Merrily on high

Summoning servants since the 1700s, bell boards create instant English country-house style (even if you don't have any servants). Emma Longstaff dons her pinny

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The opening sequence of the much-loved television series Downton Abbey features a ringing servants' bell. At the peak of the programme's popularity, we were selling lots of servants' bells, and entire bell boards, especially to customers in the USA,' recalls Paul Nash, director of architectural salvage company Architectural Decor. "To retrofit an entire working set of bells would be a monster of a job. You'd have to install metal cable, or electric wire, under the floors and hidden behind the plaster. So nowadays mostly they're used decoratively - they give instant English country-house style."

Marilyn Palmer, co-author of