Kitchen

The kitchen ; the heart of the house. A room set on display in the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Hanley, Stoke on Trent. A room that would have been replicated thousands of times in small 19th century terraced houses across Britain right into the 20th century.

 

The crucial open fire with oven ; source of heat and means of cooking. On the floor a stone hot waterbottle for transferring some heat to the otherwise unheated bedroom. The mantel clock proudly displayed above along with the ornaments. A heavy-framed monochrome print on the wall. All the utensils ready on the table for a baking and cooking session, including a hare which would doubtless then have been skinned by the housewife ( no prepared supermarket meat in those days). And looming above, the pulley-raised drying rack with damp washing taking advantage of the heat of the fire until it was fit to iron ( the iron being heated in hot coals).

 

On the table a hand sewing machine for making clothes for the family. Not much rest for the diligent housewife in those days.

Done