News & Events

x

Select online stories generated by the project

ACCIDENT IN THE WORKPLACE? TUDOR BUREAUCRATS ISSUE HEALTH & SAFETY BOOK … 500 YEARS AGO by Helene Perkins. ‘Health and safety rules are hardly a 21st century curse, it seems. Even our Tudor ancestors issued edicts, covering such vital issues as how to mow hay, collect water and climb trees to kill birds. The 16th century was a dangerous time, a University of Oxford research team has found after trawling through coroners’ reports from 1551 to 1600. Half of all fatal accidents 500 years ago happened in “the workplace” […] Lead researcher Professor Steven Gunn, of Oxford’s Merton College, said: “Reading about how people died in Tudor times, you might think that people must have been daft. Actually people did make an effort to work out the risks and minimise them.” 

DROWNING IN CESSPITS, CRUSHED BY CARTS AND BEING MAULED TO DEATH BY A BEAR: THE HEALTH AND SAFETY NIGHTMARES OF TUDOR ENGLAND REVEALED by Georgina Campbell. ‘Tudor England would have been a 21st Century health and safety officer’s worst nightmare, with 9,000 accidental deaths, half of which happened at work. Professor Steven Gunn, a University of Oxford historian, has been sourcing 16th Century coroners’ reports to uncover people’s grizzly end. The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, found fatal accidents were much more likely to take place during the agricultural peak season, with cart crashes, dangerous harvesting techniques, horse tramplings and windmill manglings all major causes. In a bid to reduce the high accident rates, workers did adopt health and safety procedures.’

HEALTH AND SAFETY IN TUDOR ENGLAND by Matt Pickles. ‘Death is not a laughing matter. But an ongoing study into coroners’ reports into accidental deaths in Tudor England has turned up some deaths which do sound like something out of a slapstick comedy routine. Professor Steven Gunn of Oxford University’s History Faculty and Merton College is leading Everyday Life and Fatal Hazard in 16th Century England, a research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He estimates that there are 9,000 accidental deaths to investigate in The National Archives in Kew. Although the project has produced some entertaining stories, which have been well covered in the media and on this blog, it has also provided a valuable insight into the life and working practices of the time, and how these changed over the 16th century.’

DEATH BY BEAR-BITING! HEALTH AND SAFETY IN TUDOR ENGLAND … NOT GONE QUITE SO MAD by Simon Wesson. ‘Having a job in the 16th century was a dangerous business, with nearly half of accidental deaths happening at work. A new study has documented the various gory ways in which workers met their end whilst driving carts, felling trees or working in mills. As part of a research project funded by the ESRC, University of Oxford historian Professor Steven Gunn has been scouring 16th century coroners’ reports and researching accidental deaths in Tudor England […] “Reading about how people died in Tudor times, you might think that people must have been daft to have died the way they did,” says Professor Gunn. “Actually people did make an effort to work out the risks and minimise them, but these methods didn’t always work.”

TUDOR CORONERS’ RECORDS GIVE CLUE TO ‘REAL OPHELIA’ FOR SHAKESPEARE by Sean Coughlan. ‘An Oxford historian has found evidence of a story that could be the real-life inspiration for Shakespeare’s tragic character, Ophelia. Dr Steven Gunn has found a coroner’s report into the drowning of a Jane Shaxspere in 1569. The girl, possibly a young cousin of William Shakespeare, had been picking flowers when she fell into a millpond near Stratford upon Avon. Dr Gunn says there are “tantalising” links to Ophelia’s drowning in Hamlet.’

SHAKESPEARE UNDER WATER by Niall Boyce. ‘Efforts to find the “real Shakespeare” are fraught with pitfalls […] Tantalising pieces of circumstantial evidence—biographical details that may have found their way into the plays—emerge from time to time. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that a woman by the name of Katharine Hamlet drowned at Tiddington, near Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1579 when the playwright was 15 years old. The parallel with the fate of Ophelia, Hamlet’s unfortunate sweetheart who goes mad and dies by drowning, seems clear. The work of Dr Steven Gunn of Merton College, Oxford University, UK, sheds more light on this issue. His analysis of Tudor coroners’ records showed that another drowning occurred near Stratford-upon-Avon a decade before the death of Katharine Hamlet. The deceased was a young girl who had fallen into a millpond whilst picking flowers. Her name was Jane Shaxspere.’

10 STRANGE WAYS TUDORS DIED by Sean Coughlan. ‘Oxford University historian, Dr Steven Gunn, has been scouring 16th century coroners’ reports and researching accidental deaths in Tudor England. These reports revealed an intriguing possible link with William Shakespeare’s tragic character Ophelia. But they also revealed examples of some strange and sometimes stupid deaths […] So what can be said about the drunken Cambridge baker who, while relieving himself, fell backwards into a cesspit on 2 June 1523? He died horribly. What a way to go.’

TRAGEDY WITH A HINT OF HUMOUR by Reg Little. ‘There have been studies of fatal accidents before. But surely no one else has discovered so many unusual, comical and grizzly ways of dying as Oxford University historian Dr Steven Gunn. Dr Gunn estimates there are some 9,000 accidental deaths in the 16th century to investigate, all stored in the public records office in Kew. [The project] has involved the Merton College historian wading through mountains of coroners’ reports and deciphering spidery handwriting to present us with a new take on life and death in Tudor times.’

THE NOT-SO-BEAUTIFUL GAME! by Rob Cooper. ‘It’s known as the beautiful game, but in Tudor times football should perhaps have been called the dangerous game. Modern Premier League stars may dive and feign injuries, but in the 16th century more people died playing it than sword-fighting, a historian has discovered. Seven footballers were killed after clashes in English villages between 1500 and 1575, new research has revealed.’

‘STUPID DEATHS: TUDOR ARCHERS’ FROM HORRIBLE HISTORIES. Features Tudor archery accidents including the case of Thomas Curteys of Bildeston, Suffolk, who persuaded his friend Richard Lyrence to shoot an unfletched arrow through his hat. The arrow did ‘fly madly’, as predicted by Curtneys himself, and hit him on the right side of the head just above the ear, with instant – and fatal – effect. Also mentioned is Henry Pert, a gentleman of Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, who managed to shoot himself in the head with his bow.

SUMMER WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME FOR TUDORS by Sean Coughlan. ‘ Fatal accidents were much more likely to take place during the agricultural peak season, a study of 16th Century coroner reports has revealed. Cart crashes, dangerous harvesting techniques, horse accidents and windmill mangling were among the perils facing the Tudor farm worker. Historian Steven Gunn has been studying 9,000 reports of Tudor misfortune. He has found that between 1558 and 1560, almost three-quarters of fatal accidents took place during the summer months.’

Public lectures and seminars on the project

2017.01.25 Cardiff University seminar
2017.01.16 Society for Court Studies seminar
2016.11.25 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
2016.11.22 Plymouth branch of the Historical Association
2016.10.28 University of Leicester seminar
2016.10.10 Institute of Historical Research seminar
2016.09.28 University of Kent seminar
2016.09.20 Oundle School
2016.09.15 Chipping Campden History Society
2016.07.28 Honeywood Museum, Carshalton
2016.07.01 Oxford branch of the Historical Association
2016.05.26 Exeter University graduate conference
2016.05.04 Bodleian Library
2016.01.16 Bournemouth branch of the Historical Association
2015.11.12 Royal College of Art, London
2015.10.30 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
2015.10.17 Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, Oxford
2015.05.16 Serenata History Day, Dunnington, Warwickshire
2015.01.30- 2015.03.06 Ford lectures, Oxford
2014.10.27 Wolfson College, Oxford
2014.10.17 Bidford on Avon Historical Society
2014.09.30 Dauntsey’s School, History Society
2014.04.24 University of Paris IV
2014.02.14 Huntington Library, San Marino
2014.02.05 Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
2014.01.14 Ancient House Museum Thetford
2013.11.09 Friends of Sheffield Manor
2013.10.03 Royal Latin School, Buckingham
2013.09.27 Shanghai International Studies University
2013.09.26 Anhui University, Hefei
2013.09.24 Nanjing University
2013.06.20 Beckenham and Bromley branch of the Historical Association
2013.05.13 Merton Society, London lecture
2013.05.09 University of Cambridge
2013.04.28 BBC History Magazine ‘Talking Tudor’ public history day
2013.03.13 University of Exeter
2013.03.02 Lincoln branch of Workers’ Educational Association
2013.02.26 Stowe School
2013.02.13 Winchester branch of the Historical Association
2013.02.11 University of Bristol