Life on a 16th century farmstead in England.

 
   
     
 
 


This impressive oak and wattle & daub house with kitchen garden is Bayleaf Farm, an early Tudor Wealden House from Chiddingstone, Kent, England. The timber-framed hall-house dates from the early 15th century. The central hall is heated by an open fire with service rooms (on the right) at one end of the house and family rooms (on the left) at the other end. The house and kitchen garden is kept as it might have been in the mid-16th century. You can see some of the rooms in the video right.

 
 
 
       

From the early 16th century Bayleaf, with its 100 or so acres of land, is described as a ‘fee farm’. The tenants paid an annual rent of 5 pounds and 10 shillings when Bayleaf was being held on a long-term lease for a succession of lives (usually three e.g. father, son and grandson). Today Bayleaf Farm has a kitchen garden based on evidence found in writing from the 14th to 16th centuries. Readers interested in farmsteading can read about how the garden's crops were organised using crop rotation in this booklet, Bayleaf Medieval Farmstead (PDF 7Mb) which also details how the home's furniture was made and what household utensils were used.