History Teacher Notes The Literacy Key

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HOMEPAGE    HISTORY    GEOGRAPHY    R.E.

Tudor Towns and Buildings

1. Towns became larger in Tudor times as people moved into them from the country.

2. Tudor towns were noisy, busy, places.

3. Traders shouting to sell their wares mixed with the noises of animals and many people milling around.

4. The streets in Tudor towns were dark, narrow and crowded.

5. This was because houses were tall and were built with floors jutting out over each other.

6. This made the streets dangerous, with many cut purses looking for easy pickings.

7. Rubbish and sewage were thrown into the streets, which had open drains running down the middle.

8. This meant that Tudor towns smell unpleasant and caused diseases to spread quickly

9. Water, which was often contaminated, was collected from water pumps in Tudor towns

10. Tudor tradesmen had workshops in their houses, and shops in the towns were like open market stalls

11. Tudor houses had half-timbered frames, tall, narrow windows with small window panes and low doors

12. Rich Tudors built large country houses, often in the shape of an E.

13. The very poor lived in one-roomed earth-floored dwellings

14. The rich built their houses from stone, bricks and tiles, with lots of windows as glass showed wealth

15. Small panes of glass were used, joined together with lead

16. Ordinary Tudor houses were made out of timber, wattle and daub, the roofs were thatched or tiled

17. Greater attention paid to comfort, gardens, windows, separate rooms and levels

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

19. Roofs were often thatched, providing a home for mice and rats, which could carry the plague

20. Chimneys were made out of bricks.