John Sambrook, ‘The kitchen fittings at Tupholme Hall, Lincolnshire’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. xII, 2002, pp. 246–250
text © the authors 2002 THE KITCHEN FITTINGS AT TUPHOLME HALL, LINCOLNSHIRE
JOHN SAMBROOK
upholme Hall was an interesting example of a Mr Love, with the guidance of his employer, was Ttown house in the country (Fig. ). It was built perfectly capable of planning such a building, which in for Robert Vyner, the descendant and heir of followed well-established patterns. Sir Robert Vyner, the favourite goldsmith of Charles Tupholme Hall was demolished without listed II. Samuel Buck’s engraving of of the ruins of building consent in . The demolition had been mediaeval Tupholme Abbey shows Robert Vyner’s preceded in by a public inquiry at which the new house in the background (Fig. ). Tall, three Georgian Group was the sole representative of the storeys high and three windows wide, the new opponents to demolition (and won the case). In building looks just like a London terrace house. What preparation for the inquiry, the building was surveyed the engraving does not show is that the main house by Neil Burton and John Sambrook, then senior was flanked by small pavilions, set forward of the draughtsman at the Survey of London. In the early main house and giving it the dignity proper for a s the Survey was working on the buildings of the miniature country seat (Figs. and ). Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, which was developed in Among the Vyner family papers, now deposited the s and John, who was responsible for re- in Leeds City Archives, is a partial account for drawing many of the eighteenth-century plans of building the hall. The account begins houses on the estate, became interested in one particular aspect of Tupholme Hall. rd August the I agreed with Mr Love of Boston for The architects of early eighteenth century houses raising the new house in Tupholme Park to the kitchen storey and Sept the th I paid him in full for the employed a number of conventions in their plans, workmanship thereof . amongst which were two sizes of small open circles enclosed within rectangular frames. The larger, Samuel Love of Skirbeck, a village on the edge of sometimes single, sometimes paired, clearly represent Boston, was a bricklayer, working between and privies: the smaller, varying in number from two the s. Presumably he was responsible for upwards, occur in kitchens, often below a window constructing the whole building, but the Leeds and must be associated with the preparation of food. account shows that Robert Vyner himself played an A schedule of fixtures prepared in for No. active part in the procurement process. One item Grosvenor Square includes, in the kitchen, “An reads “paid Mr Palfreyman of Boston for of deals Oven with an iron door, a Portland Chimney piece, which I picked out of ”. Another is “for making four stoves with Grates and Boxes set in Brick work in London of sashes at d per foot”. Sadly the with an iron rim around the same”. It must be such account is partial and does not cover the whole of the stoves, apparently used in the preparation of sauces, construction and fitting-out. Nor does it include any that are represented by the small circles referred payment for design work, though in all probability to above.
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XII THE KITCHEN FITTINGS AT TUPHOLME HALL , LINCOLNSHIRE
Fig. . Tupholme Hall from the south in ; the two-storey wings were nineteenth-century additions; the flanking pavilions, which are out of sight here, were completely obscured by vegetation. Neil Burton .
Whilst measuring the basement kitchen of there was reason to hope that the house would be Tupholme Hall it was noticed that one window preserved, or at least carefully recorded by the Royal embrasure was filled to cill height and covered with a Commission on Historical Monuments (England). wide window board. Lifting the board, which was The question arises as to how the stoves were decayed and not hard to remove, exposed a pair of used. The bars of the grate were closely spaced, less circular recesses fitted with iron grates, below which robust than those in a coal-fired range and probably further recesses of square section led to (blocked) made of wrought rather than cast iron. There was no openings in the vertical face of the brickwork (Figs. provision for a flue and lighting a fire in these stoves and ). Clearly these were a provincial version of the would have filled the kitchen with smoke in minutes. stoves referred to in the Grosvenor Square schedule. The obvious solution would be to open the window It would have been advantageous to have removed the and it may be significant that the original Yorkshire grating for closer inspection but, at the time of survey, sliding sash windows in the basement had survived
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XII THE KITCHEN FITTINGS AT TUPHOLME HALL , LINCOLNSHIRE
Fig. . Samuel Buck, Tupholme Abbey & Hall, .
in all openings except that over the stoves, where demand for kitchen use, it would help to explain the there was a later casement, which could be opened widespread practice of charcoal burning and the more fully. But despite their position under the value of hazel coppice in woodland management. window, the updraught from the main kitchen chimney would probably have drawn some of the This short piece was prepared by John Sambrook, smoke from the stoves back into the room. before his sudden death in December 2001, and It seems likely that the stoves were intended to was edited for publication by Neil Burton. burn charcoal, pre-lighted pieces of which could have been placed directly onto the grates. A more sophisticated solution would involve metal NOTES containers with perforated bases in which charcoal could be lighted under the main chimney and Anon., Vyner, A Family History , . Leeds City Archives, Vyner papers, NH (addl) . allowed to reach that condition – familiar from the Ex. inf . Lincolnshire Record Office, which has garden barbecue – in which it produces heat but little several references to Love. smoke, before being transferred to the stoves. If FHW Sheppard (ed.), Survey of London , XXXIX, charcoal was used in this way, and was in regular London, , – .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XII THE KITCHEN FITTINGS AT TUPHOLME HALL , LINCOLNSHIRE
Fig. . South elevation of Tupholme Hall in its primary state. John Sambrook .
Fig. . Plans of ground floor and basement, Tupholme Hall. John Sambrook .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XII THE KITCHEN FITTINGS AT TUPHOLME HALL , LINCOLNSHIRE
Fig. . Stoves in the basement kitchen, Tupholme Hall. Neil Burton .
Fig. . Plan (above) and elevation (below) of stoves in basement kitchen. John Sambrook .
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XII