About the Unit

Schools Learning Zone About the unit Key questions: TEACHER NOTES Parham House, Sussex (Tudors) page 1 of 9 This unit is designed to support the local history study of Parham What were the main features of Tudor buildings? Park, Sussex. It is hoped that the key historical themes of enquiry How do we know what life was like for people in Tudor times? and interpretation will enhance pupils’ understanding of life in a wealthy country house in Tudor times. This is a skills-based unit; it QCA scheme of work: Why did Henry VIII marry six times? can be taught in its entirety, or broken up into separate sessions and http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/history/his7/? incorporated in other curriculum areas. view=get

The architectural evolution of a building provides us with an insight QCA scheme of work: What were the effects of Tudor exploration? into the social and economic changes experienced by the people http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/history/his19/ who lived there. The focus of this study is to identify some of the ?view=get remaining features of Parham’s Tudor past. Ideally the unit would be taught in conjunction with a visit to the house, but the activities QCA scheme of work: What was it like to live here in the past? also stand alone in the comparison of Parham with other Tudor http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/history/his18/ properties. ?view=get

The key question for the unit is:

What was life like in a wealthy Tudor country house?

Where the unit fits This unit is designed to address the current (2008) Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 History and Geography curriculum:

Key Stages 1 – 2 QCA scheme of work: What were the differences between the lives of rich and poor people in Tudor times? http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/history/his8/? view=get

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You may photocopy this sheet TEACHER NOTES Parham House, Sussex (Tudors) page 2 of 9 Key questions:

What is the area like today? How can we use maps to explore how the area has changed? What can local buildings tell us about the past? What was it like to live here?

This unit encourages enquiry based learning through a range of historical sources. It links with citizenship themes of local identity, conservation and social responsibility.

Key Stage 3 QCA scheme of work: What can we learn from portraits 1500-1750? http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/secondary_hi story/his07/?view=get

QCA scheme of work: Investigating your local area (Geography) http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/geography/ge o6/?view=get

It has many opportunities for cross-curricular links with English, Art, Drama, Science and ICT.

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Learning outcomes A few children will be able to: At the end of this unit …  Assimilate and compare evidence from a variety of sources.  Ask more complex questions that lead to a variety of Most children will: interpretations.  Be able to use simple sources such as photographs to  Describe how people use buildings to indicate changes in identify features of a rich Tudor residence. their social status.  Be able to ask questions and explain their thinking.  Understand that old buildings can incorporate many different building styles.  Present and share their findings in an interesting way.

Some children will:  Be able to use different sources to gather more detailed information.  Be able to extend their thinking to interpret evidence and ask relevant questions.  Understand that buildings can tell us about the lives of people who lived there.

www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools © University of London You may photocopy this sheet TEACHER NOTES Parham House, Sussex (Tudors) page 4 of 9 The ‘Keywords’ and ‘Make the Link’ sheets encourage pupils to Teacher notes for the pupil activity sheets make links between factual knowledge and concepts. They can use The pupil activities and worksheets are not based on lesson plans. different colours to highlight the various links they have thought of With the current focus on creativity and with all classes having and use these as starting points for class discussions and problem differing needs, materials are presented with background solving. information, key vocabulary and cross curricular links. ‘What Was the Question?’ lists encourage pupils to extend both The National Curriculum outlines the necessary historical their subject knowledge and higher order questioning skills. knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils need to have experienced through Key Stages 1 to 3: These activities promote active learning and creative thinking.

 chronological understanding  knowledge of events, people and changes in the past  historical interpretation  historical enquiry  organisation and communication

Topic planning complements the QCA history units and makes cross curricular links wherever possible.

The ‘Mind Maps’, ‘Keywords’, ‘Make the Link’ and ‘What Was the Question?’ sheets are thinking skills based, rather than content driven. They aim to promote creativity and lateral thought by interlinking topics and are appropriate for all learning styles.

The ‘Mind Maps’ are good for presenting concepts. They can be used as starter and plenary activities, as well as subject overviews for pre and post-learning assessments.

www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools © University of London You may photocopy this sheet TEACHER NOTES Parham House, Sussex (Tudors) page 5 of 9 Sir Thomas Palmer’s grandson, Thomas, let the house to Sir A brief history of Parham in Tudor times Thomas Bishop of nearby Henfield, who bought it in 1601. It was he The current house has undergone many changes over the years; as who furnished the house. each owner has added their individual touches as time and finances allowed. A royal connection In 1571 William Palmer married Elizabeth Verney, one of Queen The earliest record of a building on the site was made in 1356-7. Elizabeth’s many god-daughters, who had appointed William’s father, Sir Thomas Palmer, as her guardian in 1559. The medieval building was living accommodation for the monks who ran a farm at Parham for the Abbey of St Peter at Westminster. Life on the high seas Monastic farms were known as granges. When William died, his son, Thomas inherited Parham. He was a keen traveller, and fought with Drake and Hawkins and was How did Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries affect knighted after the Battle of Cadiz. He decided to live in Spain and Parham Park? died there in 1605. In 1540, at the Dissolution of the monastery of Westminster, Henry VIII, granted Parham to Robert Palmer, a London mercer. The Tudor architecture foundation stone for the Elizabethan house was laid by Sir There were several key developments in building styles during the Thomas’s two-and-a-half year old grandson, in January 1578. Tudor period. The homes of the rich reflected the changing social and economic situation; the need for defence gave way to The Elizabethan House ostentatious displays of wealth and comfort. Robert Palmer died in 1544. It was his son, Sir Thomas Palmer, who was responsible for the building of the Elizabethan house. The house plan was shaped like an ‘H’, a popular lay-out at that time. It had a long narrow range going east to west, with cross wings at each end going north to south. The west half of the east-west range contained the Great Hall and the main reception rooms; the Great Parlour; Withdrawing Room and a bedchamber on the ground floor, with the Great Chamber and another bedchamber on the floor above. Rooms for the family to use every day were at the east end of the house, with the kitchen in the basement of the east wing. The top floor of the main range was filled with the Long Gallery. The family in a house like Parham included the upper servants, some of whom were probably related or connected to the owner.

www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools © University of London You may photocopy this sheet TEACHER NOTES Parham House, Sussex (Tudors) page 6 of 9 braziers or, in the case of the Great Hall, from a central hearth - Who was responsible for the design of a building? smoke from it escaped through a wooden ‘louvre’ in the roof There were no architectural profession at this time. The owner explained what was expected, often citing current designs in books Tudor Windows or examples he or she had seen when travelling overseas. Designs Glass became more available in Tudor times. It was expensive but often combined traditional forms and new classical ideas. A surveyor gave more light than the wooden or horn shutters that had been made ‘platts and uprights’ (scale plans and elevations), to guide the used previously. Windows were made up of small panes of glass building work done by master craftsmen – masons, carpenters, held together with strips of soft lead. Windows with glass were a glaziers and plasterers. The whole building process was usually status symbol and the rich showed off their wealth by having as costly, lengthy and owners often changed their minds during their many windows as they could afford. process, or died before completion.

Building with timber Parham’s Tudor rooms: Timbers used for building was usually ‘green’ or newly cut oak, elm The Great Hall or ash because it was easier to saw. The sawyers laid the tree trunk across a saw-pit, with one man in the pit and the other on the pit The Great Hall was where many of the household and visitors ate edge. A huge two-man saw was used to cut up the trunk. The their meals. The wooden panelling, huge windows, elaborate plaster beams were trimmed and smoothed with an ‘adze’, a woodworking ceilings, furniture, tapestries and portraits show that this was a tool similar to an axe. wealthy residence. A large fireplace provided welcome heating and the stone-flagged floor would be covered in rush mats. Lighting was Carpenters often cut all the beams for a house in the timberyard. provided by rush lights (rushes dipped in fat) or candles - sweeter They would number them so that they could be put together smelling beeswax candles were very expensive and reserved for the correctly at the building site. The Tudors did not use nails to hold best rooms. The most important members of the household sat on wooden beams together instead they used various types of joints chairs at the head table, on a raised platform at one end of the hall. and wooden pegs. The mortice and tenon joint was common in The lesser servants sat on benches or stools at long tables down Tudor houses. the length of the room. Unlike some Tudor houses, Parham did not have a minstrels’ gallery; instead two internal latticed windows Bricks and chimneys allowed the occupant of the room behind them to watch what was Bricks became cheaper and more readily available in Tudor times. happening in the Great Hall below. It was the Steward’s job to Bricks were used to fill the gaps between structural timbers instead oversee the running of the house and its entire staff. A Steward of ‘wattle and daub’. Brick made chimneys much easier to build and often occupied a room in that position. they became an important feature of Tudor buildings. Before hearths and chimneys were developed, rooms had been heated by

www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools © University of London You may photocopy this sheet TEACHER NOTES Parham House, Sussex (Tudors) page 7 of 9 Tableware consisted of pewter and silver vessels for the family and Indenture Document wooden trenchers, tankards and horn beakers for the rest. Knives This indenture extract gives an idea of the range of the estate and and spoons were used but forks were not so common. the jobs done by the people who lived there.

Great Parlour Indenture made 9 December in the 41st year of the reign of Elizabeth The owner and his immediate family usually took their meals in the I (1590) between Sir Thomas Palmer of Parham, Sussex, Knight Great Parlour. It was smaller, warmer and more private than the and Thomas Bisshoppe of Henfield esquire, being a lease of the Great Hall, from which it opened. mansion house, with the arable land, sheep’s sleight on Parham Down, the herbage and coney warren in Parham park, the windmill The Long Gallery on Parham common, meadows and pastures and woodes. The Long Gallery was a popular feature of Tudor houses. It was used for playing games when the weather was bad. There would have been little furniture in the Long Gallery but the many windows would have let in a lot of light and given fine views of the garden. Oak was used in many houses for panelling and floor boards.

How did Parham Estate support itself? Living at Parham in Tudor times would have been like living in a village. In addition to the family, there were many servants and labourers. The Estate would have provided much of its own food. Deer, rabbits, wildfowl and pigs from the park, fish from the ponds, pigeons from dovecotes, wheat from the fields, herbs and vegetables from the gardens.

Parham Park Parham’s deer can be traced back to the seventeenth century - a herd probably existed in Tudor times. The deer park was usually an area of enclosed land, with the boundaries often identified by banks and ditches, sometimes with hedges or fences on the top. The deer provided meat and hides; important assets for the estate. Hunting deer was an activity reserved for the gentry. It was one of Elizabeth I’s favourite pastimes.

www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Schools © University of London You may photocopy this sheet TEACHER NOTES Parham House, Sussex (Tudors) page 8 of 9 Straight trees (usually oak) suitable for building were grown in Glossary coppices, which forced the trees towards light and discouraged Indenture: a written contract or agreement. them from developing spreading branches. Coppicing is one of the oldest forms of forestry. It involves cutting a tree down to a stump This document is dated not by the calendar year but by the regnal (with hand tools) and then harvesting the new stems that grow for year- the number of years the ruling monarch had been on the fuel or basket-making. Some coppice stumps or stools are throne. hundreds of years old. The most common coppiced trees are hazel, willow, ash, alder and birch. The monarch in this case was Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII; Elizabeth came to the throne on 17 The lease allows the tenant to remove 30 cords of wood annually. A November 1558 and reigned until 1603. cord is a unit of volume for cut timber, equal to approximately 3.6 cubic metres. Arable Land: Land that is cultivated for growing crops.

Sheep Sleight: sheep grazing area.

Meadow: Grassy field used for producing hay or for grazing domestic livestock. It is also an area of low-lying grassland, especially a marshy one, near a river.

Coney Warrens: The warrener (rabbit keeper) was in charge of the rabbits. Rabbits were kept both for their meat and fur. Small groups were kept in coneygarths, with larger groups in warrens. They were important status symbols like dovecots and fishponds. The lease states that the warren of conies must be maintained in good condition and that the number of rabbits must be returned to the original level at the end of the lease.

Woods: The woods would have been managed to provide additional income. During the Tudor period the extensive use of timber for house building, ship building and furniture led to the depletion of the forests. Wood became increasingly scarce and expensive, and a more valuable asset for the owner of the estate.

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Hardwick Hall on the national Trust website: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-hardwickhall

The Globe Theatre: http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/