Spend enough time around old houses and old oak furniture and you will eventually hear some wonderfully strange stories about how our ancestors lived. Beds were short because people slept sitting upright. Chairs were uncomfortable because comfort was considered sinful. Enormous oak settles were designed to hide people from view. Chests were simply primitive wardrobes. […]
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Think Tolkien, Game of Thrones and the Great Halls of Legend Picture a great hall in a fantasy kingdom. There is almost certainly a roaring fire, a stone floor, iron candleholders and a vast wooden table scarred by generations of feasts, arguments and political plotting. High-backed chairs stand beneath carved shields, while heavy chests line […]
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Pick up a piece of old oak furniture and you’re holding more than timber and joinery. In the 16th and 17th centuries, oak chests, cupboards, bed frames and panelling lived in a world where the supernatural wasn’t a Halloween theme, it was a genuine, everyday anxiety. People worried about witchcraft, ill luck, “evil influences,” and […]
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