For those of you who don’t know, Downton
Abbey is a costume drama starring Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville. It first
aired in the UK in September
2010 and in the United
States in January 2011 and has gone on to be
a huge success loved by millions, including Sharon and me! The series is set on
the fictional estate of Downton Abbey and depicts the lives of the Crawley
family and their servants.
I'm sorry about the quality of some of the pictures
my camera was struggling with the lack of light.
Nicola was the perfect fairy tale
princess, and the castle was beautifully bedecked for Christmas.
The wedding took place in the Saloon, seen here from the staircase.
I thought my outfit was perfect but looking
at it now I'm not so sure! I wish I could go back and chose something
more suitable for the occasion and surroundings. I don’t have the suit any more, but
the 'fascinator' is carefully preserved in tissue paper. You never know it might turn out to be a collector’s
item one day!
It was nice to be part of the upstairs
family for a day, but if we were to travel back in time I'm sure our place would
be firmly downstairs!
My mum often talked about her days as a
scullery maid (the lowest grade of ‘below stairs’ maid). Her duties included many
of the most menial tasks, cleaning and scouring the scullery floor,
washing all the pots and pans and lighting the fires on the kitchen stove. One
of her most vivid memories was of making beeswax polish. This involved melting
beeswax in a pan of turpentine; all was going well until she decided to leave
it ‘simmering’ and get on with some of her other tasks. The result was a fire,
followed by a very serious telling off and a docking of two week's wages. Mum
was born in 1917, so I would guess this must have been around 1931. I can’t
watch Downton without thinking about her and wishing I could ask her more about
her time below stairs.