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Behind the Green baize Door #41

 “The green baize door - dividing line betwix servant and master.” All stately homes had at least one green baize door and Hoar Cross Hall was no different. This was the door used by the servants to access the main part of the house unobtrusively and silently so they could go about their work without disturbing the family. The Hall had a spiral staircase at each end of the house for the servants to use and the green baize door on the ground floor opened onto the Garden corridor which led to the Chapel and the main house, as well as the garden. The green baize door on the first floor opened onto the east wing corridor and guest bedrooms and from this corrid...

Behind the green baize door #47

"The green baize door - dividing line betwix servant and master.” All stately homes had at least one green baize door and Hoar Cross Hall was no different. This was the door used by the servants to access the main part of the house unobtrusively and silently so they could go about their work without disturbing the family. The Hall had a spiral staircase at each end of the house for the servants to use and the green baize door on the ground floor opened onto the Garden Corridor which led to the Chapel and the main house, as well as the garden. The green baize door on the first floor opened onto the east wing corridor and guest bedrooms and from this corridor t...

DIY Stately Home #4

...��s green baize door opened onto the inner landing next to the apartments which is how the servants would have accessed these rooms when bringing the family breakfast trays in the mornings. Where children were to be seen and not heard, servants were to be neither seen nor heard by members of the family and all the areas to the house were accessed via the spiral staircases and then inner hallways and corridors so they could go about their duties quickly and quietly. The same green baize door was also used by the tenants to get to their homes after a hard day's work, although, like the servants, they had to walk along the basement corridor from the opposite end o...

A Christmas Celebration #74

...the green baize door and along the bedroom corridor where the family slept.  The Derby Room was at the far end on the right overlooking the direction of Derby, hence the name.  All the rooms were named after the towns they faced, something Molly found quite appealing. As they approached the door they stopped and listened very carefully and as they couldn’t hear anything they carefully opened the door to look inside.  Molly clung onto Jenny as they peered around the door.  Just as she thought, there was no-one in there and indeed, it wasn’t even a bedroom but a storeroom for unused furniture and the like.  They both looked at the bell pull next to the fi...

A Christmas Celebration #89

...the green baize door and along the bedroom corridor where the family slept.  The Derby Room was at the far end on the right overlooking the direction of Derby, hence the name.  All the rooms were named after the towns they faced, something Molly found quite appealing. As they approached the door they stopped and listened very carefully and as they couldn’t hear anything they carefully opened the door to look inside.  Molly clung onto Jenny as they peered around the door.  Just as she thought, there was no-one in there and indeed, it wasn’t even a bedroom but a storeroom for unused furniture and the like.  They both looked at the bell pull next to the fi...

Hoar Cross Hall - Life below stairs #20

...s a green baize door off the staircase where they could enter the main house to attend to their duties.  The spiral staircase ran from the attics at the top of the house to the basement at the bottom so that they could also access their bedrooms once all the work was done.  Pity the poor housemaid who had to climb up three flights of stairs to go to bed after a long day’s work!   Layout of the basement floor where the servants lived and worked    By the 1920s the indoor staff had dwindled to about fourteen.  Lady Dorothy and her husband didn’t really live a full social life as previous Meynell families had and there were few balls and dance...