|
Domestic life The
status of most people can usually be judged by the things they have
around them, the size and quality of their home and the furnishings
therein. So it was in past times and fortunately, sufficient records have
survived to give us a glimpse of the domestic life of many people who
lived in Bourne in earlier centuries. The
probate registers are a particularly rich source of information about the
possessions of some tradesmen. For example, an inventory drawn up in 1573
for John Rowlinson, a shoemaker in Bourne, lists the details of his home
and so gives us a good idea of his living arrangements. The property had
many rooms and all were fully furnished, including a hall, two parlours, a
kitchen, buttery and brewhouse and three chambers upstairs, presumably
bedrooms. The hall, as was usual at the time, was a living room and was
probably the place where meals were served for it contained two tables,
three benches and four chairs, as well as a pair of andirons, a pair of
tongs and a roast iron. Most
of the food preparation was done in the kitchen that contained more
cooking utensils including two spits and a frying pan. In one of the
parlours, apart from a cupboard and a table, there was a bedstead with a
mattress, sheets and pillows, a sign that a downstairs room was also being
used as a bedroom. The other parlour appears to have been a repository of
cooking vessels such as brass pots and pans, four kettles, skimmers,
chafing dishes, porringers and pieces of pewter. One of the upstairs
chambers must have been a large one for it had three bedsteads, each
with feather bed, bolster and coverings, but the room was also used for
storage purposes and contained “one hopper of malt, one tub of salt,
three tubs and other implements”. The second chamber had one
bedstead with feather bed and bedding and “certain hangings about the
bed” while the third chamber was again used for storage and contained
“certain corn and hemp and other implements”. An
interesting feature of Rowlinson’s inventory is the listing of the linen
and bedding, items such as feather beds, bolsters, pillows, sheets,
tablecloths, towels and table napkins, that may seem commonplace today but
in the 16th century were evidence of the rising standards in domestic
comfort and were therefore much treasured items. The changing style in
domestic living was also illustrated by three painted cloths in the main
parlour and hall, an indication of the desire to improve household
interiors by the use of decoration. Painted cloths such as these were
often found in Tudor houses and cottages, usually pieces of canvas
stretched on a wooden frame and fixed to the walls. A picture or design
was then painted on them, perhaps by itinerant artists or stainers who
travelled the country carrying out the work to order. The
total value of Rowlinson’s listed goods was no more than £20 16s. 10d.
(about £2,800 at today's values) but this was typical of modest tradesmen in small market towns because
much of their wealth was invested elsewhere and it was usual during this
period to find traders and shopkeepers in Bourne possessing some land and
agricultural goods as well as their businesses and domestic premises. A
glimpse of the living standards of the more affluent citizens of Bourne
can be found in the probate inventory of Robert Ives, described as a
gentleman, that was drawn up in 1730. He obviously had a large house and
on the ground floor were a kitchen and a pantry big enough to hold a
dresser and other items of furniture, a hall with two tables and ten
chairs, a parlour, parlour closet, a cellar containing “3 casks, an Iron
Bar, and other things”. Above these rooms were a “parlour chamber”,
a “best chamber”, a “little chamber” and a “passage chamber”.
One of them contained beds while beams, scales, weights, a saw and other
items were stored in the “parlour chamber”. There was also a “lumber
chamber” and a “garett”, both of which were on a further storey of
the house above the bedrooms. As
in previous generation, Ives’ home indicates that it was customary to
have beds in downstairs rooms because there were two in the parlour in
addition to those in the upstairs chambers. The inventory also included a
spinning wheel that had been relegated to the “lumber chamber” along
with chairs, empty glass bottles etc, and so this room was perhaps the
forerunner of what we know today as the attic. Wheat and cheese were also
stored in some of the upstairs rooms while outside, a barn, wood-house and
yard contained an assortment of “Spoaks, Chips and other Fire Wood”.
There was also a brewhouse attached to the premises, a normal feature of
the time. The
furniture and contents of the house had an estimated value of £94 (about
£12,500) although Robert Ives’ entire estate, listed under “Purse, Apparrell
and Debts” totalled £3,219 18s. 0d. which was quite a considerable sum
and would be more than £430,000 today. Shopkeepers
in Bourne lived in much humbler circumstances during this period but
nevertheless, they appear to have been quite comfortable. Almost
everything necessary for the life of its people could be obtained in a
small market town such as Bourne, a fact illustrated by the lengthy
inventory drawn up after the death of Francis
Dawkins, grocer and mercer, in November 1734. The valuers spent two
days in recording his shop goods, household furnishings, stock and crops.
The housewives of Bourne had an enormous choice of materials: camlets,
calamancos, Scotch plaid at 14d a yard, black flowered damask at 2s,
prunella, shalloon, serge, Belladine silk, kerseys, broad cloth, white
drill, mohair, green grogram at 1s 4d and serge denim at 3s.4d a yard.
Silvered coat buttons lay on the shelves side by side with penny
hornbooks, primers plain or gilt, testaments, coffin handles at 3s a
dozen, locks, hinges, nails and knitting pins, fenugreek and gall,
verdigris and aloes, brandy at 1s 10d a gallon and writing paper at 6s a
ream. His warehouse was filled with sugar at about £1 per hundredweight,
tobacco at 11d and 1s.2d a pound, pepper, saltpetre, nuts, treacle,
brimstone, cloves at 9s a pound, sassafras chips, gunpowder, pitch and
rape oil.
A similar modest affluence can be seen in the inventory of
John Swift, a glover in Bourne, dated 1752, shows that in “Purse and Apparill” he had precisely £1 0s. 0d. and his total possessions were
valued at £19 4s. 6d. (about £2,600) but his wealth was most probably invested in his
stock. His house was also less elegant than those occupied by the gentry.
There was a shop on the ground floor with the house attached, house
being a common term for a living room, a kitchen and a dairy. There were
two chambers, presumably bedrooms, one over the house and another over the
shop. There was a yard outside containing a hovill or hovel. The
conditions may appear to be cramped but the space was fully utilised with
three tables in the living room as well as a press (for clothes or
cheese?) and several other articles. In the chamber above were three beds,
one of them a feather bed while the two others were “small Wooll
beds”. There was a further small bed and bedstead in the other upstairs
room that also contained “two wheels” and so spinning was still a
regular part of the domestic routine. Swift’s shop contained a quantity
of white calf leather, stocks of tanned lamb skins, tanned dog skins and
numerous pairs of leather breeches and it is interesting to note that he
kept some coals in the dairy. A similar picture of comfortable but cramped conditions can be found in the 1750 inventory of another shopkeeper, Mark Linton, who was in business as a barber and peruke maker (wig maker). His cash and clothes totalled only 10s. and his total assets amounted to £16 18s. 6d. (about £2,300) while his residence was no more than five rooms: a house, parlour, pantry, a chamber and the shop and again there are signs that all of the rooms were fully used and cluttered with a variety of articles. A complete list of the contents of the house and their values also throws some light on the domestic possessions to the period:
A
final example of 18th century dwellings in Bourne can be found
in an inventory entry of 1712 listing the assets of Ann Pell, a widow, and
totalling £61 10s. 0d. (about £5,900), considerably more than the previous shopkeepers
but her house consisted simply of a parlour, pantry and chamber and in the
yard there was “one cow, a parcel of fodder and a parcel of wood”. Living
conditions improved greatly during the 19th century despite the
fluctuating state of agriculture on which the economy of Bourne mainly
depended. Farmers lived in houses dating from an earlier generation but
enjoyed a greater degree of comfort than their forefathers. The best
parlour was a feature of many, usually only used on special occasions, but
would have a boarded floor and, like the main bedroom, would be hung with
wallpaper to make it an attractive room although other rooms in the house
would most likely be whitewashed. The old earth floors were now being
paved with brick with stone flags in the hall while the kitchen would be
the centre of domestic activity where meals were cooked and eaten, bread
baked and the washing done. Furniture was still austere by modern standards with very little upholstery and we get some idea of what the furnishings were like from an inventory that was taken at what was probably the most luxurious home in Bourne, the Red Hall, on the death of Lady Catherine Digby in 1836. The ground floor rooms were then known as “the hall, drawing room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen” while the next floor comprised four bedrooms, three of them being designated by colours, namely green, yellow and blue. On the top floor was a storage garret and rooms for the men and maid servants.
The rooms, as in previous periods, seem to have been over-furnished. The
dining room, for instance, contained mahogany and claw furniture with two
ottomans and a dozen chairs and in the drawing room were a sofa, two
ottomans, numerous small tables, seven elbow chairs and four Swiss chairs.
It is interesting to note that four-poster beds with hangings were still
to be found upstairs and a closet contained a six-foot bath. The wine
cellars also reflected the tastes of the time because they contained 160
bottles of old port. At
the lower end of the social scale, there was a gradual improvement in the
living conditions of the farm labouring classes. The farm servants who
lived in, often slept in the loft that was accessed by a ladder from the
ground floor while the labourer who lived with his family in his own
cottage was becoming more comfortably situated although by the 1870s,
wages averaged 18s. a week (about £45) and were to drop drastically with the onset of
the depression. Food and everyday articles for the home had become cheaper
since the turn of the century and a loaf that had cost 1s. 4d. in 1815 was
down to 4½d. in 1881 and during the same period, tea had fallen from 6s.
0d. a pound to 2s. 3d. and candles that were very necessary in those days
before gas and electricity from 7½d. a pound to 4d. The
labourer’s accommodation had also changed for the better. The hovel that
had been his home in days gone by had been replaced by the stone cottage
with a red pantile roof. Many of these appeared in the South Lincolnshire
fens during the 19th century, usually with a scullery and living room
downstairs and two bedrooms above, and many have survived, although
invariably modernised and occupied with tenants who are not connected with
agriculture. Households generally, both humble and well-to-do, were slowly
becoming more comfortable through the greater abundance of coal for
heating and cooking and by inventions such as the phosphorus match,
paraffin lamp and sewing machine. The
wealth of some local businessmen had become evident from their possessions
by the 20th century and when Robert Mason Mills died in 1904, his
furniture and effects were sold at auction, revealing a luxurious
lifestyle that had been financed by the successful aerated water business
that he had founded in the previous century. The sale catalogue that was
produced for the occasion gives a glimpse of the lifestyle of the
prosperous businessman in Victorian England and it took two days to sell
off his effects for a total of almost £900 which would be worth over
£56,000 today. His house contained a
considerable amount of silver and old Sheffield plate as well as china
that included Wedgwood, Worcester, Crown Derby and other wares. There were
also numerous engravings, lithographs and pictures, including 71 oil
paintings, although no masterpieces were discovered among them and the
highest price paid was ten guineas (£626) for The Red Hall, Bourne by an
artist named A Glendenning. There
were a number of antique items among the furniture such as a Chippendale
table and card table and a Sheraton wardrobe, and an assortment of
collectors’ pieces that were fashionable during the period such as
whatnots, shell ornaments, stuffed birds and figures under glass domes.
The kitchen contained a 10lb. butter churn, a sausage machine and candle
box and surprisingly, a refrigerator. There was also a collection of
60 dozen bottles of vintage port wine. Mr Mills was obviously a man who
had taste and also enjoyed the good life. When anyone dies today, the dispersal sale of their possessions and the contents of their homes provide us with a commentary on their life because the furniture and fittings they lived with and the bits and pieces they collected give as a glimpse of their hobbies and pleasures, their style and taste, as they come under the hammer in the auction rooms on their way to new owners.
Go to: Main Index Villages Index |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
