21/10/2026
Step back into Tudor England! 🏹
Athelhampton’s Tudor Week is a chance to step back to 1581, and discover what life was like in Elizabethan times. The family who once lived here are brought back to life, and you can discover all about the drama that was going on between them at Athelhampton’s Tudor Week, 26-30 October!
Nicholas Martyn. Master of Athelhampton, he’s a doting father to his four daughters, but make no mistake: his agreement to leave each of them a quarter share of his house and lands in his will is no proto-feminist act. In reality, he can’t afford to pay for their dowries. He doesn’t stand to properly inherit until his mother dies, and she’s showing no signs of slowing down yet!
He’s recently been appointed High Sheriff of Dorset: an important legal role. But is he attending to it fairly, or taking advantage of it for his own ends? Allegations of bribery and corruption are beginning to arise…
Margaret Martyn. Nicholas’s wife, and the mother of his four daughters. She gave birth to six other children: three boys, and three girls, but they all died young, and this loss has stayed with her. Taught music from a very young age, she’s a skilled musician, and has shared this love of music with her family. After all, she has Dorothy Wadham nee Petre as a sister in law, and the Petres patronised William Byrd!
Margaret has recently been gifted a new horse - a mare - by her husband, who’s being somewhat cagey about where he acquired it. Still, it makes a nice change, given that he’s normally so short of money
Florence Farringdon. Margaret’s sister is as skilled at needlecrafts as Margaret is at music. You’ll often find her creating beautiful items - anything from a plain-sewn shirt to lacis or bobbin lace!
Married at the young age of 18, she was interred in the family crypt after falling ill and becoming semi-comatose. Luckily, she awoke and made her way back home across the fields in her winding sheet. You’ll have to talk to her if you want more details: she has yet to let her family live it down.
Elizabeth Brune. Margaret’s daughter and Florence’s niece, Elizabeth is the eldest of the four daughters of Athe
