Family Life
Henry Redman
Target the Tudors
This information was last updated in 2004. The Tudors have not changed, but our understanding of them might!
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What were these objects used for?
What were these objects used for?
The figures, together with a plaque explaining who they are, have been engraved by hand on brass. They were attached to the church wall so that people would remember Henry Redman and his family after their deaths.
How did Tudors bury the dead?
In Tudor times, wealthy people were buried in lead coffins, often in a chamber under the floor of a church. Very important people had elaborate tombs built above their coffins, sometimes with full-size statues of themselves made of stone or wood.
Ordinary people were buried in the churchyard, wrapped in a special sheet called a shroud. Often there was nothing to mark their grave. If gravediggers unearthed skulls and bones when they were digging a new grave, they were placed in a chamber called a charnel house.
How else did Henry Redman try to be remembered?
In his will, Henry Redman left some of his money to pay for candles to be lit in the church and for a priest to sing hymns and say prayers for his soul. These were Roman Catholic rituals and after the Reformation were not approved of. Henry VIII confiscated the Redman estate on the grounds that it was 'given over to superstitious uses'.
