Here we are again on Friday and it's time to join in with Amy at
Love Made My Home for Five on Friday. Don't forget to visit when you're done here.
Last weekend we found a delightful place called Middleton Hall near Tamworth in Staffordshire. It's a (partly) Tudor (partly older, partly younger) house that's been restored as an educational base and craft centre. The site is managed by volunteers and I have to say that they do a wonderful job. As well as the various parts of the house, they are restoring the old gardens and orchard, the moat, the outbuildings and the surrounding parkland.
For today's purposes we are visiting the kitchen. It's in the Tudor part, but not displayed as a Tudor kitchen.
I loved this. I'm not sure of the date,but I'd guess at Edwardian. Just look at that description: "Entirely new"; "Daring Design"; "satisfaction guaranteed". Three exclamation marks!!! The sure sign of a diseased mind, according to
Terry Pratchett.
How about this? Early 20th century. In fact I saw something very similar only a couple of weeks ago being marketed by Kilner and I might just have bought it if it weren't for the hefty price tag. (A balloon whip is much cheaper and just as effective, if more tiring.) Have you ever made your own butter? It's very easy. Just whip cream until it 'breaks'. You might have to squeeze it a bit to get the whey out. Add a small amount of salt and spread on toast. Better than anything you can buy.
Something else you could have bought last week, except the new ones don't have the same patina somehow. You can always tell an original because it will have the words "Church Gresley" on the bottom. The company that makes them - Mason Cash - was founded there in 1800 but that pottery no longer exists. It's now part of the Liverpool-based Rayware Group which, incidentally, also owns Kilner these days. The thing is, I use original Mason Cash Church Gresley mixing bowls myself. One of them was inherited from my grandmother.
I found this fascinating, not least because those stands are intended for recipe books and that was what I expected to find on it. But this is a collector's guide to kitchen equipment, which explains the prices on it. I couldn't find a date on it so I have no idea what such things would be worth today. I want that bee-shaped silver honey pot though. Not sure what I'd do with a grape hod.
Which brings us to this, slightly cheating, photo. It wasn't in the kitchen, it was in one of the living chambers in the Tudor section of the house. I very much doubt its authenticity. That coffee pot looks distinctly 'distressed' and besides they didn't have coffee in Tudor times. I suspect the little jug belongs to some sort of Tudor revival period, possibly as recently as the 1970s. The jug and plate might be real. (Though they wouldn't leave genuine Tudor items out like that where they could be easily pinched by unscrupulous folk. Victorian, maybe.)
