Object of the Month: Plaited Rush Mattress
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Object of the Month October 2025
Plaited Rush Mattress
As tempting as it is to try to write a blog relating to Halloween, being that it is now officially October, the celebration does not have a great amount of historical significance as a post-Pagan festival - or at least, in relation to Selly Manor and Bournville’s history. So, continuing with the themes of September, I’ve chosen an object that would have certainly been welcome in the cold of autumn. Not to mention, it has a deceivingly interesting background…
In the bedroom of Selly Manor, there is a large oakwood tester bed with modest carving and decoration. Nowadays, tester beds are more commonly known as four-poster beds. Their main function being to keep out insects, ceiling leaks, and keep in the warm. This bed in particular was made in 1592 in Wales, and belonged to Edmwnd Prys, more often known by the Anglicised form of his name Edmund. Prys was a poet and the archdeacon of Merioneth, he translated psalms into Welsh verse and made them suitable to be sang by audiences. One thing you will not see when looking at Prys’ bed in our museum today, is the plaited rush mattress underneath the comfortable bedding (and its protector Ginger the cat!).
When the bedframe is stripped bare of its soft furnishings, you can see a thick light brown mat, created by weaving together large bulky strands of rush and connecting them to each other. In beds of this period, they would have been placed on top of bed cords – a rope net that acted as slats – which you can see if you lie on the floor, but I don’t necessary recommend doing this at Selly Manor. I have taken a photo for the benefit of your comfort and humility! The long holes you see in the sides of the frame are where these ropes slot through. There is a white sheet directly on top of them, and above that is where the rush mat lies.
From what I can tell from our Laurence Cadbury collection archives, it is unclear whether the mat originally accompanied the bedframe. We know that the bedframe was purchased from a farm near Harlech, and at the time valued around £85 in Laurence’s leatherbound notebook. However, there is no mention of the rush mattress in the description of the purchase. It has nevertheless been associated to the bed in its file entry, and listed as a Welsh piece, which could indicate that it came as part of the purchase, and just was considered too insignificant to specify. It is for similar reasons why there isn’t a great deal of information around about the production of these plaited bed mats, as despite the fact that they would have been present in countless households in this period and even back through the medieval eras, they seem to have not been considered historically or anthropologically significant enough to warrant much recording.
We do know that rushes were considered important in the consideration of comfort at this time, by the fact that we can see many other household items that utilised them – such as rushlights (which you may have read about in the last object of the month blog), and carpets or floor coverings. Even when we regard doorways, we often refer to thresholds, which is the lip of the doorway that was used to keep the rushes in rooms. Although, from a 21st century perspective, I can’t say they seem all that pleasant to lie on!
Written by Tristram Flood