Renovations Take Longer
In the 16th century, lead cups were regularly used to drink ale or whisky. The combination of the porous toxic receptacle and the alcohol would sometimes knock the imbiber out for a couple of days and they would literally keel over, be taken for dead and prepared for burial. If they had family, the stricken would be laid out for a couple of days on the kitchen table where everyone would gather around and eat and drink and wait to see if they would wake up. Otherwise known as ‘holding a wake’.
For those who believe in resurrections, a visit to Alastair Hendy’s house at 135 All Saints Street will be a life-affirming treat. The most complete Tudor house in the Old Town, until the 1950s it was also the town’s mortuary, with the room that is now the dining room used as the workshop where the undertaker stored the cadavers. When he opened it last year to history pundits, two elderly fi shermen came and said that when they were boys they would sneak into the back garden and stare in the window at the bodies before running screaming down the street. Before computer games, children were, quite rightly, encouraged to make their own entertainment.
As a year closes on the attempt to speedily renovate Rock House, a visit to Alastair’s is designed to make me feel better. His restoration took seven years and he barely wanted indoor plumbing – the shower is outside in a shed. For those less keen on entertaining the neighbours there is also a zinc-lined bathtub inside. Not that the original inhabitants would have been using it much. The Tudors tended to get married in June because they took their yearly bath in May. Rather like at Alastair’s, it was simply a big tub fi lled with hot water with the man of the house going fi rst, his sons, the women and then the children. By the end the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone, hence the saying: ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’.
Alastair has decked 135 All Saints Street out for Christmas and will be opening his doors to visitors for a week from 17 December (11am to 5.30pm). The open grates will be blazing, the candles lit for the fi reside fairytale readings. There will also be mulled wine; although in the interest of modern health and safety, he won’t be using the lead cups.
Next issue: New Year, new door…
For those who believe in resurrections, a visit to Alastair Hendy’s house at 135 All Saints Street will be a life-affirming treat. The most complete Tudor house in the Old Town, until the 1950s it was also the town’s mortuary, with the room that is now the dining room used as the workshop where the undertaker stored the cadavers. When he opened it last year to history pundits, two elderly fi shermen came and said that when they were boys they would sneak into the back garden and stare in the window at the bodies before running screaming down the street. Before computer games, children were, quite rightly, encouraged to make their own entertainment.
As a year closes on the attempt to speedily renovate Rock House, a visit to Alastair’s is designed to make me feel better. His restoration took seven years and he barely wanted indoor plumbing – the shower is outside in a shed. For those less keen on entertaining the neighbours there is also a zinc-lined bathtub inside. Not that the original inhabitants would have been using it much. The Tudors tended to get married in June because they took their yearly bath in May. Rather like at Alastair’s, it was simply a big tub fi lled with hot water with the man of the house going fi rst, his sons, the women and then the children. By the end the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone, hence the saying: ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’.
Alastair has decked 135 All Saints Street out for Christmas and will be opening his doors to visitors for a week from 17 December (11am to 5.30pm). The open grates will be blazing, the candles lit for the fi reside fairytale readings. There will also be mulled wine; although in the interest of modern health and safety, he won’t be using the lead cups.
Next issue: New Year, new door…