A Tudor Woz 'Ere ...
Graffiti of the Tudor House, Southampton
At the very beginning of March I took a trip into Southampton for a networking meeting. The venue was The Tudor House in Southampton (I am incredibly lucky to have networking meetings in some amazing places). After the meeting we were able to have a look around the house.
The last time I was here was over 10 years ago, yet again showing that the places you live close to are often the places you neglect. The museum is absolutely packed full of interesting bits of information and artefacts from not just the Tudor era but anywhere from the Roman right through to the Victorian’s era in this area of Southampton.
What I found the most interesting though, and what I would like to share with you today, is the plethora of graffiti on the walls in the house.
The house was built towards the ends of the 15th century and became a museum in 1912, making it the oldest museum Southampton. It has had many owners over the 800 years that it has stood on Bugle Street and some of those owners and visitors have left their mark.
During restoration work that took place in the house from 2002-2011, graffiti was found in several of the rooms. The majority of this graffiti is on display in one of the rooms of the house and you can see some of the highlights in the pictures I took above.
The graffiti dates from 1570 to 1620 and includes pictures of ships, little comical faces, animals (see if you can spot the amusing bunny in the first picture) initials and dates.
During the period that the ships were thought to have been etched in the wall, the Tudor House was owned by ship builders and they may have rented out the rooms to sailors and other sea bound lodgers, hence the theme of the graffiti.
Graffiti was extremely common during this period, in fact throughout history, and was not considered to be vandalism. In this way if later owners of the houses have seen fit to preserve it, historic graffiti remains on the walls of many house, a curious insight into the social history of the time and comings and goings of the house.
Elsewhere in the house are the possible marks of workmen and craftsmen who built or repaired the house at various points in time. One piece of graffiti carved into a beam (not on display), dating from 1936 was reported to complain: ‘Fed up - beer 7d a pint’. I wonder what they would have thought of the average £5 pint here in the South of England!
Elsewhere in the house are the usual daisy wheels and witch marks, apotropaic magic that kept you safe from harm if carved above your door frames, window sills and passing places.
The Tudor House in Southampton, is a fascinating house with a palpable history and I’m not sure I’d want to be on my own in this house after opening hours. It has a presence commensurate with its age and I would definitely recommend a visit to this treasure trove of history, tucked away in the back streets of Southampton.
Before I sign off, as it’s almost Easter, I shall leave you with this rather wonderful hot cross bun, potentially 400 years old, that can be found in one of the cabinets in the museum!
For more information and to plane you visit, take a look at the Tudor House website here.
One to listen to, one to watch and one to read:
Listen - We Can Be Weirdos Podcast, Episode 33 - From Beyond The Engraving featuring Dr Maddy Pelling
Watch - Ted Ed via Youtube - Is Graffiti art or vandalism? by Kelly Wall
Read - A Visitor's Companion to Tudor England by Suzannah Lipscomb