The below stairs cook is often one of the most memorable characters from the many period dramas set in grand country houses over the years. Upstairs, Downstairs' Mrs Bridges (Angela Baddeley) and Downton Abbey's Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) depict women at the apex of their careers in service, holding a role of considerable responsibility in households where formal dining and entertaining was a staple of the aristocratic diary, and both the resident family and droves of staff required multiple meals each day.
The social history of such grand estates is a popular topic with modern visitors to heritage hotspots. Research for such visitor interpretation at the English Heritage property Audley End House & Gardens, in Essex, identified cook Avis Crocombe among the staff serving the aristocratic Braybrooke family during the 1880s.
When Avis took up her position at their Saffron Waldon country estate, also their London townhouse, she bucked the contemporary trend of hiring male French chefs, who were considered to have greater prestige. Her annual salary of £50 represented a significant cost saving at a time when the family's rental income had declined. Forty-three-year-old Miss Crocombe also assumed a different title.
"It was the convention then to call cooks 'Mrs," says English Heritage's properties historian Andrew Hann.
"The majority of females in service were not married and the more senior servants, such as the cook and the housekeeper, would be called 'Mrs' to give them a sense of status. This marked them out as being more important, people who should be respected by the other servants."
Bu hikaye Best of British dergisinin March 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Best of British dergisinin March 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
"A Personal Stab of Shock and Horror"
Chris Hallam looks back on the British reaction to President Kennedy's assassination
A BUILDING BONANZA
Claire Saul samples some of the entries in a new publication from the National Trust
ON TARGET
Russell Cook browses through 50 years of a publishing phenomenon
The Rise and Fall of Poole Pottery
Steve Annandale charts the history of what was, by the 1990s, Dorset's most significant tourist attraction
DOCTOR HO-HO!
Robert Ross takes a swift spin through some of the comedy stars who have stumbled into the Tardis
The Three Ronnies
Martin Handley celebrates the talents of a trio of composers
A RARE OLD SCRAMBLE
Colin Allan has fond memories of tuning in to Grandstand to watch scrambling on winter afternoons in the sport's golden age of the 1960s
THE ULTIMATE RESPONSE
Roger Harvey nominates a sculpture in his native Newcastle as the most poignant and powerful memorial to duty and heroism
POSTCARD FROM CHESHIRE
Bob Barton finds out about subsidence, timber-framed buildings, boat lifts, waterways and Lewis Carroll, taking it all with a pinch of salt
OVER HERE
Michael Foley looks back at how the people of East Anglia reacted to the American \"invasion\" during World War Two that saw the building of dozens of airfields