The Carriage House Crafts Center

Carriage House Crafts Center

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In this building you see a reproduction façade of a 15th-century English guild hall, modeled after one still standing in Thaxted, England. You will find a gallery housing an exhibit on 17th-century trade and commerce. Walk through the arches to find museum artisans making pottery, baskets, furniture, lace and cloth alongside a shop which sells these reproductions.

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It is one of the many myths about the "Pilgrims" that as soon as they landed they started to make candles, weave cloth, build furniture and create other necessities with their own hands. The fact is, they were far too busy building houses, farming, raising children and doing what was necessary to survive to spend time making goods such as cloth, lace, candles, baskets, furniture, clothing, pottery, and other items which they could import. For this reason, the making of such items is not represented in Plimoth Plantation's 1627 Pilgrim Village, a facet of the Village which used to disappoint many visitors.

Today, however, Plimoth Plantation has the Carriage House Crafts Center, a modern day living exhibit where visitors can see all these goods being made, ask 20th-century questions of the artisans (something not possible in the Village where interpreters never step out of their 1627 character), and even purchase items made there.

Plimoth Plantation’s Carriage House Crafts Center exhibit is a combination of a modern gallery and artisan’s workshop where you can learn about 17th-century craft processes and how these crafts and the products fit into the economy of 17th-century England and New England.

On display in the gallery are over a dozen 17th-century Dutch prints that give a visual image of artisans of this period at work and the places where their goods were sold. Mounted over the prints is a façade of the late 14th-/early 15th-century Cutler’s Guildhall in Thaxted, Essex, England. The ground floor and first floor of the original building were used as market areas. Markets, fairs and peddlers were the most common ways for domestic and imported goods to be sold and distributed throughout England. Also in the gallery are two life-sized hand-tinted, 17th-century merchants holding a map of the world, which alludes to the many ports and great distances involved in trade at this time. When the Plymouth colonists emigrated to New England and needed to concentrate their efforts on farming and feeding their families, it was quite natural for them to look to their old sources of supply in England or beyond for goods they needed but did not have the time or resources to create.

The products made by the Crafts Center artisans in the workshop area of the exhibit represent the everyday household objects that the Plymouth colonists were importing to New England. Here, non-costumed artisans use techniques, tools and materials similar to those used 350 years ago in England and Europe. The reproductions created are used in the 1627 Pilgrim Village and on board Mayflower II. The joiner splits, planes and carves green wood into chairs, bedsteads, tables and other furniture. The weaver turns fine linen thread into towels and woolen yarns into bed curtains and blankets. Earthenware dishes used for eating and food preparation are made by the potters. The style of clothing that the Plymouth settlers would have imported is produced by tailors, a shoemaker and embroiderer, and is worn by the museum’s role-players on the historic sites. The basketmakers use English-grown willow to reproduce baskets for gathering garden produce, hauling manure from animal yards and for storing foodstuffs. Many of the items the artisans make are for sale in the Crafts Center Museum Shop or can be special-ordered.

The artisans at the Crafts Center are there to discuss and demonstrate all aspects of their crafts. They are also available to help ease your transition from our modern-day world to the 17th-century world you will visit, or vice versa. Whether you are a first time visitor, or a long-standing friend, please be sure to spend some time at the Carriage House Crafts Center on your next visit.

Maureen Richard, 1996