Story Search Results

The Schoolroom Maid's Story #36

...with the Earl and Countess of Lichfield), and she was engaged on a salary of £18 per annum. Her mother made her uniform, which comprised of a morning dress and an afternoon dress, and Lady Dorothy Meynell supplied her cap. She was the personal maid to Lady Dorothy’s eldest daughter, Dorothy, who was just four years younger than Inez. She also looked after Dorothy’s younger sister, Rachael. The schoolroom at this time was situated just off the main Entrance Hall, and immediately below the nursery. Inez worked under the supervision of Mrs Catt, the housekeeper, Miss Rhodes, the lady’s maid, and the head housemaid, Rose. Her day began at 6am every day and...

An Edwardian Schoolroom Maid #40

...with the Earl and Countess of Lichfield), and she was engaged on a salary of £18 per annum. Her mother made her uniform, which comprised of a morning dress and an afternoon dress, and Lady Dorothy Meynell supplied her cap. She was the personal maid to Lady Dorothy’s eldest daughter, Dorothy, who was just four years younger than Inez. She also looked after Dorothy’s younger sister, Rachael. The schoolroom at this time was situated just off the main Entrance Hall, and immediately below the nursery. Inez worked under the supervision of Mrs Catt, the housekeeper, Miss Rhodes, the lady’s maid, and the head housemaid, Rose. Mrs Catt, the housekeeper, on th...

Meet the Neighbours - Shugborough Hall #80

...The next house in this series is a mere half hour from Hoar Cross Hall and we often visited it during the summer months and later, when my children were born, we’d take them for a visit too!  Seated on the edge of Cannock Chase this elegant house was once a manor house owned by the Bishops of Lichfield, until the dissolution of the monasteries around 1540.  Later it came into the hands of the Anson family, who were ancestors of the Earls of Lichfield, and stayed there for three centuries.  William Anson’s grandson, also called William, demolished the manor house in 1693 and built a three storey building in the Neo-Classical style which forms the central p...

Meet the Neighbours - Coombe Abbey # 81

...nemy, the Earl of Warwick, during the Wars of the Roses.  Of course, it had to shut down in the 1500s when Henry VIII came along! In 1603 King James I sent his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to live there and be educated, when it was bought by a John Harington but by 1622 the Craven family had acquired the Abbey, and it stayed with them for another 300 years.  Sounds like there’s been a few royal connections to this Grade I listed building!  John Harington converted the abbey into  one of the most substantial houses in the county and it seems that he and his wife looked after the Princess Elizabeth for about four years, keeping her safe from the plague in...

The History of Temple Newsam #37

...fortunate Earl of Darnley was born.  Married to Mary, Queen of Scots, he was murdered two years later, supposedly by Mary's next husband, the Earl of Bothwell.  The house was rebuilt between 1622 and 1637 in Jacobean style by Sir Arthur Ingram and later the grounds were landscaped by 'Capability' Brown, the famous landscape gardener.  The Ingrams and their descendants were to own the estate for nEarly 300 years before it passed to the Halifax family.  The house was sold to the City of Leeds for £30,000 in 1922 and has been a decorative arts museum since 1938.  If you'd like to learn more about the history of England,you might like this book! Available fro...

The Schoolroom Maid's Story #34

...with the Earl and Countess of Lichfield), and she was engaged on a salary of £18 per annum.  Her mother made her uniform, which comprised of a morning dress and an afternoon dress, and Lady Dorothy Meynell supplied her cap.  She was the personal maid to Lady Dorothy’s eldest daughter, Dorothy, who was just four years younger than Inez.  She also looked after Dorothy’s younger sister, Rachael. The schoolroom at this time was situated just off the main Entrance Hall, and immediately below the nursery.  Inez worked under the supervision of Mrs Catt, the housekeeper, Miss Rhodes, the lady’s maid, and the head housemaid, Rose. Her day began at 6am every...