Planning and (mis)managing: three generations of life below stairs at Nostell, West Yorkshire, c.1730-1805

The School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies invites you to a talk by Dr Kerry Bristol, followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion.

Drawing on a rich archive, this seminar will explore how service life was planned and organised spatially and socially at Nostell, West Yorkshire, by three generations of the Winn family.

Under Sir Rowland Winn, fourth baronet, the servants divided their time between the old converted monastic buildings on the site and the new house, where the service areas designed by Col. James Moyser and James Paine were planned to reflect the needs of a large family increasingly distanced from those who served them.

During the tenure of Robert Adam’s patron Sir Rowland Winn, fifth baronet, and his Swiss-born wife Sabine d’Hervart, the move into the new house was completed but Lady Winn’s attempts to assert authority were ineffective and her household was fraught with idle maids, inattentive housekeepers and irritated cooks, many of whom were vocal in their dissatisfaction and seldom stayed long in her employ.

Nostell then underwent a period of retrenchment following the accession of Sir Rowland Winn, sixth baronet, whose account books encapsulate service life there at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

About the speaker

Kerry Bristol is a senior lecturer in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, where she has taught the history of British and Irish architecture and country house culture since 1999. She is currently researching and writing a book on everyday life in the eighteenth century at Nostell, West Yorkshire, where she is honorary historical advisor to the National Trust.

More information

This seminar is free and all are welcome.

Please register here if you would like to attend.

For more details, please email Ross Truscott at R.Truscott@leeds.ac.uk.

Image

Nostell, West Yorkshire. Photo by Kerry Bristol.