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Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #45

...so a wall safe to keep valuables in and next to the wine cellar was a Chubb walk-in safe. The still room was a large area for making jams and cakes and where the afternoon teas were prepared. It was also used for pastry making and other meals such as the breakfast trays for the nursery which gave some relief to the kitchen staff in the main kitchens. The staff would sometimes use this for a sitting area too when they had time! 'Below stairs' - the still room is on the left   After the food was cooked it was taken through the servant’s hall to a lift shaft or dumb waiter and up into the Dining Room. From there the servants could serve the family. Unfort...

Ghostbusters #8

...a walk-in safe off one of the rooms – I think this is where they kept the family silver.  All the rooms seemed to have a smaller room off them and it was a great place to play hide and seek!  Halfway up the spiral staircases were store rooms (to one side) with slatted shelves for keeping the linen and towels to hand for the servants.  I used to stand in these large cupboards and feel myself transported back to another era, as nothing had really changed in 100 years – but not for long as they were quite dark!  All the rooms were still the same as they had been when the house was first built; same décor, everything – so it was easy to imagine that the V...

NEW YEAR JINKS #26

...�t really safe to use – however, he insisted that he could fix them with a bit of tape even though Kev (who was a trained electrician) told him they were unsafe and he would be willing to go to the next village to buy some new ones.  But my dad wouldn’t have it and he certainly wouldn’t spend the few pounds required, so they were botched up much to Kev’s disgust and hung on the tree. As we went to switch the lights on just before people arrived, they blew the main fuse in the fuse box.  My mum had locked the cupboard that contained the fuse boxes because she kept all the bar stock in there and as she had gone away for new year there was no way of gett...

What the butler saw!

...ires were safe before retiring to bed.  If there was no valet in the house then the butler would also have been responsible for looking after his master’s clothes and hunting gear.  In the absence of a footman, he would also answer the door – sounds like he was a very busy man!  Let’s hope that someone didn’t come calling at lunchtime while he was helping his master get changed into yet another outfit! Another thing large houses always had was a letter bag  - used for receiving and dispatching letters – the butler would have the key to this bag and be responsible for distributing the mail.  Can you imagine the excitement amongst the staff as the...

New Year jinks! #11

...�t really safe to use – however, he insisted that he could fix them with a bit of tape even though Kev (who was a trained electrician) told him they were unsafe and he would be willing to go to the next village to buy some new ones.  But my dad wouldn’t have it and he certainly wouldn’t spend the few pounds required, so they were botched up much to Kev’s disgust and hung on the tree. As we went to switch the lights on just before people arrived, they blew the main fuse in the fuse box.  My mum had locked the cupboard that contained the fuse boxes because she kept all the bar stock in there and as she had gone away for new year there was no way of gett...

Ghostbusters! #8

...a walk-in safe off one of the rooms – I think this is where they kept the family silver.  All the rooms seemed to have a smaller room off them and it was a great place to play hide and seek!  Halfway up the spiral staircases were store rooms (to one side) with slatted shelves for keeping the linen and towels to hand for the servants.  I used to stand in these large cupboards and feel myself transported back to another era, as nothing had really changed in 100 years – but not for long as they were quite dark!  All the rooms were still the same as they had been when the house was first built; same décor, everything – so it was easy to imagine that the V...