Dining at Preston Manor 

The Stanfords and their servants

At Preston Manor, owned by the Stanford family, there is documentary evidence to contrast dinner in the dining room with supper in the servants’ hall. A typical menu for the Stanfords and their guests consisted of beef soup, salmon, sirloin steak or pheasant, orange soufflé, and devilled sardines. The butler served white wine, champagne, and port. This rich food and drink was a form of conspicuous consumption, demonstrating their wealth.

Victorian and Edwardian servants came from working class backgrounds in which they faced terrible poverty and malnutrition. As a result, country house servants developed enormous appetites. The Preston house servants enjoyed traditional English food like steak and kidney pie, and roast lamb. In the nineteenth-century, British servants were allowed a pint of beer at every meal. By the Edwardian period employers were concerned with inebriated servants, thus “beer money” was introduced – money in lieu of beer.

The hired help

In the Victorian era, the landed gentry usually employed a chef, cook, kitchen and scullery maids to work in the manor house kitchens. Mrs Beeton, in 1861, recommended that a chef should be paid £50 a year, whilst a scullery maid should be paid only £9 a year. The maids endured a tough regimen which started at 6.00am. The scullery maid cleaned the copper batterie de cuisine with lemon skins or salt and vinegar; she also prepared the meat and vegetables. The kitchen maid blackleaded the ranges with the graphite based “Zebra” polish, and also helped with the chores.

In most Victorian country houses, the culinary servants were expected to make four sets of meals daily. Strict segregation meant that these meals were held at different times and different places in the manor house. The most important meals were served in the dining room for the master, mistress, and guests. The schoolroom was used for meals for the governess and older children. The nursery was used to serve food for the nurse and infants. The servants ate their meals in the servants’ hall, but the upper servants finished their pudding in the housekeeper’s room.

Six of the Preston Manor servants, c1920: Arthur Strike the plumber stands 3rd from the left, Bill Lassister the plumber and general maintenance worker, stands 4th from the left, with Ellen Holkham the Head Palour maid standing on the far right. The woman on the far left holds a dog, possibly one of the Stanford's pets. Photographic print copy of Preston Manor servants, c1920, PMPHO000206

 

 

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