It is further stressed in the extract from Augusta’s book how they were ‘inadequately clad’. As it is obvious that the Webbs obviously had enough money from the style and luxury of the Abbey, this backs up the theory that the Webbs believed it unhealthy for their children to be warm. As Augusta also says that ‘our poor mottled red arms were only considered a sign of health’.
As I saw there was a fireplace in the nanny’s bedroom but according to the tour guide she was forbidden to use it to heat up the children Also the windows were small and located high up so that when the children sat at the desk they could not look out onto the grounds and be distracted.
As we see life for the children was not all good. As I travelled round the house I was taken into a room called the solo. I was told by the tour guide that this was used by the Webbs as a breakfast room. Apparently breakfast was the only time of the day when the children saw their parents. They were told to sit in the large bay window and play quietly with a box of toy bricks.
One room was a huge indication of the way the Webbs lived. This was the great hall. A large impressive room once used by Lord Byron in the 18th century, so it says in many resources, for pistol practice. In the time of the Webbs it was used for eating and dancing when the Webbs had important company. There is a large fireplace and on the walls along with antlers there are shields, connections with visitors that the Webbs had. Beside the fireplace there is a small door. It does not open onto anything but the tour guide informed me that this was one of the very few reminders of the Monastery that Newstead was in its past. It was left by the Webbs as a talking point to impress visitors with. The fireplace too holds much significance. The tour guide told us that the Webbs were once visited by the famous Dr. Livingstone over Christmas. Whilst playing a game of Blind Mans Bluff in the Great Hall, Dr. Livingstone ran into the fireplace and concussed him self. His stay at Newstead had to be prolonged for him to recover. Dr Livingstone visiting is another reflection of the wealth and superior social status that Newstead Abbey life gave to the Webbs. Also in the Great hall you can still see the bells that were for the servants.
Below stairs was a completely different world but with many similarities. The 1871 census of Newstead Abbey shows that there were 35 occupants. 24 of these were servants. There was obviously a hierarchy in the house of: Father
Mother
Children
Servants
But also, as I have discovered from the resource sheet and from what information the tour/tour guide gave me, there was a strict hierarchy amongst the servants. There were the Upper Servants: The Butler, Mr Willmot whose job was to maintain silverware and look after the wine cellar and keep a record of the wine drunk. He also brewed servants’ beer. He had many meal time duties. He laid the tables, served the after meal champagne and carved the joint of meat. He also served the gentlemen coffee.
The Housekeeper, Mary Cooper, her job was to employ and dismiss all female servants apart from the nurse, the lady’s maid and the cook who were chosen by the Mistress. The Housekeeper was in charge of the general running of the house, the supplies, the household accounts. She also baked cakes and made pickles and preserves.
The Lady’s maid, Sophie Leech, had to check the mistress’s bedroom and that the fire in there was lit. She laid out the Mistress’s clothes for the day carried in hot water and helped her dress and did her hair. It was a necessity for the mistress’s hair to be brushed for at least twenty minutes to make it shine. Sophie would tidy the room and then begun sewing and ironing. At the end of the day the she would have to undress the Mistress and brush and curl her hair.
The cook, Sarah Drew, was in charge of all the cooking and controlled the store cupboard. She was also in charge of the Kitchen maids. Most of them couldn’t read or write so as I saw all the bottles and jars were numbered so that when the Cook wanted, say the salt, she could say ‘jar number 6’ and they would know which one to get.
The Head Nurse (nanny) Caroline Belliss, She was in charge of the care of the children, who saw her as more of a mother than their true mother. She looked after, clothed and fed them. Also she was in charge of the nursery maids.
Then there were the lower servants; the kitchen maids, the gardeners, the housemaids (cleaners), Footmen, a scullery maid, a nursery maid, dairy maids, grooms, a hall boy, a stillroom maid and laundry maids.
Most of the servants had to be invisible to the family all of the time, with exceptions of the butler etc. Evidence of this was that they had to use separate, smaller back staircases. The tour guide informed us that if they heard any of the family coming they would have to make themselves scarce or turn to face a wall. They had to work on the bottom floor. ‘Below stairs’ as it was called. The luxury of the Abbey did not continue below stairs. I saw that it was cramped and the working conditions must not have been good, for example there were not air-vents or anything so when doing things like polishing silver the fumes must have been terrible. Obviously there were none of the modern conveniences to lighten the load of the housework. They had no vacuum cleaners but rug beaters instead. A mangle, dolly plug and a bucket replaced the washing machine.
In the kitchen there was a large box containing ice. The tour guide explained how it worked. As there was no electricity like in a modern refrigerator, in the winter huge chunks of ice would be cut from the lake and stored in the ice house which was a very deep hole in the ground so subsequently very cold all year. The ice from the ice house was then put in the top of this box and the cold air would circulate, cooling things such as butter and milk. However when the door was opened warm air would rush in. therefore the door was limited to being opened twice a day. This required incredible organisation. And the Cook had to plan the meals for the day so she knew what ingredients she needed when and what to take out. Also in the kitchen there were different ovens for different types of cooking as the heat could not be controlled as easily. As the tour guide explained there was one for roasting meat only this had a tiled back and a very high heat. Then there was the stewing range. This had no fire but hot coals placed under hotplates to give a gentle heat. Lastly there was a very large baking range with a medium heat. As at least one of these would be on most of the time it would be very hot in the kitchen and not too pleasant. There was however a very innovative construction; a high dome with windows in the ceiling. Apparently this was designed along the original monastery lines. It enabled the hot air to rise and let light in. this would have helped the temperature in the kitchen.
One building, 35 occupants, many different experiences. There was the luxurious lifestyle of the family. Reflected in the furnishings, fashionable decoration, the visitors and the money spent on the purchase and restoration of the Abbey, the ‘modern’ technology such as the heating system and the fine artefacts such as the lion rugs. The Webbs also did a very good job of keeping the history of the Abbey alive. They opened it for Tourists who were interested in Lord Byron and kept the old door for example. This would have also made them money. The words that scream out to me now are luxury and wealth.
Though the children had a good childhood for those days with expensive toys and education they lacked love from their mother and father who had the very Victorian opinion that children should be seen and not heard. They also spent a lot of their time cold and cut off from the rest of the house in the attic nursery.
The servants were the worst off in house. Being ignored and expected to be invisible to the family. They had hard jobs and lots of duties. However, generally this was not a bad job for those days. They got paid reasonably and had food, accommodation and clothing provided for them and it was a respectable job. Many of the servants would be earning money to send home for their families.
All in all the people in Newstead Abbey were quite well off compared to the rest of the country. They may have had troubles and challenges but who doesn’t? If I was a Victorian the prospects of working or living at Newstead abbey wouldn’t seem too bad.
Part 2 – How far are current interpretations of Newstead accurate reflections of how it may have been in 1871?
In many ways the current representation of Newstead Abbey is accurate to what it would have been like in 1871. For example the furnishing is either original or a replica of what there was. The decoration is mainly restored from how it used to be when the Webbs lived there or re-done in the most accurate, Wealthy Victorian style. A lot of the original artefacts remain, for example the lion rugs and the Antlers. The way the Abbey is decorated gives an impression of stepping into another world the, world of 1871 which I’m sure is a contributing factor to it being an accurate reflection of the Abbey in 1871.
The Nursery is a good representation of how it was in 1871 as there has been no further heating systems installed for comfort. The tourists of the Abbey get a realistic view of the cold that the Webb children had to endure every day of their lives until they reached their teens. And the contrast between the bland, starkness of the children’s room compared to the nursery maids room with its fire and homely additions gives the impression that the children were treated as lesser beings than their ‘superiors’, which is exactly how the general Victorian attitude to children was.
The kitchen in the Abbey is another extremely good representation of how it may have been in the days of the Webbs. As the tour guide informed me it was restored originally by Thomas Wildman and designed along the original monastery lines. This is how it would have been when it was bought by the Webbs. The architecture of the kitchen still remains in tact and the fascinating structure of the domed ceiling, which acted as a primitive air conditioning system, is still a prominent feature of the kitchen today. Two of the ranges in the corners of the room original and the third is not but if you were not told this you would not be able to tell the difference. There is still the original small hand-washing sink cut into the wall. On the shelves are bottles and jars with numbers on them, as there would have been in 1871, so that the cook would have been able to tell her illiterate kitchen maids which jars she wanted. There were the full range of cast iron saucepans; even the smallest was difficult to lift. All sorts of other objects make the kitchen extremely authentic; jelly moulds; dried herbs hanging over the stewing range; a broom; various pestle and mortars including one at least a meter in diameter for grinding flour; a soap dish and a ‘Codd’ bottle. This last object was as we were told an invention of that period for keeping carbonated drinks fizzy. It involved a marble in the top of a glass bottle. Overall the kitchen gives a good impression of how it would have been in 1871. However in the kitchen there are things that weren’t as they were in 1871. The fridge and the butter churns would not have been in there. They would have been in the Dairy.
This brings us to the other side of the story which says that Newstead Abbey is not an accurate representation of how it would have been in 1871. One major flaw is that joining onto the kitchen there used to be a dairy, a scullery and a wine cellar. Now these aren’t there and there is a restaurant called the White Lady in their place. This conflicts with the image of Newstead being how it was in 1871, as then there would have been no restaurant there.
Interestingly there are other differences in the standards of maintenance and display of the areas in the Abbey inhabited by the Webbs and those inhabited by the servants. One example of this is that the Kitchen, even though it is reasonably accurate, is not available for general public viewing, only schools visits etc. Another is the before mentioned restaurant. The areas of the Abbey that it was built over were servants work areas. Also as you walk through the rooms below stairs there is an alcove where there is general junk from the modern Abbey just dumped, like a vacuum cleaner. This ruins the illusion of the 19th century Newstead’s below stairs.
I feel that there is not enough emphasis on the servants of Newstead Abbey to give a fully rounded view of what it was like in 1871, as it wasn’t just the lives of the wealthy that made up the mini community of Newstead. It is a biased emphasis on the Webbs although they are important, not focusing so much on the servants areas gives an unrealistic view of the Abbey.
Another reason for Newstead being an inaccurate is that there is too much emphasis on Lord Byron. By 1871 Lord Byron had not set foot in The Abbey for 57 years. Even so the Famous poet attracts tourists from all over the globe, and Newstead Abbey does not waste the opportunity to make Lord Byrons presence felt wherever possible. There is a Byron Library, there are paintings and busts of him all over and it’s advertised as ‘The Ancestral Home of Lord Byron’. In the gift shop Byron is still very much a focus, with his face on the bags. His heroic side is very much a focus and in the Byron Library here are suits of armour and helmets from his war days. Also speeches, that he made during the industrial revolution, to the House of Lords in favour of the Ludites who were destroying machinery. Byron pointed out that the machinery had destroyed their livelihood and by standing up for what he believed Byron was made out to be a hero. Other artefacts that emphasise this side of Byron are boxing gloves, a painting of Byrons boxing instructor and sparring partner and swords including a ceremonial one. All of this plays up to the tourists who want to see Lord Byron portrayed in a positive way.
Another incorrect emphasis is the paranormal. There are plenty stories of it being haunted by many different ghostly beings. Some of them are ‘The Black Friar’ also known as ‘The Goblin Friar’ or ‘The Monk of Newstead’, ‘Little Sir John’ and most famous ‘The White Lady’ whom the restaurant is named after. Though they don’t specifically say that the Abbey is haunted, these factors and others such as ghost evenings fuel misconceptions of tourists.
Therefore we have two opposing opinions on today’s representation of the Abbey. It claims to be a reflection of life as it was in the days of the Webbs and the décor and material excess of the hours is in line with this statement but there is so much emphasis on Lord Byron. However this may not be as out of line as it is thought. Mrs Amelia Webb did in fact use Lord Byron as a tool to bring in tourists to the Abbey. She collected Byron Artefacts and curios, such as the skull cup. Although the one we see there today is a replica as the original was seen as disgusting and unholy and was taken and ritually buried somewhere in the grounds and is lost to this day. So if we were to visit we were to visit the Abbey in 1871 we would in fact come across some Byron tourism, maybe not in the same way but it still would be there.
However the main reason for the Abbey not being a totally accurate representation is heritage tourism; the act of portraying selected historical elements for commercial reasons. The Abbey emphasises what will attract tourists. It was started here by Amelia Webb with Lord Byron and that still attracts many visitors today. They now know that Showing off the rich splendour of the Webbs will attract tourists, who would naturally want to experience luxury, especially Victorian luxury. The servants may be interesting to some but generally they are not such a selling point as the main family that lived there. The superstition is just another means of getting tourists into the Abbey. People like excitement and mystery and a large old stately home is a perfect setting for a ghost story. People don’t have to be told whether there are ghosts or not they will draw their own conclusions but the Abbey gives out enough hints and nudges in the right direction to make people believe. However saying this is not a true reflection of the Abbey in 1871 is wrong. People in those days would more than likely have believed in ghosts and whether there were ghosts living in the Abbey then, or even now, who can say?
In conclusion I think that the Abbey gives a good impression of life in the 19th century. No it’s not perfect, but it gives a fairly accurate representation as well as bringing in the tourists. When you think about it if it didn’t have a means of bringing in tourists it wouldn’t matter if it was a good reflection of history or not, because no-one would be there to see it…