Volunteer Guides such as Jill, shown to the left, don clothing that would have been worn in Alderman Snawsell's household during 1483. On the day this photograph was taken, Jill was busy filling oak and cast iron barrels destined for the buttery with water and setting them out in the courtyard -- part of the process of making the wood swell to make the barrel water-tight. The barrels are made by artisans at the T.& R. Theakston Brewery, Masham; the brewery has sponsored the buttery.

Barley Hall staff and volunteers are committed to an authentic re-creation of life in a late fifteenth-century York townhouse.

Photo copyright Lynda Pidgeon; used with permission.