2912 – Postcard: Photograph of Fordwich ducking stool
- Physical description:
- Photograph of an early twentieth century reconstruction of a ducking stool on the banks of the Great Stour in Kent.
- Museum classification:
- Persecution
- Size:
- 14 x 9 cm
- Information:
Records note the use of a ducking stool at Fordwich in Kent in the early fifteenth century. Concern about outspoken women - scolds - peaked in Fordwich in 1500. According to Garthine Walker, a scold was seen as a woman who 'verbally resisted or flouted public authority', or 'any woman offering an opinion'. In some places in England, scolding and witchcraft were linked.
By the early twentieth century, when this postcard was produced, the Fordwich ducking stool had become a symbol of the towns' heritage and bygone customs.
- Resource:
- Object
- Materials:
- Card
Records note the use of a ducking stool at Fordwich in Kent in the early fifteenth century. Concern about outspoken women - scolds - peaked in Fordwich in 1500. According to Garthine Walker, a scold was seen as a woman who 'verbally resisted or flouted public authority', or 'any woman offering an opinion'. In some places in England, scolding and witchcraft were linked.
By the early twentieth century, when this postcard was produced, the Fordwich ducking stool had become a symbol of the towns' heritage and bygone customs.