LAURENCE CADBURY COLLECTION
Assembled at the beginning of the 20th century, the Laurence Cadbury Collection helps show what life was like in a 16th and 17th century house.
Dating from about 1500 to the early 1900s it comprises furniture and domestic objects, agricultural artefacts, armour, archives and decorative works.
On permanent display, the collection includes:
This would have been used in a church to store food that parishioners collected for the poor. The food would then be ‘doled out’ to them, hence the expression ‘on the dole’.
16th CENTURY CHEST
Dating from 1520 our oldest chest is carved with ornate scenes depicting a variety of strange creatures and mythical beasts.
1592 TESTER BED
Plaited reeds or rushes were woven together to create a cover for the bed’s rope supports. A feather mattress was probably placed on top.
This depicts Henry VIII’s Surrey palace of Nonsuch. There was to be ‘nonsuch’ like it, but Henry died before it was completed.
A space-saving piece of furniture with an under-seat storage area and a top that folds down to form a table.
This large cupboard, dated 1673, was used for storing tableware.
A carved wooden Bible Box that stored objects of great value, most notably the family’s Bible.
A 1713 cupboard with three sections; the top can be lifted down and used as a bench.
18ft OAK TABLE
Dating from the 1630s, this spectacular 18ft eight-legged table was brought from Crook Hall, Lancashire, in 1921.