A group of apprentices at St Fagans National History Museum, near Cardiff, has painstakingly reconstructed a 16th Century Haverfordwest merchant’s house 30 years after dismantling it, furnishing it with replica Tudor furniture such as antique chests.
Lancashire is rich in Tudor history, as is Wales, where Fagans Castle has its home. A Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house, the interiors were extensively remodelled during the 19th Century. Spanning 400 years of family history, the rooms are furnished with everything from four-poster beds to Victorian dining chairs . Owing to renovations, only two are currently open to the public, but there is still plenty of history in the National History Museum, which occupies 100 acres of the castle grounds. Here, visitors will find more than 40 historic buildings from various regions and periods, rescued from their original locations and restored piece by piece.
St Fagans is home to a Celtic homestead, a farm with native breeds of livestock, a mediaeval chapel, a smithy, a bakehouse, a Working Men’s Institute and a village school complete with antique desks.
Ribble Valley visitors also have the opportunity to enjoy arts events, craft demonstrations and historical re-enactments. On Monday 2nd July, when the latest exhibit was officially opened, they were invited into a wealthy 16th Century trader’s home to watch the first meal being prepared on the authentic Tudor hearth.
The museum has used replica furniture to show how the property would have looked when it was used for overseas trading in 1580. Antique dealers in Preston have Victorian dining chairs and other furniture in the “Tudor Revival” style, allowing you to import some genuine history into your home.