Tamsin is a musician and historian, specialising in the early modern era. She studied violin at the Florence Conservatoire before reading Classics and Italian at Oxford. Now a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, Tamsin is an associate lecturer in Renaissance music and art at the Courtauld Institute. She has written a number of books and articles on early modern music and society, on a variety of topics, ranging from popular music and song, broadside ballads, seasonal festivals and customs, weddings, clothing, chocolate, coffee, the Lord Mayor, the Mayflower, and the plague.

Tamsin directs Passamezzo, an established early music ensemble known for their ability to bring historical events to life through engaging performance and programming. She has also written, arranged, directed and played music for theatre productions and events at a variety of venues from Shakespeare’s Globe and Hampton Court to the streets of Marrakech, and has collaborated with theatre and dance historians and practitioners to reconstruct masques, jigs and other 16th and 17th Century entertainments.

Tamsin has extensive experience working in film and television, as a presenter, performer and consultant. Recent work includes Firebrand, A Discovery of Witches, Becoming Elizabeth, Lucy Worsley’s 12 Days of Tudor Christmas, and Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family.

Dr Linda Grant FSA works on early modern literature and literary culture with special interests in discourses of love and the erotic, representations of gender and the body, and receptions of Latin and Greek poetry in the Renaissance. She has published on topics such as ‘impotence’ poetry, sixteenth century ‘pornography’, Latin erotic elegy and its sixteenth century receptions in England and France, and representations of rape in poetry, with forthcoming articles on George Herbert’s Lucretian materialism, and the architecture of intimacy in the verse of Lady Margaret Douglas and Mary Queen of Scots. She has taught in both Classics and English departments at Birkeck, QMUL, and Royal Holloway.

She is co-convening this conference with Tamsin Lewis, and will be presenting a paper looking at ‘Greensleeves’ as erotic complaint that continues a genre that can be traced back to Greek classical lyric

Juliet Braidwood is a historian specialising in living history. She gained her degree at Royal Holloway University of London, and has set up living history events at Athelhampton House, as well as working as a Living Historian at places including the National Horseracing Museum and Castle Coch.

She is currently researching the history of the Martyn family, who lived at Athelhampton Hall in the 16th Century, uncovering personal stories not just of those who owned the surrounding land, but also of the people who lived and worked there.

Her main sewing project currently is a re-creation of the early 16th Century embroidered waistcoat in the Burrell Collection, which has very similar embroidery to another one in Bath Fashion Museum. Along side this, she is working on patterning the extant 19th Century garments in her collection, and then making those patterns available for others to use for making and research.

Eva Burnett is a historian, heritage craftsperson and educator. Her work explores the history of shoes and the craft practices of leather workers in the early modern period. Eva’s work uses traditional tools, materials and construction techniques to recreate shoes and other leather objects from the past. Her recent projects have included reconstructing shoes found on the Mary Rose, a replica 16th century football, and a variety of historical and modern purses. While Eva predominantly works with leather, she also enjoys a number of other crafts, particularly rush weaving and historical costuming.

Eva aims to share the craft of leatherworking with a larger audience through her work as a Living Historian and by providing heritage craft demonstrations. These have included events at Kentwell Hall, Athelhampton House, Craiova International Shakespeare Festival and the Wolsey 550 project. She has also worked in an educational role at the Food Museum.

Eva is currently studying for a masters in Building History at the University of Cambridge having previously gained a degree in History and Education Studies from Durham University. Her academic interests focus on medieval and early modern vernacular architecture. She draws on her academic background for her research into historical leatherwork, especially when exploring the history of shoes concealed in buildings.

Ivan is an independent social historian of food culture, broadcaster and curator who specialises in the reconstruction of period kitchens and historic table displays. He is also a professional chef and confectioner, and runs practical courses on all aspects of British and Italian food history at his home in the English Lake District and for the School of Artisan Food.

He is also the author of a number of books and many papers on the history of food Ivan has curated many major exhibitions on food history in the UK, US and Europe, including the Museum of London, Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and Getty Research Institute in LA.

Details to come.

Mally first started making and wearing 16th century clothes nearly 40 years ago. Despite working up and down the timeline, as an education workshop leader and historical interpreter, she has spent most time in Tudor England. For over 15 years she has studied and acquired many of the techniques associated with the professional silkwomen of the 15th and 16th centuries.

She has spent over 10 years helping beginners make their own Tudor clothes in costume-making workshops. She has made textile props and accoutrements for historical television dramas, including Wolf Hall.

Mally is currently studying for the Certificate and Diploma in Technical Hand Embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework.

Constance Mackenzie Is a professional costume maker working in the film industry she specialises in recreation of historical garments using original techniques, combining research and practical hands-on experimentation.

Her work can be seen in Wonder Woman, Consecration, Wolf Hall, the Mirror and the Light and Rings of Power. She has also taught costume making and costume history in person and online. You can follow along with her historical work on Instagram and YouTube.

Ninya Mikhaila is a historical costumier who established her business making reconstructions of historic dress for museums and heritage sites in 1994 after gaining a Higher National Diploma in Costume Interpretation at the London College of Fashion. Her clients include Historic Royal Palaces, The Royal Armouries, The National Trust, English Heritage, The National Archives and Gainsborough’s House. Ninya featured in the six-part BBC television series A Stitch in Time (2018), which demonstrated what reconstructing historical clothing can tell us about people in the past. She also made the clothing worn by Harry Lloyd as Richard III in The Lost King (2022). Ninya is one half of The Tudor Tailor, a company specialising in reconstructing, and publishing material on 16th century dress.

Sarah Thursfield is a historical dressmaker, demonstrator and teacher with a particular interest in the long tradition of plain (and not-so-plain) linen sewing done by women to produce domestic items, underwear and accessories. She learned to sew from her grandmothers in the 1960s and gained a Distinction in City and Guilds Fashion in 1985. In 2001 she published The Medieval Tailor’s Assistant, a guide to the basic forms of English clothing from 1100 to 1480, and it has become a standard reference for garment reconstruction. She is now studying the emergence of garment types before 1100 and relaxes with endless hemming.

Passamezzo is an established early music ensemble known for their ability to bring historical events to life through engaging performances and programming.

With a wealth of experience in history, heritage, and education we can create bespoke performances, events or workshops based on detailed historical research, and can provide historical music, musicians and dancers for film, television and theatre productions.