MFHS group visit to the Tudor House Museum, Worcester
28 February 2023
Our first visit this year was to the Tudor House Museum in Friar St, Worcester. This attractive black and white timber building with jettied first floor was built around 1520. Various tradesmen occupied the original three dwellings over the centuries and a tavern existed there from at least the 1700s. Richard Cadbury oversaw the restoration work in the 1900s that combined the three dwellings into one.
The history of the building
Until it became a museum in the 1970s the building served a number of purposes including coffee house, school clinic and dentist’s, air raid wardens’ post and billeting office.
We listened to a talk by Jim Panter, chairman of the trustees, on the history of the building, how the museum came to be set up, the importance of the volunteers team and the various education days offered for schools.
The plaster ceiling
It was only realised a few years ago that the house also has an early example of a plaster embossed ceiling in one of the upstairs rooms and we were very fortunate during our visit to hear from Peter Hare, whose team restored it. Peter has worked on many conservation and restoration projects, including reinstating some of the state rooms of Windsor Castle after the fire of 1992. He explained the problems with the ceiling and the roof it was attached to and how his team managed to stabilise and conserve them both.
After the talks we had a look round the building and enjoyed coffee and cake in the museum’s pleasant cafe. Our thanks go to Jim Panter and curator Abi Hayward and to Mike Taylor for organising the visit.
The Tudor House Museum is open to the public Wednesday – Saturday; see their website for further details:
