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A Day in the life of Thomas Ashton, Headmaster of Shrewsbury School (afternoon)
Headmaster (Image courtesy of J.Bryan)
Did I mention drama? How forgetful of me – my favourite subject and the boys too, I hope. Drama you say? Is a theatre not the place where the Devil makes much mischief; a place for drunkards and worse. In London no doubt, but not here in Shrewsbury – even our town council like a good play and will pay for it too sometimes. Every Thursday the boys put on a play, a tragedy, a history or a comedy – some written by old Greeks and Romans but some by the boys themselves. There’s no finer thing than a good play. Did not our Lord Jesus teach his followers great things in parables and are not parables like little plays? We too can teach the boys, and the townspeople too, much that is good through plays.
Best of all are the Whitsun plays watched by most of Shrewsbury. People come from miles around, even London. We can hold them all in the dry dingle near the old friary.
Can you see the slope where we hold our plays every Whitsun? And there's the old friary building now used as a tannery.
How true is "Days in the Life..."?
These dramatised accounts have been created by the Discovering Shropshire's History team. We used information taken from biographies of these individuals as researched by Bill Champion, author of "Everyday Life in Tudor Shrewsbury". These biographies, with the sources he used, can be seen in full by clicking on the "in depth" buttons on each page.