Visitors are being encouraged to put their feet up and test out
the beds at Shugborough's newest attraction - a completely
recreated servants' bedroom.
While the estate might be the only tourist attraction in the
country to encourage you to have a lie down, unfortunately the
mattresses are lumpy and the beds so uncomfortable they are
guaranteed to give you back ache. There's no fine eider down and
memory foam here, these mattresses are filled with leftover coconut
fibre and straw.
The brand new "servants' bed" experience is part of the working
estate's hands on interaction with visitors which sees people
having a go at dollypegging, getting elbow deep in curds and whey
in the dairy and real duties expected of lowly servants.
The original servants' bedroom has been completely rebuilt by
Staffordshire Arts and Museum Service staff and they have also
recreated the housekeepers' store.
These new servants' environments will add even more interest to
the nation's best upstairs downstairs experience which throws open
its doors for 2010 this Friday (March 19).
The servants' bedroom was originally home to three laundrymaids
who would start work at 5am each day.
Visitors will learn how maids during the 1920s woke to find the
floor covered in cockroaches and how they were only allowed a cold
bath once a week.
In the Housekeeper's Store visitors will learn how the most
senior female on the staff kept items such as soap and tea under
lock and key to ensure nothing went to waste.
The Shugborough estate is famous across the country for
presenting the real history of a stately home by interpreting the
lives of the enormous workforce who provided for the gentry.
The working environments open this Friday, include the walled
garden growing historic varieties of vegetables, the working farm
with scullery, bread ovens, dairy and mill and the servants'
quarters with laundry, kitchen and brewhouse along with the new
bedroom and store. Costumed characters bearing the names of real
Shugborough servants will be working across these areas and
interacting with the public.
The fine mansion house with its elegant state rooms, the
fascinating County Museum galleries and the 900 acres of parkland
and formal gardens will also be open to the public from Friday.