The participants in our special Tudor walk gathered at the Amersham Museum on a dry and pleasant morning. Three guides dressed in Tudor costume were ready to lead us.

We crossed over the road to stand by the Kings Arms and receive an introduction to our tour. To our surprise, one of our guides addressed us in fluent Welsh. Though born and raised locally, Kat was of Welsh descent and had learnt the language with the help of her family from North Wales. To the relief of many, Peter Borrows then repeated the introduction in English.

Peter was our lead guide, dressed all in woollen clothing with a cap on his head, britches over his legs, and the ensemble finished off by a codpiece, an essential item of male Tudor garb.

The tour took us past the Market to St Mary’s church, then across the stream to the entrance of the town cemetery, then along the riverside and up to the meadow overlooking the town. Finally we moved across to the Martyr’s memorial, before returning to the old town. Most of the group then went to the Elephant & Castle for a rest and to refuel.

The tour was very informative and full of surprising insights into life in Amersham during Tudor times. We also discovered the origins of many everyday expressions that originated in that period.

The first surprise was to discover that so many of the buildings we could see dated from Tudor times.  The Kings Arms with its timber beams was one fine example of a building from the Tudor period, but others were less obvious as they had been updated with more modern (Georgian) facades. We were told to look down the alleys and passageways at the side walls of the buildings. These views revealed their Tudor origins.

We learned about the market established by Charter. It had strict start and end times for stall-holders to trade. Rather than wait for the market to open, some sellers and London buyers of wool would agree a transaction privately, hence the verb to “forestall”.

As we approached the church we met three more women dressed in Tudor costume. These ladies all had their heads covered, a necessity to protect from itchy debris and lice when living under thatched rooves. Their bodices were laced up – some were “straight laced” but crossed lacing indicated different standards of behaviour!

Inside St Mary’s, we discovered the origin of more everyday expressions. As church attendance was compulsory it would have been standing room only inside, with no pews to sit on. The aged and infirm however could find support around the sides, hence the saying “the weak go to the wall”. Services were in Latin and for Communion services the priest would repeatedly pop out from behind a screen, say a few words of Latin,  then pop back out of sight again. The locals of course knew little if any Latin so the priest’s unintelligible incantations were referred to as Hocus Pocus a parody of the Latin phrase “hoc est enim corpus meum” (this is my body). Therefore the priest was doing the Hokey Cokey!

We met again with the three other women. One was the Wise Woman, who sold herbs and potions for medicinal purposes. She trod a fine line between providing a health service and being accused of witchcraft. Life was hard for most people and meat was a luxury. A family meal might be a pot of vegetables with a very small portion of meat. It was “pot luck” for whoever pulled out a ladleful with the piece of meat in it.

The Martyr’s Memorial was a poignant reminder of harsher times. Their crime was to read the Bible in English, an act seen as a challenge to the authority of the Church and its bishops. They were burned at the stake, with the daughter of the first victim made to light the fire. Ironically, within less than a century English language bibles were to be found in all Anglican churches. A play about those events is held every four or so years in Amersham, and for those that haven’t seen it, preparations have already begun for the next performance in 2027. Well worth seeing.

Having thanked Peter and his team for leading such an informative walk for us, our party dispersed with a number of us retiring to the Elephant & Castle for a welcome lunch.

Gwyndaf John