Georgians At Home
Barnes, the Lady’s Maid and Joe, the Footman are talking in the Scullery. Their lives are a lot harder than the family they look after and they need to stay awake until very late to finish their jobs. This room was used for washing, cleaning, storing coal for the fires and keeping foods like meat and cheese cool in the meatsafes (there were no fridges or freezers in Georgian times!). It was also the Scullery Maids bedroom. Could you imagine sleeping on these floors surrounded by coal and the heat from the ovens?!
Jane Austen
Servants were not meant to be seen by the families they looked after. In one of Jane Austen’s books called ‘Mansfield Park’ there is a character called Mrs Norris who was known for being unkind to her servants. Watching the way that people treated their servants, was a good way to tell what they were really like.
Explore an Object: Iron
The Georgians pressed their clothes using irons like the ones displayed here. This is a Box Iron. They have that name because they were literally made out of iron! A wedge of iron called a slug would be heated on the fire and placed inside to make it hot.
Find this object. What was this object used for?
This is a pump for a well. Beneath your feet we discovered a well in 2012 which was here when the house was built in the 1770s. We have had to cover it up but we know it is there and was very important for the water supply to the house. To bring the water up and out of the tap you would have needed to pump the handle lots of times, why not give it a go! Could you imagine having to do this every time that you needed water and then carrying the water up and down 4 flights of stairs everyday?
