Page 6 - Oundle Life Issue 7 May 2021

OUNDLE MUSEUM
...and so to bed
Over the fireplace in the main room of the Museum is a hand carved headboard of a 17th century four poster or tester bed, which was donated to the Museum by Bernard Kay. All components of the bed would have been hand carved and decorated as is illustrated here.
In the 13th century a fashion
developed in rich houses in
which a small canopy known as
the ‘tester’ was suspended from the beams of the ceiling and hung with decorative curtains over the head of the bed. This was later followed by the ‘Arabian’ bed which had the whole bed hung around with curtains and may have become fashionable following the Crusades.
By the 15th century this new style had evolved, so that the whole of the bed was covered by a decorative boarded ceiling, supported by carved corner pillars, with highly carved headboards with insets of coloured fruit wood and surrounded with ornate curtains which were pulled around the bed at night.
This had the added advantage of keeping the occupants warm; thus the ‘four poster’ or ‘tester’ bed was born, placed in the bed chamber and often used by the lady of the house for entertaining.
Mattresses were less developed, and in most cases consisted of straw contained in a linen bag, perhaps with an added feather mattress on top.
Servants often slept on a ‘truckle bed’ which pulled out from under the great bed at night. Gill Johnston
Oundle Museum Committee Member www.oundlemuseum.org.uk
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