conservation of the ship.  

But the wreck of The Mary Rose harbours other, equally fascinating stories. These include the part the ship played in the history of the early English navy, how she came to sink on that fateful day back in 1545 and the lives – and deaths – of the men who formed her crew.

Pride of a king

For 34 years after her construction and launch in Portsmouth in 1511, The Mary Rose was the pride of King Henry VIII’s navy. A 600 ton carrack and one of the earliest known examples of a purpose-built sailing warship, she was reputedly built to the young king’s own design. She saw a number of actions over the years in battles and skirmishes against the French navy and in the defence against King James IV of Scotland’s attempted invasion of England. And records also show that she underwent a substantial refit during the 1530s with the addition of a number of extra, heavy guns.

 Portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein

Her final action took place on 19^th July 1545, when she was part of an English fleet of 80 vessels involved in a face-off against over 200 ships of the French navy gathered in the Solent – the stretch of water between Portsmouth Harbour and the Isle of Wight. The French were on a mission of revenge for Henry VIII’s capture of the French town of Boulogne the previous year, and Henry himself came down to watch the action from nearby Southsea Castle.

But what actually caused The Mary Rose to sink? A surviving eye-witness reported that, seeking to engage the enemy, she fired first from her starboard side, then turned about to fire from her port side. But as she made the turn, her sails were caught by a gust of wind and she was blown over. This resulted in her still-open starboard gun-ports taking on water as they dipped below the waterline.

The sinking of the Mary Rose in the Solent (detail from The Cowdray Engraving)

Alternative theories emerged over time including that there had been too many guns and soldiers on board, or that the earlier refit of the vessel had resulted in some fundamental design flaws. There was even the suggestion that the officers or crew might not have been up to the job. The French themselves maintained they had holed the ship with a cannonball, though none of these claims has ever been convincingly substantiated.

Whatever the full story, it took no more than a handful of minutes for The Mary Rose to disappear beneath the waves with the loss of almost the entire crew. Estimates vary but it is believed over 450 men drowned that day with around only 35 survivors. 

A porthole into the past

For me the most intriguing stories are to be found in the huge haul of archaeological treasures painstakingly excavated from the mud of the seabed. These represent a sort of Tudor time-capsule, illuminating both the operation of a ship of Henry VIII’s navy and the day-to-day lives of the mariners, soldiers, gunners and servants on board. Stand-out items include the ship’s bell; the cannon bearing the King’s personal Tudor rose symbol; the chests of Yew longbows and thousands of arrows for use by the archers in battle; the two great brick ovens and cauldrons and the eating utensils used to serve the crew their food, not forgetting the detachable mast-top which crowned the ship’s main mast.

Just some  of the archery bows, arrows and other weapons salvaged from the wreck

Other highlights are the more personal items belonging to individual crew members, all of them male, most young adults and some just boys. These range from leather shoes, jerkins and hats to dice, gaming boards and musical instruments including something called a shawm – an early type of oboe. Also writing materials including ink pots, quill pens and even leather book covers, though the pages have long since rotted away. 

A leather jerkin (left), and a home-made gaming board, fiddle and bundle of needles and thread (right)

                                                             

 Leather book cover 

And then there are tools of the trade belonging to men of the ship’s company such as the carpenter – including his mallet, planes and rulers – and the surgeon, whose belongings – his canisters  of ointments, metal syringes and a bowl to collect the patient’s blood during blood-letting – I found particularly intriguing because of a crucial scene I set in the surgeon’s cabin on board ship in The Queen’s Fool. 

 Items from the surgeon's chest     

Finally, there are the remains – human and animal – which tell their own tales. For example the bones of men believed to have been archers, which show the stress caused to arm and shoulder muscles and joints by the regular shooting of many arrows. And the isotope analysis of teeth which has allowed historians to demonstrate that the crew were not only of English origin but that some of them came from places as far afield as the Mediterranean and North Africa.

'Hatch', the ship's dog

And perhaps my favourite find of all – the skeleton of a small dog discovered outside the carpenter’s cabin.  Nicknamed Hatch by the museum team and identified from his bones as a sort of terrier, similar to a modern day Jack Russell, he is believed to have been the ship’s ratter. And as relatively few rat bones were found in the wreck, the museum staff reckon he must have been pretty good at his job!

Scarcely any personal information is known about the individuals who went down with King Henry VIII’s great flagship that day nearly 500 years ago. But through the treasure-trove of objects rescued from the deep, we are part way at least to bringing them and their stories back to life.

 More information about the fascinating and inspirational artefacts and stories connected with The Mary Rose is available from the museum website here.

View Ally’s video on The Mary Rose on YouTube Kids here.

Ally Sherrick is the award-winning author of stories full of history, mystery and adventure.

BLACK  POWDER, her debut novel about a boy caught up in the Gunpowder Plot, won the  Historical Association’s Young Quills Award. Other titles include THE BURIED CROWN, a wartime tale with a whiff of Anglo-Saxon myth and magic and THE QUEEN’S FOOL, a story of treachery and treason set at the court of King Henry VIII. Ally’s latest book, published in February 2023 with Chicken House Books, is VITA AND THE GLADIATOR, the story of a young girl’s fight for justice in the high-stakes world of London’s gladiatorial arena.

Ally’s books are available from bookshop.org.uk and all good high street bookshops

For more information visit Ally's website. You can also follow her on Twitter @ally_sherrick