Tudor tour

Dining a la Tudor mode
It helped if you liked your fellow diners in Willen in 1522, because you probably shared your cup with them! Early Tudor diners ate their pottage out of small bowls with spoons made from sheep or cow horn. Bread was served on a square wooden platter and any meat, like the duck legs illustrated, was presented in a dish. People did not use forks and used their own knives, the ones they used for everything else! Jugs, bowls and cooking pots were plain and functional, and normally made locally. See picture below.
Virtually all the early Tudor pottery found was made in Potterspury, a village 8 miles to the west of Willen on the old Roman road known as Watling Street, now the A5.
Potterspury ware has been found at other excavated sites in Milton Keynes. However, it is interesting to note that in 1482 a grant of fields, houses, meadow and grazing land was made by Richard Potter (also known as Richard Smith) and John Bouton of Potterspury to William Frances or Fraunces of Willen, and to wonder if this explains the large amount of Potterspury ware found in our village.
Medieval pots similar to the ones excavated in Willen. Courtesy of Bob Zeepvat.