Society of Bexhill Museums

Society of Bexhill Museums - May 16

FOR the final spring lecture at St Augustine's on April 30, Heather Woodward informed and entertained her attentive audience with Life in the Nursery and School Room. A National Trust volunteer, Mrs Woodward has a special interest in Ightham Mote so her knowledge of the Medieval period was apparent when she described the experience of children of the great house at this time, when childhood was not considered to be a state other than adulthood.

With infant death a common occurrence, baptism of the baby at birth was essential. It was interesting to learn that before the age of four the child was described as 'it' not he or she, the parents being fearful that their offspring might not live to that age. Slides illustrating how such infants were dressed as miniature adults showed small boys in skirts and this was common until the early 20th century. Mrs Woodward produced a hornbook from the 18th century, but these had been in use since the 16th century. Shaped like a bat and designed to hang from the child's waist, these were aids to reading, writing and the use of numbers, often with a prayer added to the alphabet. Nothing is new, as was illustrated by a seventeenth century 'baby walker', and we heard that the banging of balls against the church walls was banned! For children, attitudes changed by Tudor times when girls were considered to be worth educating. However James I, no fan of women, felt to do so was an unnecessary expense.