Rich Man, Poor Man at Shakespeare's Birthplace.

Yesterday, K & M gave A his Father's Day cards and we took him out for Sunday lunch, before dropping at Birmingham airport to go to Berlin (for work, he's back late tonight, so a flying visit in more ways than one) on our way down to Granny and Big Grandad's.

K's card.

M's puzzle card/present - it says The Best Daddy in the World.

We had a specific reason for going down to Granny & Big Grandad's this time, the third time in four weeks, other than just escaping the mess here.  Back in January the Shakespeare Trust offered a couple of workshops for home educators at Shakespeare's Birthplace, which we signed up for, but due to lack of interest, which in turn was due to the lack of notice they gave, it was cancelled.  They learned from this though and rescheduled giving plenty of notice and consequently had plenty of interest this time.

We went to a session called Rich Man, Poor Man, aimed at around 7-11 year olds (Key Stage 2 for schools).  The session started off with some general talk about Tudor times and about how we know a lot about rich and powerful people generally, but very little about ordinary and poor people from the time.  Then we were introduced to a man called Thomas Lett.  We know about him because of a particular document that was put into a box, locked away in a cupboard and forgotten about for around 150 years, when the previously lost key was found.  The document was a beggar's license and from that it was learned that Thomas Lett was a weaver, with a wife and daughter, in Shipston, about 10 miles from Stratford, who's house burned down not once but three times.  The first two times the townspeople helped him but after the third time they'd had enough, so he applied to the town council for a license to beg, which was granted.  The license allowed him to beg for a grand total of nine days during the year 1762 and since Stratford was the nearest market town, it's likely that it was there that he begged.  We also know, from looking at the register deaths, that Thomas Lett died two years later, the year Shakespeare was born, and also the year that plague came to Stratford, so although we don't know that he died of the plague it does seem likely.  His daughter also died then, but his wife went on to remarry and, since neither she nor her new husband feature in the local register of deaths, probably move away.

Photo of the Beggar's License.

The group split into three smaller ones for some activities.  We got to see and handle (with gloves on) some real Tudor sixpences and then have a look at a price list of some things that Tudors might have bought and 'go shopping' with sixpence.

Elizabethan sixpence.

At the Tudor shop.

K & M were both particularly taken with the shoes, even though they'd have cost more than sixpence and asked if they could try them on.

The Tudor shoes!

K with Tudor shoes, belt & boys' hat.

M, who went in her Tudor costume, completing the look.

Next it was our turn to visit the archive, which isn't open to the public, so rather special.  We got to see the original Beggar's License that was granted to Thomas Lett, as well as a signature of Elizabeth I.

Finally, we had a go at writing using quills and 'Tudor' ink and using a seal in some sealing wax before we got back together as with the others.

K writing with a quill.

We finished off talking about what people might have own in Tudor times and we were shown an inventory, which people had to have along with a will, of everything a particular woman who lived in one of the almshouses in Stratford owned.  It included such things as a cooking pot and skillet, which we were shown examples of.  This woman's inventory fitted very easily on one piece of paper, which one of the children was asked to hold up for people to see.  This was then contrasted with the inventory of the owner of an inn, as child after child was asked to hold up pages which ran to about 10 pages.

After this we had some of our packed lunch and were given information to follow a guided walk to the other properties that are in the town, as the cost of the workshop also included entrance to the Birthplace, Hall's Croft and Nash's House & New Place.  Since we have the annual pass for all the Shakespeare Trust properties anyway and the girls were very keen to return to Mary Arden's Farm, we've kept the information for another time we went into the Birthplace gardens where we chatted to Rich, one of the actors for a while, before moving on.

We had a chat with various people at Mary Arden's Farm and caught the tail end of the falconry display.

Tudor falconer with an eagle owl.

Common buzzard.

We didn't stay very long, mainly because we needed to get back for M to go to Brownies, but on the way home we did spot a buzzard, which was being mobbed by a lone bird, which having just seen one close up was very good timing!

Once home we just had time for some food before we needed to drop M off at Brownies, however, when we got to the usual place there was nobody around.  After dashing home and checking emails, there was one sent on Sunday afternoon (rather short notice!) that said they were going for a walk with a meeting place elsewhere and managed to catch up to leave M with them, phew!