Monday 6 August 2018

You Rang my Lord

When I was waiting in the queue at Dyrham Park for the The Tempest I noticed this on the wall. Presumably intended for visitors to the stables or kitchens.


 Do you suppose it rang this bell on top of the stable block?


Bell(s) is No 12 on the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. A stately home is an ideal pace to find all sorts of bells. During our visit to Dunster Castle a few weeks ago we spotted quite a few call bells in each room which were used to summon the servants for their every need.


Both of these were situated close to the fireplaces in the living rooms.


Servants may also be needed whilst in bed.



This next one is not technically a bell but is the gong used to indicate that dinner is served. I know that Mary Lou will like this one.


Unfortunately we were not able to view the kitchens at Dunster to see the servant bells however we were able to at Dyrham Park.


Each bell was labelled to indicate which room needed attention and the pendulum would continue to swing to help identify the source of the call. I didn't take a lot of notice of the painted room names but subsequently read in the guide book that one is marked as Ghost Chamber and had at one time been used as a nursery bedroom..


A further point of interest are the bell pulls either side of the Servants Hall door.



These apparently rang bells in the footmen's and female servants' bedrooms to wake them each morning or in case of a night time emergency.
Quite a lot of bells!

3 comments:

  1. Oh how very Downton Abbey are those bells & I can just see Mr Carson striking the gong to announce time to change for dinner ... I do like your finds of all those variations of bells.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This reminds me of the Upstairs/Downstairs tour we took at the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC. It had a similar system of bells to address the needs of the family and guests in the 250 room mansion.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Somehow I missed this post. You definitely have a good selection of bells to choose from.

    ReplyDelete