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Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #19

...job. The kitchen gardens and greenhouses would have provided a lot of the produce they ate as well as the pheasants and other game birds that were reared to be eaten. There was also a carp pool for their fish stock. In total there were about 50 servants employed by the Meynell family which included cooks, housemaids, chambermaids, lady’s maid, a governess, a nanny, a butler, footmen and a house-keeper among others. All staff were expected to attend the 9am service which was held in the Chapel in the house. They were also expected to attend services at the church which had been built in the grounds; however, they weren’t allowed to walk down the drive to the...

The kitchen Maid's Story

...THE kitchen MAID’S STORY:      If you were young, free and single – oh, and very well-to-do – the 1920s were the decade to be a part of.   The upper classes had lots of time on their hands and enjoyed post-First World War delights such as the theatre and jazz clubs. Not so for the lower classes, in particular a young girl who was to become the kitchen maid at Hoar Cross Hall in the 1920s.  The depression after the First World War brought stark poverty to her home and many like her.  Her name was Jean Rennie, and she was extremely intelligent having won a scholarship to Glasgow University to study French and music.   However, the £5 bursary she g...

DIY Stately Home #4

...ade small kitchens in the spaces which connected the lounge and bedroom, probably once used as cupboard space. The spiral staircase with it’s green baize door opened onto the inner landing next to the apartments which is how the servants would have accessed these rooms when bringing the family breakfast trays in the mornings. Where children were to be seen and not heard, servants were to be neither seen nor heard by members of the family and all the areas to the house were accessed via the spiral staircases and then inner hallways and corridors so they could go about their duties quickly and quietly. The same green baize door was also used by the tenants to g...

The Origins of the Stately Home #39

...hough the kitchens had been knocked down so it would have had maybe another 10 rooms on top of that – a lot to keep clean! A Palace could have up to 300 or more rooms. Typical rooms in a stately home would be a Long Gallery (for promenading along during the winter months), a saloon, a library, a drawing room, a snooker room and master and guest bedrooms. Rooms on each floor were laid out as follows:- The basement - kitchens and sculleries plus male servants' bedrooms The ground floor - dining room and morning room The first floor - drawing room/bedrooms The second floor - guest bedrooms Top floor/attic - nurseries and female servants bedrooms   A typ...

The kitchen Maid's Story #35

...THE kitchen MAID’S STORY:      If you were young, free and single – oh, and very well-to-do – the 1920s was the decade to live in!   The upper classes had lots of time on their hands and enjoyed post-First World War delights such as the theatre and jazz clubs. Not so for the lower classes, in particular a young girl who was to become the kitchen maid at Hoar Cross Hall in the 1920s.  The ‘depression’ after the First World War brought stark poverty to her home and many like her.  Her name was Jean Rennie, and she was extremely intelligent having won a scholarship to Glasgow University to study French and music.   However, the £5 bursary she g...

The kitchen Maid's Story #34

...THE kitchen MAID’S STORY:     If you were young, free and single – oh, and very well-to-do – the 1920s were the decade to be a part of. The upper classes had lots of time on their hands and enjoyed post-First World War delights such as the theatre and jazz clubs. Not so for the lower classes, in particular a young girl who was to become the kitchen maid at Hoar Cross Hall in the 1920s. The ‘depression’ after the First World War brought stark poverty to her home and many like her. Her name was Jean Rennie, and she was extremely intelligent having won a scholarship to Glasgow University to study French and music. However, the £5 bursary she got (equ...