Tudor Britain - Everyday Life

1. Tudor family life was close knit.

2. Tudor men were powerful in the home and made all the decisions.

3. Women were classed as inferior to men and expected to be subservient.

4. Tudor marriages arranged to suit families and increase their wealth and position.

5. Tudor women were expected to produce children, preferably male, who were raised to obey their parents.

6. Boys went to school and university whereas girls were expected to develop good skills at house-keeping.

7. Most Tudor families lived in half-timbered homes with wattle and daub walls filled with plaster and thatched roofs.

8. Greater attention paid to comfort in the homes, with gardens, windows and separate rooms.

9. Tudor homes had no running water, collecting it from water pumps, which often caused typhoid.

10. Floors were generally wooden and still strewn with rushes in many homes, but the wealthy had marble or slate.

11. Heat was produced by fires and lighting by rush lights, candles or torches.

12. Furniture included stools, chests, sideboards and elaborate beds.

13. Most cooking was done over open fires

14. Spits were used for cooking meats, and ovens built into the side of the fireplaces for baking bread.

15. The basic Tudor diet included bread meat, fish and dairy products.

16. Food was salted or smoked to preserve it and people drank wine and ale.

17. The poor used wooden or pewter vessels, the rich silver or glass.

18. Most people ate off trenchers, flat wooden boards, they used knives and spoons, but not forks.

19. Children played with toys such as hobby horses and dolls made out of wood and clay.

20. Hoops were made out of the rims of barrels and children used pebbles and cherry stones to play marbles or jacks.

21. Pigs bladders were used as footballs and other games included skittles, shuttlecock, Blind Man’s Buff and Hopscotch.

22. Theatre visits, festivals, fetes and feasts were very popular and the Elizabethans also enjoyed hunting and sporting activities.

23. Crueller sports such as bear or bull bating and cock fighting were also popular.

24. Music and dancing and games such as chess, checkers and dice were popular at home.