A farmer's wife - 1540s

From Heywood's Spider & the Flie. 1556

John (or possibly his brother Anthony (1470-1538)) Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry, first published 1523, is a classic in the history of English farming literature. It goes well beyond just farming, and below is the book's description of the work of a farmer's wife, from a 1548 edition. I have modernised spellings, and split it into paragraphs, as the original is one long paragraph. 

"And when thou art up and ready, then first sweep thy house, dress up thy dishboard, and set all good things in order within thy house: milk thy cow, suckle thy calves, sye (strain) up thy milks, take up thy children, array them, provide for thy husband’s breakfast, dinner, supper, and for thy children and servants, and take thy part with them. 

And to order corn and malt to the mill, and to bake and brew withal when need is. And mette (take) it to the mill, and fro the mill, and see that thou have thy measure against the desired toll, or else the miller dealeth not truely with thee, or else thy corn is not dry as it should be.

Thou must make butter and cheese when thou maist, serve thy swine both morning and evening, give thy poleyn(?) meat in the morning, and when time of the year cometh, thy must take heed how thy hens, ducks and geese do lay, and gather up their eggs, and when they wax broody, set then there as no beasts, swine, nor other vermin hurt them. And thou must know that all whole footed fowls will sit a month, and all cloven footed fowls will sit but three weeks, except a peahen, and great fowls as cranes, and bustards, and such other. And when they have bought forth their birds, so see, that they be kept from the gleyd (?), crows, fullymartens, and other vermin.

And in the beginning of March, or a little afore, is time for a wife to make her garden, and to get as many good seeds and herbs as she can, specially such as be good for the pot, and to eat: and as oft as need shall require, it must be weeded, for else the weeds will overgrow the herbs. And also in March is time to sow flax and hemp, for I have heard old housewives say, that better is March hurds (?) than April flax, the reason appeareth: but how it should be sown, weeded, pulled, reaped, watered, washed, dried, beaten, breaked, tawed, heckled, spun, wound, warped and woven, it needeth not for me to show, for they be wise enough, and thereof may they make sheets, boardcloths, towels, shirts, smocks and such other necessaries, and therefore let thy distaff be always ready for a pastime, that thou be not idle. And undoubted a woman can not get her living honestly with spinning on the distaff, but it stoppeth a cap and must needs be had. The boles of flax when they be ripiled of, mus be riddled from the weeds, and made dry with the sun, to get out the seeds. How be it that one manner of linseed, called loken seed, will not open by the sun, and therefore when they be dry, they must be sore bruised and broken, the wives know how, and then winnowed and kept dry, till their time come again.

...

It is convenient for a husband to have sheep of him own for many causes, and then may his wife have part of the wool, to make her husband and herself some clothes. And at the least way, she may have the locks of the sheep. either to make clothes or blankets and covelets or both, and if she have no wool of her own, she may take wool to spin of cloth makers, and by that mean she may have a convenient living, and many times do other works.

It is a wife’s occupation to know all many of corns, to make malt, to wash and wring, to make hay, shear corn, and in time of need to help her husband to fill the muck wain or dung cart, drive the plough, to load hay, corn and such other. And to go or ride to the market, to sell butter, cheese, milk, eggs, chickens, capons, hens, pigs, geese and all manner of corns. And also to buy all manner of necessary things belonging to household, and to make a true reckoning and account to her husband, what she hath received, and what she hath paid. And if the husband go to the market, to buy or sell, as they oft do, he then to show his wife in like manner. For if one of them should use to deceive the other, he deceiveth himself, and he is not like to thrive. And therefore they must be true either to other."

The old laundry at Killerton

Figure 1

 This is not early modern but a nineteenth, stretching into early twentieth century laundry. It is a reminder that before electricity laundry techniques had changed little for centuries. The notes in the laundry indicate that on Mondays the laundry was collected, sorted, and entered into a laundry book. So they had a record of what had been laundered.

Figure 1: There is a wash copper heated from below, you can see were the coals were put in underneath to heat the water. To the right is a dolly tub with a dolly stick in it. Before the use of galvanised steel these tubs were made of wood. Garments were pounded using the dolly stick.

Figure 2

 Figure 2: This, according to the half vanished label, is a washing machine. A hand powered agitator would have fitted into the slot that can be seen at the back, and you can also see a drain tap at the bottom.

Figure 3

 Figure 3: Alternatively items could be washed in a sink using a washboard. Killerton sinks are distinctly up market as they have hot as well as cold taps.

Figure 4

Figure 4: After washing items could be mangled to get out the excess water. I have early memories of my mother and grandmother using one of these in the late 1950s, just before we purchased an electric washing machine with an integral mangle mounted on the top, so you could take the washing straight out of the water and put it through the mangle. 

Figure 5

Figure 5: Killerton being a grand house washing could be dried indoors in bad weather, in a drying cupboard. The drying racks pull in and out on runners, and the bottom of the cupboard has heated pipes to aid the drying.

Figure 6

Figure 6: Less up market families dried items on clothes horses in front of a fire.

 Figure 7: After drying comes ironing, and here is a selection of the flat and box irons, and a goffering iron on display at Killerton.

Figure 7

Several other stately homes have similar laundries which are on display to the public, for example Kingston Lacy in Dorset, Llanerchaeron in Ceredigion and Berrington Hall in Herefordshire

Blandford Fashion Museum

Blandford Fashion Museum

Paid a visit to the Blandford Fashion Museum, housed in a mid 18th century house in the town of Blandford Forum, Dorset. The museum collection started life as the personal collection of the late Mrs Betty Penny. Mrs Penny used to go around the country with her collection holding catwalk fashion shows in which people wore the original garments she owned. Members of the museums community were horrified, but Mrs Penny over her lifetime raised over half a million pounds for charity by doing this. Late in her life Mrs Penny founded the museum, and in 2004 it received museum accreditation. The whole house, about 10 rooms, contains the collection, which has increased considerably since her death.

Blushing Brides

The garments are arranged sometimes by theme and sometimes by period. The collections start with the mid 18th century, in Room 2 done out as a Georgian parlour, and go up to the 1980s, Room 8 contains three Frank Usher outfits from the 1970s and 1980s. There are two rooms with exhibitions that change on a regular basis. At the moment there are two exhibitions, Blushing Brides (Room 3), and Passion for Pattern (Room 7). Blushing brides contains 19th century wedding dresses, some of which have original documentation including photographs of the dress being worn by its original owner. Passion for fashion covers the whole period of the collection, and all types of patterned garments. 

Passion for Pattern

The Dorset craft room contains specifically local items, and as well as the ubiquitous Dorset buttons, has examples of the local glove and lacemaking crafts. There are also examples of 19th century working women’s bonnets, and men’s smocks. 

 

The final room is a tea shop were one may purchase a reviving cream tea.

The website for further information is http://www.theblandfordfashionmuseum.com

A Sixteenth Century Mitten from London – with pattern

Original mitten in Museum of London

Among the collection of sixteenth century knitted items in the Museum of London is a child's knitted mitten found at Finsbury. It looks as though it could have been bought from Marks and Spencer, but is over 400 years old.  A similar mitten of a similar date is in the Norwich and Norfolk Museums’ collection, and a pattern for this has been published. (Huggett & Mikhaila, 2013)

The Museum of London mitten is 13 centimetres (5 inches) long by 7 centimetres (2¾ inches) wide including the thumb, and therefore probably belonged to a child of about five years of age.  Unfortunately the MoL has not put a measure in the photographs of it, but from the known width it would appear to be knitted at around 12 stitches to 5 centimetres (6 stitches to the inch)

Finished reproduction

The mitten is knitted in pale brown wool, with a three row decoration at the wrist in black wool. Unlike the Norwich mitten and most modern mittens, it is knitted from the top of the fingers down to the cuff. Very little of the actual cuff exists but appears to be 6 rows of garter stitch.

I am not the world’s best knitter (understatement of the year), however I have had a go at producing an adult size pattern – several goes actually but this one seems to work.

I used double knitting wool on a set of four 4mm (UK size 8, and US size 6) needles, this knits up as a roughly 24 stitches by 30 rows to a 10 cm square. The colours I used were gold for the main colour and dark brown for the contrast. The size given here fits me; I am a UK size 7 in gloves. I have indicated below how it can be altered for larger or smaller hands. I am not a follow the pattern type knitter so the instructions may not be what you are used to.

Start the top of the thumb.

Cast on 7 stitches over three needles, leaving enough of a tail to finish off and close any hole at the end.

K round.

K1, increase 1, repeat to end of round (14 stitches on the needles – this is enough for my thumb, large thumbs may require more stitches, smaller thumbs less)

K until the thumb reaches the length of your thumb, as in the photo.

Put the stitches to keep on a length of yarn, or a stitch holder, leaving a long enough tail to graft one side of the thumb to the hand.

Start the top of the hand.

Cast on 12 stitches over three needles, leaving enough of a tail to finish off and close any hole at the end.

K round.

K1, increase 1, repeat to end of round. (18 stitches on the needles)

K round.

K1, increase 1, repeat to end of round. (27 stitches on needles)

K round

K1, increase 1, repeat to end of round. (40 stitches on needles)

K round

K9, increase 1, repeat to end of round. (44 stitches on needles - this is enough for my hand, larger hands may require more stitches, smaller hands less)

K to bottom of fingers, as in the photo

Now we need to add in the thumb and play with needles. Four stitches from the thumb and four stitches from the fingers need to be put on a length of yarn, or a stitch holder, to be grafted together later. In the photo you can see the green yarn is holding the stitches.

You may find it easier to graft together these stitches now, rather than at the end.

Split the remaining thumb stitches across two of the needles. This will form the outer edge of the mitten, where you will later decrease to the wrist.

You should now have 50 stitches on your needles.

K round, you may need to knit into the grafted stitches at either side of the thumb, or you will end up with a hole.

K round (you will probably have 52 stitches on your needles now), until you reach the point where the hand starts narrowing to the wrist.

Next round starting at the thumb edge. K 8, k2tog, k until 10 from end of round. k2tog, k to end of round

Next round k

Next round K 6, k2tog, k until 8 from end of round. k2tog, k to end of round

Next round k

Next round K 4, k2tog, k until 6 from end of round. k2tog, k to end of round

Next round k

Next round K 2, k2tog, k until 4 from end of round. k2tog, k to end of round (You should now have 42 stitches on your needles.

Knit until you reach the wrist bone.

Now to add in the decoration.

New round k in the contrast colour.

Next round k1 contrast, k1 main colour, repeat to end of round.

Next round knit in contrast colour. 

Next round return to main colour, and knit until just short of the length you want it to be.

For the cuff - First round p, 2nd round k, repeat these two rounds twice and cast off.

Finishing

Sew up the hole at the top of the fingers and any holes at the top and bottom of the thumb.  Tidy in the ends of your contrast colour, and your cast off.

Reference:

Huggett, J. & Mikhaila, N., 2013. The Tudor Child. Lightwater: Fat Goose