Barbara Fermor

My prime object is to give as exact a feeling for Tudor costume for adults. We do not dress children. We dress characters. We have got the sewing lady, we have got a lady who has got her own house, we have got the next stage, which is a rich lady who has to have someone to dress her. It is so that the illusion of Tudor costume of all types is there. We don’t ever talk about children. As soon as they put the costume on, they are a character. They are a person. The one thing that I have always had in my mind is that this is not fancy dress. We are doing our best to make it feel as the great house of Knole would have been like if it had visitors in Tudor times.

All our costumes are lined. That is stage training. And they are all hung up properly. That again is stage training. If you don’t look after them, they don’t last. That’s why most of the fabric is furnishing fabric because furnishing fabric tends to be harder wearing.

Interviewer: Do you have a favourite?

BF: Favourite costume? No! The only time I feel a real joy is when the children afterwards say, “I liked being … ” At one time we used to have a Fish-on-Friday [costume] because of course in Tudor times, they had fish on Friday and there was one costume that became the Fish-on-Friday costume. And I met the young man – in fact he actually took up bowls and I met him when he was learning to play bowls, and he said, “I was the Fish-on-Friday gentleman!” That gives me great pleasure.