BBC - Tudor Monastery Farm (2013) Part 5 Welfare

Historian Ruth Goodman and archaeologists Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold turn the clock back over 500 years to run a farm at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex exactly as it would have been in 1500, during the reign of the first Tudor King, Henry VII.

Part 5: Welfare

With no other provision for the poor, monasteries played a key role in providing welfare for those in need. But funding charity also meant extending hospitality to wealthy donors. The monastery restores a corrody room which would have been granted to an elderly worker as a form of pension. The room needs a new floor so limestone is gathered and roasted to make lime putty. Ruth is in charge of the home comforts and harvests rushes from the river to make a mattress. The Abbot is planning a big feast to entertain a patron - a good way to encourage the wealthier members of society to make large donations. Tom oversees the production of a book to give the patron as a gift, while Ruth lends a hand in the kitchen to produce some lavish dishes for the Abbot's table, and Peter distils wine into brandy. There is also a lesson in Tudor etiquette for Tom and Peter before the feast is served.

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