The Scullery

With easy access to the garden and with the well in the yard, this room would have been the place where vegetables, fruit, meat and fish were cleaned, prepared and preserved by the cook, Agnes. It was also the place where washing up and some of the preparation for laundry would have happened.

This would have been a very busy room with Mary the housekeeper, Agnes the cook and Jennet the dairy maid all working in here at different times. The door to the scullery was also a place of comings and goings; a place to share gossip with local people including Jane the washerwoman, a place for the outdoor staff to bring produce from the garden and for flirtations and intrigues with other local servants and tradesmen.

Fresh fruit and vegetables from the gardens or local growers would have been washed and prepared in here and then cooked next door in the kitchen. Fish from the house’s own pond and meat from the herds, or from local markets would have been kept in the relative cool of this room until it was cooked or salted. What food was prepared depended on the season and whether the Digbys were at home or away at one of their other properties.

Without refrigeration the only way to keep food for longer was to preserve it. The produce of the summer and the autumn including soft fruits and vegetables were made into pickles and preserves. Apples, pears and other fruit were stored in roof spaces to keep them as long as possible, some were sliced into rings and dried in garlands up in the rafters. Meat and fish were preserved with salt and brine and dried or smoked in the kitchen.

Go through the doorway to your right into 

The Kitchen / Parlour