Events
Monday 08 July 2024
This workshop helps beginners and those with a small amount of knowledge, to read 16th and 17th century handwriting, and is helpful for later palaeography as well. It is useful for family and local historians. The course takes the participants through wills, inventories, registers, deeds and even the mystery of the suet pudding in a Quarter Sessions case. We concentrate on the letter forms that the clerk was making, and once you’ve got the new letter forms, it becomes an enjoyable puzzle like Sudoku or a crossword.
Book nowThursday 19 September 2024
Using our exhibit buildings from the South East, participants learn how to investigate stylistic evidence including the number, position and arrangement of timbers to date buildings from the late 1300s to the 1900s.
The day provides a wonderful opportunity to investigate different types of timber-framed buildings and will include:
- Learning how to spot the differences between a crown post and a king post.
- Seeing how radically roofs change between the medieval and Georgian periods.
- Watching purlin(s) appear and disappear, and observing how braces change shape and length becoming concealed over the centuries.
- Marvel at the skill of the carpenters and their work, and how their tools and techniques evolved to meet the changing needs of their customers.