Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 27th November, 2018)

Is that HAIGH Hall? ARLEY Hall? There's no clue to where this is.

Can just imagine a column of servants at the crack of dawn scurrying along the path - especially in bitter cold weather. Maybe picking a few logs up on the way for lighting the fires in the Hall!

"'Hey- up Fanny -gerra move on! WIv getten Royalty stoppin' fert week- allus wantin' baths them lot- don't know why they don't get dirty!"

Ive been looking at the clouds in this photo but I cant make anything out, also tried counting the trees but I keep coming up with a different number.

Baths would be least of worries.

Hosts tended to be bankrupted if Royalty stayed for a week.

(I forget name, but a thorough account of this exists for one of the grand houses near Preston)

Also I think you would get the boot picking up logs for fire. They need to be stacked and drying for an appropriate period to render them fit for fuel.

Life just was not so rosy for domestic servants.

With the speed and growth of the new high tech coming ‘ont’market , I would suggest young folk in Wigan and in every other town , couldn’t give a hoot where this is, who lived there , or indeed ever lived here , if truth me known. For them , these days , you could tell then it was someone Royal or a large house growing lettuce for alien rabbits.
Their only interest is looking at a screen typing just as I am. The irony of this is , the youth of today and tomorrow may not save these buildings , but , believe it or not , joined
together on their new gadgets , could indeed save our planet . Or am I speaking romance ,perhaps .

In 1873 The Prince and Princess of Wales were indeed guests at Haigh Hall of the Earl and Countess of Crawford and Balcarres. Whilst they were in the locality they opened the Infirmary and the following day they made their way back to the Hall. The arrangements were that they would be staying at the Hall. Just a bit of whimsy Ena but they definitely stayed at least a couple of nights. Surely their own wood would be used for the fires as well as coal from the mines....

Hi Ena , your comments remind me of a programme I watched on TV called the Victorian Garden , or something similar. He described his role in the garden , but the purpose was the house . I always loved Gardeners World and the original presenter ,
who seemed to carry on from him . I enjoy also watching Jack Hargreaves . 2

His Nibs didn’t need wood, he had his own coal mines.

Hoghton Tower

Richard Hoghton was sent to Fleet Prison in order to pay off his debts incurred in hosting weekend stay of King James I and his entourage.

It is claimed other rich noblemen in Lancashire burned their homes down so they could not be selected to house the King as it was cheaper to buy a new house than to pay the debt of a weekend hosting the King.

Another nice Photo' Ron; and hasn't Veronica added a nice imaginary touch to it. But goodness knows what good old Ruth Mott would have said to 'servants with dirty hands.'
I don't think that Mick should be too concerned about abstract shapes . . . the clouds do look like Cumulus though, while the not-so-young foreground tree has the strut of an Ash.
And perhaps Ena would regard the hard working-life of a domestic servant as being Blue.

I would imagine that Wigan Council would have helped to foot the bill as well - seeing as their Royal Highnesses were doing a favour in opening the Infirmary. I also read that the Earl and Countess were personal friends of the couple and attended the coronation of Edward V11 to be. Who'd have thought it!

Has anybody actually checked the origins of the indoor servants, mostly the big houses would not employ locals indoors, because they did not want their in-doors info and conversations carried out to the local population. Instance, in Lancs and Yorks brought in Southerners or over from other counties (refined speech) and they just did not want to hear local accents. Royal visits were greeted with financial horror, freeloaders and entourage turning up.

Lord and Lady Crawford spent £80,000 on refurbishments to the Hall for the visit of the Prince and Princess's visit. The work was carried out by a New bond Street firm under the direction of Lady Crawford.
A temporary wooden kitchen and a temporary servants hall were erected to cater for 150 extra servants and the 50 policemen stationed there to patrol the grounds; the lofts in the stables being fitted up to provide sleeping accommodation for them.
The Prince and Princess slept in a bed that had been given to Lord Crawford by an Italian Nobleman.

Information from "The Life and Times of Haigh Hall" by Donald Anderson.

That's serious wealth in those days, but even so,the Hall would have been considered very small by Royal standards. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a 'stop off ' on the way to Balmoral!

Rumour has it Veronica that his lordship had to chuck an extra half dozen local ragamuffin children down his pit shaft in order to provide enough coal for the visiting nobility.

There is one certainty Dtease the tables would have been groaning with food! ''Teddy' had a gargantuan appetite for food,lovely ladies, fine cigars and wine and gambling. He wasn't called 'Edward the Caresser' for nothing! I wonder if Fanny and Co got any leavings!