This post, the eighteenth in the series detailing the rooms and contents of Middleton Hall as described in the 1676 inventory, focuses on the rooms called “The Brewhouse”, “The Bottling House”, “The Buttery” and “The Chamber Over Against The Buttery”. These rooms cover the different stages of alcohol production and storage. Specifically, a brewhouse was where it was made, the bottling house was where it was transferred from its fermenting casks into the drinking barrels known

This post, the sixteenth in the series detailing the rooms and contents of Middleton Hall as described in the 1676 inventory, focuses on the rooms titled as “The Bread Room” and “The Kitchen”. Of all the rooms listed in the inventory, the Kitchen contained the most items. A bread room was a specialist production room traditionally known as the bakehouse. This was where bread was made and baked. It was normally situated in a separate building or away from the main house due

One of the key occupations within the domestic household was the cook. Over the centuries there have been innumerable cooks employed at Middleton Hall. The first documented cook at Middleton Hall was in the late 13th century and he was William, the cook of Philip de Marmion, 5th Baron Marmion of Tamworth. However, this post will focus on two specific cooks at Middleton Hall separated by over 300 years: William Darby; and Evelyn Dixon. In medieval and Tudor times, the occupat

Middleton Hall’s continually evolving form is one of its unique architectural characteristics and a large part of the form that it has today is due to John Averill’s Renovation. This Renovation began soon after John Averill, a farmer and industrialist, and his family took up residence at Middleton Hall. Although John had purchased Middleton Hall at auction in December 1924, the purchase did not immediately evict the existing tenant and thus John did not take up immediate resi

2025 is the 350th anniversary of the construction of a specific architectural feature at Middleton Hall: the brick corner fireplaces. We know that these were constructed in the year of 1675 because of the hearth taxes. This recorded that there were 26 hearths at Middleton Hall in 1674 and 30 in 1676. The difference was caused by the addition of the corner fireplaces. Corner fireplaces were first introduced and fashionable for a very short period in the late 17th century. The