Posted on October 4, 2018 at 8:16 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Hey, Hilary Mantel fans — we have news that’s almost as exciting as the announcement of another novel from her.
Archaeologists have found the remains of the original Wolf Hall, home of the Seymours and, of course, a key setting in Mantel’s Tudor novels.
The Guardian reports that Wolf Hall’s current owners, direct descendants of the famous Seymours, welcomed archaeologists to explore the site after Mantel’s hit books (and the TV adaptation) spurred popular interest in it.
(As one owner told the newspaper: "Before Hilary Mantel’s books and the BBC series we got maybe one visitor a year. Now we get lots of people all of the time.")
Just forty years after being built, the original Wolf Hall had fallen into disrepair, and it was demolished in 1723, according to the article.
No depictions of the Wolf Hall that Jane Seymour and Henry VIII knew have survived, but the archaeologists hope that a few years’ work will ultimately yield a reconstructed picture.
It has already uncovered ornate tiles that Henry VIII likely walked on, in addition to a sewer network and the foundations of two towers.
Read more on The Guardian’s website.
Categories: Today in Books