The homes revealing how Tudor people really lived

“There is an appeal to the simplicity of 16th-Century interiors and an honesty in the materials used,” says interior and architectural designer Guy Goodfellow. “This simplicity did not re-emerge until the Arts and Crafts movement [of the late 19th Century], when it came as a relief after the heaviness of the Victorian period.”

In a 16th-Century manor house on Dartmoor, Goodfellow has hung a tapestry on the wall, a nod to Tudor and Jacobean practice, when prized rugs were displayed vertically or draped over tables rather than slung underfoot. Floors, often simply packed earth or stone flags, were strewn with scented grasses gathered from surrounding meadows, which absorbed spillages and could be swept away and replaced. Known as threshes, they gave rise to the word “threshold”. In Tudor and some Jacobean houses, a raised strip of wood in the doorway held the grasses in place as people passed through, explains Armstrong-Blair.

“A hall might simply have contained a large table, chairs and benches, and a cupboard to display silver or pewter dishes,” says Armstrong-Blair. Chairs were a luxury, while stools and benches were ubiquitous.

The bedroom chamber

Four-poster beds, still popular with designers and homeowners today, were common, as bedrooms were shared with multiple people, and they offered both privacy and extra warmth. “Bed curtains,” says Knight, “could be made from English wool, sometimes with crewel work, embroidered linen – or the wealthy would import expensive velvets or damasks from Italy.” However, wardrobes weren’t typical – instead clothes and bedding would be folded into wooden chests.