Build a model Tudor house
In Tudor England, people lived in timber-framed houses with whitewashed walls. Find out more about Tudor houses and what it was like to live in them, and follow our instructions to turn some old cardboard boxes into your very own model Tudor house!
What did Tudor Houses look like?
One of the things that you'll notice straight away about Tudor houses is that they are white with black lines all over them. This is because they are whitewashed and their wooden frames and beams are left exposed.
The frames were joined together by wooden pegs, not nails, and the houses had steep roofs. These were usually thatched, although richer people had tiles on their roofs.
The walls were made from wattle and daub, which is the name for woven sticks covered with a mixture of clay and animal dung!
Build your own
Here's how to make your own model house.
To start with, you'll need two rectangular cardboard boxes - one slightly larger than the other. Turn the smaller box upside down and glue the larger box on top of it, with the opening at the top.
Cut the two small flaps at either end of the large box into triangles - these will be the shape of the roof (the gables). Put glue along the side of the triangles and press the longer flaps against them. Hold these in place until they stick together.
Finishing Touches
Take a sheet of cardboard, fold it in half lengthways and place this over the flaps of the top box to create a roof. Make sure there's a slight overlap on each side, and trim it if the overlap is too big. Glue it in place once you've cut it to the right size.
Now paint the house white (you might need two coats) and paint the roof brown. Once the paint has dried, draw on the wooden beams, windows and roof tiles with a black felt-tip pen, and use a brown felt-tip pen to draw the door.
To make your house unique, you could add flowers growing outside or people at the windows.
WHAT WAS LIVING IN A TUDOR HOUSE LIKE?
Most Tudor houses had earth floors, which were very hard to keep clean. As only rich people could afford carpets, most people covered the floor with rushes and simply replaced them when they became too dirty.
Furniture tended to be made of oak and was heavy and uncomfortable. Usually, people had stools and benches rather than chairs.
People had gardens but these were normally quite small and were used to grow vegetables and herbs. Only very rich people had big gardens. Sometimes these would include fancy things like fountains or even mazes.