Beds

For many people, in the Middle Ages and later, a bed was a straw pallet or a sack on the floor, but if better could be afforded, much attention was lavished on extravagent frames, hung with rich cloth and embroidery.

It was usual for beds to be enclosed in drapes. Fresh air was a dangerous thing and in an age before adequate glazing and draught proofing, the hangings gave added warmth, even if they did threaten suffocation.

They also provided privacy, since beds preceded bedrooms, and were often in communal rooms.

In early beds, the frame formed a simple couch, and the hangings were suspended from the ceiling as this picture demonstrates.

Another way to keep out draughts and provide privacy for sleepers in rooms that were not merely bedchambers, were box beds, almost entirely enclosed in wooden panels, with access through a small doorway.

Even with lighter frames, enveloping drapes would convert the bed into a small chamber of its own. Bed frames were often quite plain, totally concealed by rich velvets and tapestry.

Where the wooden frame was designed to be visible, it was as elaborate as possible, with carved panels and ornate posts.

One of the most famous of tester beds was the Great Bed of Ware, 11' square and more than 7' high. Although beds were frequently intended to accommodate several people at a time, the bed of Ware was exceptionally large, a freak in its own time.

Early posts were usually carved rather than turned. The elaborate one on the left, at Hever Castle, is from a bed reputedly used by Henry VIII. The very primitive example below is from a Welsh farmhouse.

Elizabethan and Jacobean posts were usually turned, though often carved as well. They were not confined solely to wealthy households. This example, like the previous one, is from a farmhouse at St.Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life.

This example is at the Weald and Downland Museum