6p centenary at Tudor House and Garden

On Sunday 29 July entrance to Tudor House and Garden will be just 6p per person as the attraction turns back the clocks to celebrate its centenary as a public museum.

Visitors will be able to meet staff in authentic Edwardian costume, experience an Edwardian school lesson, dress up in period-correct clothes and have their photo taken in an Edwardian photo booth.

The Mayor of Southampton, Cllr Derek Burke, will cut the museum’s birthday cake at 1pm.

Visitors can also expect to bump into Mrs Mean, an Edwardian school mistress (in character) will be giving Edwardian school lessons in the education room on the ground floor.

Continuing the theme, there will be replica Edwardian games set up in the courtyard for visitors to play.

In King John’s Palace (at the back of Tudor House) members of Southampton’s Young Archaeology Club will be running a sandpit dig that visitors can take part in. There will also be a chance to get your hands on archaeological objects that were found during earlier excavations at Tudor House.

Lindsay Ford, Curator of Local Collections, will be in the Victorian Kitchen talking about artefacts from the collection and allowing visitors to handle some of the Victorian and Edwardian kitchen items. Meanwhile, upstairs in the Georgian Room families can dress-up in replica Edwardian and Victorian clothes and have their photo taken.

Free tours of the House will take place at 10am, 11am, 12noon, 2pm and 3pm – booking in advance is recommended. Doors open at 10.30am on 29 July, and the last tour of the house finishes at 5pm.

Tudor House and Garden earlier this year won the top design award for the region from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The Tudor House project, led by the council with major support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and generous local donations, took two phases of work. Phase One received £1.63 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and an additional £590,000 from Southampton City Council. Phase Two received a grant of £3.5 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £1.8 million from the council and over £50,000 in other donations.