A visit to the house provides a rare opportunity to see how a wealthy family of the Georgian era—in this case, the Pinney family—might have lived. Eleven rooms spread over 4 floors, from the basement kitchen and laundry to the elegant family rooms above, give us a glimpse of what life was like for rich people in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
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The Basement Kitchen
In a Georgian house, the kitchen was usually below ground level in the basement. Basement rooms were cooler, but they often had little light. This house is unusual because it is built on a slope.
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The basement rooms are below ground level at the front of the house but above ground level at the rear above, so the kitchen has full windows and gets lots of light.
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Fireplace and Bread Oven
One end of the kitchen is dominated by the iron fire grate that was used for cooking. Water was heated in the large kettle hung over the fire. To the left of the fireplace is an oven used for baking.
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Wooden Dresser
Highly polished copper and brass pots and pans are arranged on the shelves of the large wooden dresser. These include pots in a range of sizes, pans for roasting and braising, molds, kettles, and ewers.
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Windows with Wooden Shutters
The windows look out onto a small garden and the site of the original stables. The kitchen is light and airy but, with the fire burning all year round, it must have been very hot at times.
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Lighting
The kitchen was lit by candles made from tallow (animal fat). Candles were stored in special metal boxes hung on the wall.
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The Larder
Foods that rot, such as meat, fish, cheese, and fruit, were stored away from the heat of the kitchen in a cool dry larder to prevent them from going bad.
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Expensive foodstuffs like sugar were kept safely locked away in this additional small larder so that the servants couldn’t take any for themselves.
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Sugar cone
Sugar cane was grown on plantations in the West Indies by a workforce of enslaved Africans. During processing, the sugar was molded into cone shapes. Special cutters were used to break off lumps ready to use.
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Cheese coaster
At important dinner parties cheese would be served on a cheese coaster. This curved wooden dish has four small castors on the bottom, so that the cheese could be easily passed along the table and the guests could help themselves.
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The Laundry
Before the invention of the washing machine, doing laundry required lots of space, equipment and effort. Right through the 1800s, washing clothes and bedlinens was so labor intensive that people simply did it less often.
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In a wealthy household, servants might undertake a weekly or bi-weekly washing of undergarments. Outer garments were washed far less frequently. An efficient laundress of the early 1800s had to know what fabrics should be soaked before washing and how to use a mangle.
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Water pump
All the water used in the kitchen and laundry had to be hand-pumped up from a tank in the lower basement. The tank was filled with water from an underground spring and rain water channeled through pipes from the roof.
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Boilers
On each side of the fireplace there is a large boiler, and underneath each one is a space where a fire could be lit. Being able to heat water in the actual laundry room saved time and effort.
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Box Mangle
The inside of the box mangle is weighted with heavy stones. Washed linen was wound around wooden rollers beneath the box. A servant turned the handle, causing the heavy box to move back and forth, smoothing the linen and removing creases.
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Plate Rack
The laundry was also used as a second kitchen when it wasn’t needed for washing. The daily washing-up was done here, and the large plate rack could store all the clean serving and eating plates used by the household.
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The Plunge Bath
One of the most unusual features of the Georgian House is the deep, cold-water plunge bath in the basement. John Pinney, the owner of the house, took a cold bath every morning. Cold baths were thought to be good for the nervous system.
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Inside the Plunge Bath
The bath is lined with honey-coloured Bath stone. Mr Pinney would use the small steps to get in and out of the water. Part of the supply pipe and the original hole for draining the bath are still in position.
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Breakfast Parlour and Eating Room
The breakfast parlour and the eating room next to it were both used as dining rooms. The archway between them originally had doors, so the rooms could be used on their own or opened out for entertaining.
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Light breakfast was served in the breakfast parlour (the room with the small round table). The eating room, with its large oval table, was for more formal dining. Lunches and dinners here usually had multiple courses brought to the table by servants.
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Cutlery box
Valuable silver cutlery, such as knives and forks, was stored in wooden boxes when not in use. This box can be locked, and only Mrs Pinney and the housekeeper had a key.
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Bell handle
Family members pulled on this handle by the fireplace to call a servant. The handle is linked by wires to a bell by the kitchen downstairs. There were bells for each room in the house.
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Chinese Dessert Plates
Mr Pinney ordered a set of dessert plates from China. Each piece was decorated with the family coat of arms. The large plate behind the urn is the only one left from the original set.
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Wine Glass Rinser
During a formal dinner, guests would be served a different type of wine with each course. A small decorated bowl with water was placed by each person, so that they could rinse their glass before being served a new wine.
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The Library
The library was used by John Pinney, his sons and their (male) friends. A library was a sign of status and education. John Pinney was interested in English Literature and was a close friend of the poet William Wordsworth.
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Wordsworth and his wife visited the house as did others from their circle including Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
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Bookcase
This unusual bookcase with double secretaire, or writing desk, was made for a firm of solicitors in about 1800. It was designed so that the firm’s two partners could work side by side.
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Globes
The two globes are not the same. One is a terrestrial globe, marked with the continents and oceans. The other is a celestial globe showing the positions of the stars in the sky.
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Bell Handles
There are 2 handles, one on either side of the fireplace. Only one is linked by wires to a bell downstairs and could be used to call a servant. The other was a ‘dummy’ placed for symmetry.
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The Small Drawing Room
This room has been furnished as a lady’s drawing room. The wallpaper, based on wallpaper known to be in the house in 1791, was printed to look like silk.
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A drawing room like this would have been used by Mrs Pinney and her daughters and female friends for taking tea and for popular Georgian pastimes such as doing needlework and playing cards.
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Pole Screen
A pole screen was placed between hearth and chair to protect a woman’s face from too much heat. Pole screens were often decorated with needlework and could be moved up or down to provide the best protection.
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18th Century Chair
This chair is in a style made famous by furniture maker George Hepplewhite. The seat is wider than seats on today’s side chairs because women in the 18th century wore dresses with wide skirts.
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Piano
This piano is not original to the house, but John Pinney’s daughter did have a harpsichord. In the Georgian era, girls did not go to school, but the daughters of wealthy families were taught music, needlework and how to run a household.
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The Drawing Room
Imagine the sound of music and people talking. The drawing room—the largest room in the house—was used for formal occasions and for entertaining guests.
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Most of the room’s sparse furniture is arranged around the walls so the room could be used for large gatherings. With the rug rolled up and removed, it could even be used for dancing.
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Girandoles
A girandole is a highly-decorated candle-holder, designed to reflect light into a room. As in this room, girandoles were commonly used in pairs.
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Tea Tray
Afternoon tea was popular during the 18th century. The tray is laid with a teapot, tea dishes (cups without handles), a slop bowl and a plate for biscuits. Expensive Chinese tea was kept in a locked box called a caddy.
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Painting of Nevis
John Pinney owned sugar plantations on Nevis and lived there before moving to Bristol. In 1790 he paid the artist Nicholas Pocock 45 guineas—what would be £5000 today—to paint this picture of the island.
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The Bedroom
This bedroom is on the 2nd floor of the Georgian House. There are 5 rooms on this floor, and probably all of them were used as bedrooms or dressing rooms. This was probably the master bedroom—it is the largest room on the floor, and it is positioned at the back of the house.
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There is another floor above this one where the servants slept.
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Four Poster Bed
The bed dates from about 1785. It is hung with modern curtains that reproduce the original 18th-century style. The curtain fabric is dimity, a hard-wearing cotton fabric woven with stripes or checks.
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Fireplace
A fire was the only source of heat in the bedroom. A servant carried a bucket of coal upstairs from the basement, cleaned out the ashes and lit a new fire every morning.
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Shaving Table
Lifting the lid of this table reveals a mirror, a china bowl for hot water and spaces for soap. Mr Pinney would have used the shaving table for washing and shaving in the mornings. Inside the cupboard was a chamber pot.
