Holiday reading for Tudor house fans

If you come to stay at Wisson Hill, you have a selected library to browse during your holiday: a curated collection of books to inform, add context, explain and just add colour to the experience of spending time in a 500-year old house.

This authentic sixteenth century farmhouse, which has been lovingly restored to expose not just one but two original Tudor structures, was home to real families, who have left their marks.

Over the 20 years it has taken to restore this historic house, I have collected books to feed my curiosity. The house is now available for holiday rental, and the books are gathered in the study to share with guests, alongside the small, personal finds that have been collected into a display.

I will say this up front: as much as I too can be entranced by the glamour and danger of the Tudor court and its politics, my real interest is in ordinary people. What on earth were they thinking as they heard of court dramas? How could they react to the changes in what they were told to believe? How were they living from one year – or day – to the next?

The Voices of Morebath – Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village – by Eamon Duffy

What can it have been like to live through a time when every aspect of life was turned upside down? This amazing book gets right into the details for one farming community between 1520 and 1574, as recorded by their priest. The raw emotion spilling over into a betrothal party, after Reformation changes meant that mass could not be said for dead baby twins, is heart-rending. And it makes me think about the drama that must have been played out for the Payton family living in this house at the same time. In fact, a later John Payton’s twin daughters Philippa and Elizabeth were buried on 8th April 1679 – well after the Reformation dust had settled, but the human tragedy must have been so much the same. I am currently reading Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars, which sounds so relevant to the house and may become another favourite book for understanding the huge upheavals caused by shifting from one form of Christianity to another so quickly, with all its implications for everyday life.

The Age of Plunder – The England of Henry VIII 1500-47 – by W G Hoskins

Mr. Hoskins is no fan of Henry VIII and after reading this book, you will understand why. While it’s easy to focus on the drama of the Tudor court, this book empathetically looks at the impact on those who worked in the fields and workshops of England. The term ‘plunder’ is not used lightly and covers the ruthless impact on the poor of religious and social change, wars and taxes. The fact that the Paytons flourished through this period is a credit to what must have been their amazing hard work and resilience.

The Domestic Revolution – How the Introduction of Coal into Our Homes Changed Everything – by Ruth Goodman

Ruth Goodman is in a class of her own when it comes to practical, domestic history. In this book she tells the story of how ordinary people have moved largely from wood or peat as a fuel, to coal, over the last few hundred years. The impact of this apparently simple change was surprising and far-reaching. Meat went from being roasted or stewed to baked or boiled. New dishes emerged. House design had to change to accommodate foul, heavy smoke fumes. Laundering became much harder and more uncomfortable. New products and industries grew, with soap and wipe-down surfaces.

Wisson Hill’s smoke bay may have given way to brick chimneys before its own switch from wood to coal, but there is evidence of daily life around the house from before and after this transition, from the meat-smoking bars to the washing copper grate.

Just about every page of The Domestic Revolution offered an insight into what life would have been like in this house – or any house – over the last 500 years. I have read it twice so far and I am sure will read it again.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Nestled into the little bookcase (which holiday house guests will find has a surprise) in the sitting room, is Thomas Hardy’s rural masterpiece. Bathsheba’s farmhouse and its decline from manorial status mirrors Wisson Hill’s fortunes. In the portraits of Hardy’s rural workers I can hear see and hear the voices of the many ordinary people who have lived out their lives in this farmhouse and on the working farm, over hundreds of years. To see more closely, have a look at George Hurst’s 1795 inventory. And of course the whole story is complete poetry: my favourite book, ever.

But this work of literature is not the only one that offers an insight into life at Wisson Hill:

• Mrs Rochester in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is comparable with poor Henry Hurst, although he seems to have come to a happier end
• Any of Jane Austin’s novel, where sophisticated characters are known by their annual worth, gives a peek into what it was like to be owner of a farm like this one
• To me, Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson and Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee offer recognisable and entrancing views of how life would have been here through the nineteenth century and into the beginning of the twentieth.

This selection is to share my enthusiasm for (mostly) sixteenth century life but Wisson Hill’s little library also includes books about timber frame buildings – vernacular architecture and restoration – Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwickshire’s history, wider history topics (other periods and themes) and several titles about William Shakespeare and his age. Of course I would love to chat about any of these titles or hear about any suggestions for the library.

Find out more about Wisson Hill’s history or have a look at availability for holiday booking.

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