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lT IS DIFFICULT for us to imagine how our forefathers lived but we get a little help from old documents: e.g. over 450 years ago, in the middle of Henry VIII's reign, the Alcester manor court recorded things like this: (here put in modern English)
The 12 men
order that Payne's wife leave her chiding and her scolding among her neighbours and if she
be taken with fault any more the bailiffs shall set her on the pillory and drive her out
of the town. The High Bailiff shall make a stool and mend the pillory to punish chiders
and scolders by Christmas.
Horses and
clothes are not to be washed at the wells.
Hedge
breakers are to be set in the stocks for two days.
Butchers
must bring garbage to the common muck hill.
All
butchers are to make clean their bloodpits.
John Weser
is to get rid of his woman and no man shall receive her within the town.
Alcester & District Local History Society