Summer/Autumn ● Issue No.8 HOLKHAM NEWSLETTER ooking back over the last seven issues of the Newsletter has been a forceful reminder of all that has happened at Holkham since the first Newsletter was published at the end of the year 2000, almost four Lyears ago. In the summer of 2001, issue 1 reminds us of how lucky we were to escape the worst effects of the Foot and Mouth epidemic.Who now remembers that dreadful time and the sufferings of countless farmers whose life’s work was destroyed, sometimes overnight? In that same year, we bought the 20,000 tonne grain storage facility at Bunkers Hill from Dalgety, and that summer, all the harvest grain was handled there. On the 8th July,The Victoria Hotel was re-opened after extensive refurbishment and to great acclaim. Windowcraft was established in 2002, while issue 4 details the great party we all enjoyed in celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.Those with good memories will remember that that occasion was the first at which we sold Holkham made ice cream — or did we give it away! In the spring of 2003, the Accounts staff moved to their new offices. In that same year, our oldest tenant, Ralph Harrison, died, but at the same time the youngest member of the Holkham family was born; my grandson, Ned.The family is pictured above at Ned’s christening earlier this year. At the end of last year we commissioned our gigantic new reservoir, and I returned to Holkham, permanently I hope, after a two-day-a-week, five-year stint in London at the Historic Houses’Association. I am determined to restrict my time in the office, and get out and about as I used to do in the early days of my stewardship of the Estate. Earlier this summer, Eric Absolon, Bygones Curator, well past the usual retiring age, did in fact retire to spend more time with his family. Eric came to us as curator in February 2001, and immediately set about revamping what had become a rather tired Bygones Museum. The west wing was completely renovated in time for opening in the summer of that year. During the winter of 2001/2002 the dairy equipment room and the entrance hall received the same treatment.The winter of 2002/2003 was spent moving the History of Farming Exhibition from what is now the Accounts Office, to the old Game Larder adjacent to the Bygones Entrance. It is light, airy and a vast improvement on the old. By the summer of 2003, the east wing had been comprehensively renovated, ready for our summer visitors. With the conversion of the old workshop to a room displaying the Estate’s conservation policies, the refurbishment of Bygones is virtually complete. So, my very grateful thanks to Eric and to all that his energy, enthusiasm and knowledge have contributed to the rejuvenation of Bygones. The Earl of Leicester www.holkham.co.uk Then there were repairs: Archives — Elizabeth Alderson for mending netts £0.6.0 — To John Hazle for mending the great leathern jack £0.12.0 Mr Might [a rope maker at Wells],jack lines, bell rope, oyl LIFE in the Archives Office at the top of Kitchen Wing in the etc £1.4.0 Hall continues uneventfully, so here are two more alphabetical gleanings from the past. Some household goods were also included under this heading: — Mr Ivory for 4 dozen ordinary case knives & forks £1.3.0 M is for Music — To Ann Sutton for 26 dozen & ? of ordinary wooden trenchers £1.6.6. The fourth Earl of Leicester, an accomplished classical violinist, — Paid Mr Willcocks for 98 yards of fine Holland & 96 yards of is the only member of the family known to have been an cours [coarse] ditto for sheeting £23.9.6 excellent musician. Over the centuries, however, a wide variety — William Spencer for 14 wooden chairs for the hall £2.11.0 ABOVE: Can any reader suggest where this photo might have of music has been enjoyed at Holkham. been taken, probably around 1913? The caption appears to be —William Tomley for 2 pistol tinder boxes etc £0.9.9 ‘The C. of N. [perhaps Coke of Norfolk] What ho!!’ — Martha Townshend dairy maid for a butter pott, a scimming In the old manor house in the 1650s, the Puritan ideas of the dish etc, £0.2.0 Commonwealth did not prevent John Coke and his family — Mr Markant for cloth for pudding bags £0.7.2 Hopefully, these servants had perhaps shown some natural celebrating Christmas and other occasions with the help of — Mr Roblau for oxes bladders £0.3.6. visiting fiddlers and pipers.‘Paul the fiddler’ was paid 10 shillings, aptitude for music. Perhaps they provided a distant background sound, rather than music to be appreciated at close quarters. For while ‘the other fiddlers’ received £1 between them. Occasionally, a chance entry gives us more significant the birthday of Thomas Coke’s wayward son, Edward, in 1740, a information.We know that Thomas Coke took pains to include servant was paid for ‘going about the country to engage musick’, In Thomas Coke’s day, during the last years of the old manor the most up-to-date sanitary arrangements in his new hall, but at and the band he assembled came from Norwich,Thetford and house, the servants often provided music. In the early 1720s, an least one entry makes it clear that he took care over bathing Lynn, in addition to a man from Sir Jacob Astley’s to play apprentice servant,Tom Robinson,was taught, not only to read arrangements in the old house:‘By Mr Roblau to a cooper for the harpsichord. and write, but also to play the ‘short horn’ and the ‘straight taking ye bathing tub to pieces, moving it into another room & horn’. One of the footmen, Philip Bender, was taught to play putting it together again’ — £0.5.0. One of the first purchases by the young second Earl, in 1844, ABOVE:This map shows the Hall at the end of Thomas Coke’s the French horn in 1726, and some years later, another footman, life.The pleasure gardens, probably including the orangery, were Hiero Somering, played the bass: a new bow and set of strings was a Broadwood grand piano, costing £145.18.00, but we do Christine Hiskey laid out to the south-east of the house, and the kitchen gardens not know who played it. Later in the 19th century, small bands were near the south end of the lake. Find out more about the was bought for him in 1737, when Abraham Thomas,the house Archivist orangery in the next Holkham Newsletter. steward, also bought ‘songs, hautboy and bassoon reeds etc’. were hired to provide the music for balls, particularly at Christmas and the New Year, when the Prince of Wales was often present. Sometimes Walter Howlett, of Norwich, was asked to bring two or three performers, including a pianist and violinist. On other occasions, a band was hired from London: Holkham Farming Company Ltd sometimes as few as four musicians, and never more than seven, ‘with no drum’, as ‘the dancing saloon [the Statue Gallery] is WITH all the recent warm weather at the time of writing, many people commented on the better quality work than so small’. we are desperate for rain.The irony is that the irrigation previous years. system is not quite up and running.We are awaiting the Lady Silvia remembers family entertainment in the 1920s, connection of mains power before we can pump water and The grain store has been less busy this year, as we did not when she played the piano, her eldest brother,Tommy (the check for leaks. By the time you read this, we will be store wheat for anyone else. Paul Bloomfield has delivered all future fifth Earl) played the drums, and Uncle Joe (Joe Airlie, squirting water across potatoes and carrots. I suspect any leaks the wheat into the mill at Egmere over the winter and now married to Bridget Coke) the banjo, while ‘Granny (wife of the in the underground main will be easy to spot and could has started on cleaning the drier from top to bottom. third Earl) and any hapless young men danced away – foxtrots become a new tourist attraction for Holkham. Hopefully this means no fires this harvest. and the Charleston, which was all the rage’. The sugar beet drilling this year has gone well with The workshop at Longlands has had a well-deserved tidy N is for Necessaries some interruptions due to rain.With a smaller workforce and Johnny Hall thought he had come to work on the wrong than last year, we have bought a front mounted cultivator so farm when he returned from holiday. His latest project is an The 18th century account books include a category called the beet drilling and cultivation was a one-pass operation on overhaul of the Woods Department tractor.The gas bottles are ‘Necessaries’, covering a wide variety of goods and services that the majority of the land.This has reduced the wheelings full, so there should be no problem getting things apart. were not included under provisions or other headings.These across fields and plant emergence has been excellent.This extracts are from the mid 1730s, when the family still occupied should transfer into better yields also. The cattle at Warham are being turned out to grass the old manor house, but work was starting on the new Hall.