The Housekeeper's Room
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| The rear hall, next to the housekeeper's room. Note the ornate coving, and wood panelling. Amazing they've survived the fire, and two years of weather coming in! |
Two rooms somehow seem to survive the twin perils of the fire followed by water damage (from the fire brigade and the British weather). By some minor miracle, the rear hall and the housekeeper’s room remain surprisingly intact, with the rear hall even retaining its panelling and ornate plaster coving. It remains to be seen if we can recover the plasterwork, but fingers crossed, if its lasted this long, there’s a chance!
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| The rear hall, next to the housekeeper's room. Quite ornate for a hallway! |
In bygone times, the role of housekeeper was an important one in the large country house. In ‘Downton Abbey’[1] terms, the role is filled by Mrs Carson, played by Phyllis Logan. According to Victorian ‘influencer’, Mrs Beeton in her Book of Household Management, published in 1861, the housekeeper was second in command in the household and, ‘must consider herself as the immediate representative of her mistress.’ The role covered all the domestic duties involved in maintaining a house, particularly the organising of staff that cooked and cleaned.
In his history of Betley Court, This Old House[2] Prof Brown mentions a story he heard about the housekeeper’s room. In the days when Thomas Fletcher Twemlow (1816-1894) – the ‘TFT’ of initial plates installed in former estate cottages up and down Main Road - presided over Betley Court. TFT detested smoking, and would not allow it in the house. The exception to this rule was the housekeeper’s room, but only once she’d gone to bed. History has not recorded how the housekeeper felt about this intrusion on her room, and whether she could tolerate the pong of tobacco more easily than her employer.
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| Thomas Fletcher Twemlow (1816-1894), portrait by Walter William Ouless (1848-1933) TFT ruled over the house in a strict way, and could not abide smoking. |
TFT was the Master of the house in the grand Victorian
tradition, and so his will prevailed. Apparently, on one occasion, as he showed
guests around the gardens, he pointed to the summer house and bellowed “If any
dirty dog wants to smoke, he can smoke in there!”. He had similar strong views
on the consumption of alcohol, and although drinking ale was permitted, once a
guest was served with it by the butler, he was obliged to drink it and return
the empty glass to the butler’s tray without letting it touch the table!
TFT’s nephew George Fletcher Royds (who became George
Fletcher-Twemlow upon inheriting Betley Court) was the next Squire, and did
away with his uncle’s ban on smoking at Betley Court. Presumably he also rescinded
the drinking ban, as he was a Director of the Lichfield Brewery Company for 40
years. Once again, history does not record the housekeeper’s feelings on this
development!
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| In the absence of a portrait of George Fletcher-Twemlow, here's an ad from 1927 showing the Lichfield Brewery he was a Director of. |
If our nameless housekeeper could return today, she would, at a pinch, I think be able to recognise her room, overlooking the lawns and trees to the west of the house. I think she’d be appalled by the state of the rest of the house, and that her room is blackened by smoke damage. I hope she’d understand it is (as Nigel is fond of saying) ‘a work in progress’ and that one day, we’ll have it all looking spick-and- span as it was, no doubt, when she was second in command to Eliza Fletcher Twemlow, the Squire’s wife at Betley Court.
All best wishes
Ladybird Su
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