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Following my recent post about Bayons Manor I thought it would be fun to add a some of the memories of a woman who lived there in the late 1800's. Mrs E Tennyson d'Eyncourt.
She came to Bayons Manor as a young bride in her early 20's having spent her earlier life in London where her life was one big social whirl, so the prospect of running a huge household like this must have been quite daunting at first.
There was a household staff of twelve, one man's time was entirely taken up with trimming and filling the 80 lamps in the house. He also had to bring in the wood and coal and keep all the fires going, including the enormous one in the kitchen which was used for cooking and roasting.
There were no bathrooms, so hip baths were taken to the bedrooms each morning and cans of hot water were carried up. On her first visit she was given a piece of tapestry to use for a bath mat. Many years later it was valued at several hundred pounds worth of tapestry!
One of the first things she did on moving in was to collect the lovely old furniture which had been pushed away into attics and passages and had them put back in the room to replace the imitation Gothic chairs and tables.
I have found a short film on youtube, it shows lots of different views of the exterior - taken from old photographs and postcards, but if you want to whizz through to about 1.40 mins there are some shots of the interior. (When I watched it there was an advertisement at the beginning, there is nothing I can do about that, sorry.)
Their London life was a round of parties, balls, dinners and banquets. They were busy, active people, but they still managed to have six children. They were both very keen on hunting and shooting and the hunt would often meet at the manor house for a stirrup cup, before setting off for a day of 'sport'.
The lawns around the Manor were kept as smooth as velvet by men with scythes; there were no ride-on lawn mowers then, of course.
According to reports, all the children loved growing up there and the place was enjoyed by visitors. Such a shame it all ended as it did.
I love old houses...how sad to see such wonderful old places destroyed......the developers here in my county ( US) are demolishing old houses regularly to put up awful new things..our history is being lost as is the countryside....
ReplyDeleteHello Lynda - Welcome! Sad to know it is happening in your part of the world, too. They reckon that one in six of these grand country houses was demolished in the 20th century. Thankfully that has changed now! As to the countryside, the battle continues.
DeleteThanks for that. I'd never seen this info about Bayons Manor before. Bit different from the usual starter home which young coules start off with these days!
ReplyDeleteI found some of the information in a very early edition of Lincolnshire Life magazine. I came across a huge pile of them in a charity shop in Horncastle, about two or three years ago. Best £5.00 I have ever spent on magazines!
DeleteIt was huge! Must have been hard work for the servants. No wonder there was a man just to light the lamps.
ReplyDeleteImagine being a child there and roaming through all those rooms and grounds!!
I know my brothers and I would have had enormous fun, probably scared one another half to death with ghost stories, too. The grounds must have been a delight, even just the fun of a drawbridge and moat, with a boat of course.
DeleteShe replaced the 'faux' Gothic furniture, with lovely old furniture, which had been packed away! A wise young lady!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing all this.
Now I will watch the video. To probably see, what happened, in the end.
The outside is majestic. But!!! Those interior pictures hit you 'like a ton of bricks'!! Only in her 20's and being responsible for making sure, all of it, was kept "up to snuff." -smile-
ReplyDeleteDemolished. -sigh- But from the size of it, probably it couldn't be maintained, even with help from the National Trust, or whatever that wonderful institution is.
Thank you!
It must certainly have been a challenge until she found her feet and employed a housekeeper she could trust to keep things going.
DeleteMaintaining a house like that would be a nightmare, even if death duties had not loomed large. It is fun to look back occasionally, then rejoice in our modern day comforts - bathrooms, hot water on tap, heating, etc.
Thanks for finding the video. I suppose with adequate dedicated staff, the house could be maintained. But as domestic service ended, as it had to, so did that way of life. Good memories for all.
ReplyDeleteI have trouble getting the staff to work as hard as they should maintaining this place, the chief cook and bottle washer/housemaid/laundress is forever wandering off and walking the dog, gardening, reading - anything but working! I do enjoy little glimpses of the past and I'm glad that you did, too.
Deleteboth in town and country, children too young to leave home completely were sent as domestic servants to relatives...a good idea when done well,helping on the first step of independance...otherwise, pure exploitation.
DeleteMy grandmother was sent as a "Tweeny"...Between Stairs maid..ie got the jobs upstairs and downstairs didn't want..at age 13 in 1910
That was some house. All those windows and alcoves. One could get lost in there. Not sure I'd want to eat in the dining room with all those weapons on the wall above me. I can understand now how it went into decline if the owner's finances went south. It would have had a huge staff to maintain it. Thank you so much for the back story.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for weighing-in in comments, on my last post. I did a reply to your comment, on my blog comments. Which I don't usually do. But it seemed right, this time..... To maybe continue the dialogue.
ReplyDelete