Mayfield House - Butler's Scullery

Hello!

Welcome back to our small corner, where we are returning to Mayfield House.

Previously, we visited Albert Jenkins - the family butler - who was hard at work in his office. If you wish to revisit that part of the tour, follow this link: Mayfield House - The Butler's Office. 

After thanking Mr Jenkins for his time, we continue to the Butler's Scullery at the end of this part of the house. Here, we find Jones at the far end of the room, carefully putting away some of the crockery. 

He has also been polishing some of the family silver and cutlery under the direction of Mr Jenkins. The two men have worked together for years, and the family butler trusts Jones to complete the task while he carries on paperwork in his office.

While Jones has already cleaned most of the glassware, some crockery still requires further attention and a longer soak in the butler’s sink. This is an ongoing task for Jones, and he will return to finish them in a minute.

Another task that Jones is trying to finish is ironing the daily newspapers. This was done to prevent black print from rubbing off on the hands of the homeowners upstairs. He was in the middle of that task when 'cleaning the silver and glassware' was added to his 'to-do' list for the day.

A cup of tea lies beside Jones’s reading glasses on the bench. He hopes to finish his tasks before it goes cold, maybe with a quick read of the newspaper headlines. His sandwich remains uneaten.

We will now leave a very busy Jones to juggle his time between his work and drinking his quickly cooling cup of tea while we retrace our steps back to the basement hall and look forward to the sights and sounds of a bustling kitchen.

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As usual, I wanted to set this room to tell several stories, so I used the full length of the room to fit it all in. 

At the far end of the room are two open cupboards filled with crockery, and Jones is hard at work putting items away. 

I added a small bench with a curtain where polishing and cleaning tasks could be carried out and a small bucket where any items that needed soaking could be left. Above the sink is a shelf with several cleaning items and also some spare candles. I used some clear PVA glue in the base of the sink before adding the quick-setting water to the bowl. I am hoping that the glue will prevent the water from discolouring - this  happened before

Again, the bench scene with the glasses, sandwich, and cup of tea conveyed the busy activities of the room, which meant some pleasures had to wait longer.

I remembered the newspaper and ironing board scene from the first episode of Downton Abbey and wanted to recreate it here. 

Progress has started on the next room, which D and I will bring to you next time we visit Mayfield House.

D and I wish you all a good week and hope the sun shines for a while!

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