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!

 x

Mayfield House - The Butler's Office

Welcome back to our small corner, and this week, we shall return to our tour of Mayfield House.

Last time, we explored the Lower Hallway, where servants and tradesmen entered from outside, delivering goods and seeing to other tasks around the servants' areas. If you'd like to revisit that part of our tour, follow this link: Back2OurSmallCorner: Mayfield House - The Lower Hallway.

We stand at the main tradesman's door in the Lower Hallway. As we turn to the door on our left, we find ourselves at the entrance of the Butler Office. 

Now, let us knock on his door and wait to be invited inside.

Mr Albert Jenkins is the butler here at Mayfield House. He has served the family for many years, rising through various roles to reach this prestigious job.

This room serves as his office and a space to relax and unwind in those rare moments when all is well with the house.

A bedroom door and a small cellarage can also be seen at the back of this room. Mr Jenkins prides himself on providing the very best wines and spirits for the family.

He is mildly irritated today as the phone on the wall has been ringing constantly: it is not his favourite piece of modern technology. Last time, the phone made him nearly jump out of his skin and spill tea down his jacket, and that will need to be changed before he leaves the office. What a nuisance!

The cat, Sylvester, also demands some attention, making that cosy armchair in the corner a tempting retreat for Mr Jenkins. However, there is still a mountain of paperwork to complete before the end of the day, and the remains of his cup of tea are now cold. 

The other job he oversees is directing Jones in the butler's scullery to clean the family silver.

 

After Mr Jenkins deals with that phone call we will follow him through to the next room. 

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Putting the room together

Like the previous room, I made another false wall to give the illusion of more rooms and spaces beyond the main room. In this instance, one door leads to Mr Jenkins's sleeping quarters while the other shows a part of the cellarage. Over time, some of the bottles have become dusty as the wine matures to the butler's satisfaction.  

I added a small fireplace with some details above the mantelpiece between these two rooms.

The two purple armchairs are very old furniture pieces that I inherited from my nan, and I'm glad to have been able to use them here.

On the wall, there is a small shelf unit with various personal items that the butler owns.

The phone on the wall was a version 2. The first one didn't seem right, and I know it would have irritated me forever afterwards if we had kept it.

As the butler would have been responsible for looking after the house silver, I have alluded to this with the cabinet on the left of the room. I used a few silver beads for this purpose.

Although the desk is messy, I had to add the essential tea cup. I created the letter rack using scraps of wood and card and the receipt spike from a paper clip, bead, and more cards. The ink pot is made of a few black beads.

Initially, Mr Jenkins wore a grey, somewhat oversized jacket, so I made a new one for him. I shall not be doing that again in a hurry - stitching in black on a tiny item of clothing and making up the pattern as I went along. Unfortunately, I didn't notice some of the glue on the front of his jacket which is why it became spilt tea in the tour narrative. To make the room scene more realistic, I positioned the butler doll rising from his chair to answer the phone again!

When we visit Mayfield House next time, we will check on Jones in the scullery adjoining the butler's office.

I'm still hoping for more sun than rain this week, but however, it turns out D and I wish you all a lovely week.