Bringing Tudor Wakefield to Life!

Wakefield Museum has teamed up with Peter Brears, a highly respected historian, historic cookery expert, illustrator and son of the Merrie City to explore a now hidden side of Wakefield.

Believe it or not, the centre of Wakefield once housed rows of impressive timber framed Tudor houses built by wealthy merchants in the 1500s. The merchants bought and built finely decorated houses on Westgate, Bread Street, Northgate and near the Bullring using wood from (the) Outwood (see where that name came from?).

These buildings have all but disappeared. There are still a couple on Westgate and The Cow Shed restaurant on Northgate is a good example (it still has an original decorated plaster ceiling upstairs). Some of these buildings survive in bits in Wakefield Museum’s collections and, with Peter’s help, we want to show them off in the new museum. He has illustrated how they would have looked when they were first built - bringing them back to life.

The Tudor Wakefield display will be like a sketchbook of a forgotten Wakefield, combining our beautifully carved timber beams with Peter Brears’ thoughtful illustrations.

Corbel from a medieval building which stood in Bread Street. It has a carved relief of a knight figure holding a sword. Sadly the knight’s  face has not survived, but Peter's drawing shows how it looked and where is was on the building.

Peter Brears' wonderful drawings bring the fragmented timbers back to life