Re: BECKFOOT layout


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Posted by Adam Quinan on April 08, 2003 at -1:50:49 from 66.185.85.76 user Adam.

In Reply to: Re: BECKFOOT layout posted by John Nichols on April 04, 2003 at 14:58:12:

Ed and I had an e-mail exchange off the TARBoard and I am presuming to post some of it here.
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This is part of Ed's reply to my suggestion of a hatch between the dining room and pantry.

----- Original Message -----
From: Ed
To: Adam
Subject: Re: hatchway, dining/kitchen


Adam -

I assure you that a lot of imagination had to be used to fill in the so many gaps left by Ransome's descriptions, and that imagination can come up with as many different designs as there are people doing the imagining.

As an expert in Lake District Architecture of the '30's - definitely not me. Never been there. So there is no realistic image before me as a guide that is pertinent to that area and time. Perhaps the image that I "see" is based on the house of my own great grand parents, a house I visited several times as a child. No doubt that has influence my particular brand of imagination, as when gaps of description leave me wondering, it is natural to fill in with what I saw as a child. So what I came up with is really a composite of Ransome clues and my own ancestral home.

My description on TARBOARD should never be taken as the definitive absolute final answer. Indeed, it was put out there to trigger as much discussion (call it arguments) on the topic as possible. Of such controversies is the life of any forum. Perhaps my image there is just a jumping off point from which opposing concepts can come forth.

There is reference by Ransome of when that Pigeon Bell first went off, where Cook dropped a tray of dishes in the passageway. Carrying dishes is what is done when going to/from the kitchen from/to the dining room - or at least, that is the most likely trip being done. Such a trip took her THROUGH that passageway. That says that there is that SPACE separating kitchen from dining room, which, being in the main house, indicates a separation of the kitchen from the main house, but possibly appearing to be connected via this covered passageway, because that is where she dropped the dishes.

There is also the note that says another time she was in the passage way on the way to the pantry. That is about the only indication of a location of the pantry I could find.

In the picture of Nancy with a ROUND face of mumps, one can see the smaller attached room, which is supposed to be the kitchen, with its outside door quite visible. The angle does NOT show the north wall of the main house, so it does not show if there is any separation from the main house and kitchen, or not. No gap is shown, but from that angle, if there were, it would be round the corner and not seen.

The passageway, wherever that is, is used by Dick when he goes between the main house and the pigeon loft as the access rout. Apparently the door to the main house at that end was accessed via that passageway.

These considerations regarding the clues Ransome gave in text and drawing may not PROVE my design, but neither does any description he gave CONTRADICT my layout, at least, I don't think so.

Of course there are those items that I identified as being purely conjecture on my part with a touch of imagination, filled in from my Great grand parent's home.

It seems in their day, there was a great fear of FIRE resulting from the kitchen cooking process. Their kitchen was out back, in a separate building, so if it caught fire, very likely that one room would be the only loss, as it was some 20 feet away from the main house where the formal dining room was. Admittedly, there was a little table there in the kitchen, where most of the eating took place, which avoid the logistical problem of carrying steaming serving dishes from the kitchen, through the cold outdoors, and into the main house's formal dining room. So that dining room really did not get used all that much, unless we were visiting, so there is where we as company would always be served. But when it was just the two of them, they just ate right there in the kitchen.

The separate building as kitchen in my great grandfather's house also allowed for that building to have windows on all four sides, thus permitting the breeze to flow through from any direction and help keep the heat of that stove from being uncomfortable. This great ventilation was a big help in that taking care of that problem.
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Here is snipped an interesting discussion of unmentionables and heating of Beckfoot.
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Now, considering your concept of the kitchen and the dining room sharing a common wall, thus permitting a "pass through", there is still the location of the passageway, and how that location justifies finding Cook there with a tray of dishes (unless she was taking them outside to rinse them in the river - not likely... leave that technique to the D's in the DOGS' HOME for their dish washing.) Then there is the question of where is the pantry? I am not all that sure it is where I drew it, there at the east end of the passageway, but there is so little evidence of its location, that I'm sure there are other places it could have been. Your suggested togetherness would make Cook's job easier without having to go through two doors and an unheated passageway on her many trips between dining room and kitchen. A "pass through" would be a great plus from her point of view, I'm sure. But like so many features, there is no mention of any "pass through," which, as I have said about so many other items, the lack of its mention does NOT prove it was not there.

Even a feature like the kitchen chimney is a contradiction, comparing its location as shown in two drawings: in the NO GO view from the top of the promontory, the chimney is at the extreme end of the kitchen, the farthest away from the main house, yet when watching Col. Joly's firefighters gather in the yard of Beckfoot preparing to search for GA, that chimney appears to be right in between the kitchen and the main part of the house, right where I would have thought the door in the main hallway would be. So its location is documented - but with contradicting evidence, which leave us still to wonder.

Too bad no view from the boathouse towards Beckfoot is shown, as it would show that north wall of the main house, as well as the north wall of the kitchen. Such a view would show perhaps the east end of the passageway, or perhaps some separation of the kitchen from the main house, if such existed.

In my design, there is only a partial separation of kitchen and main house. There is the covered passageway between the two buildings, with a door into the kitchen, and another door into the north end of the hall in the main house. The pantry is at the East end of the passageway, which would give the APPEARANCE of these two buildings being joined, with the pantry closing the gap there in between.

Do you have a concept of where the passageway would be? and the Pantry?

The nice thing about all this disagreement is, there is no argument, only diversity of opinion. The facts Ransome left us with are so sketchy at best.

I wonder, if maybe this conversation should have been on TARBOARD?

It's been fun, anyway. Let's have more opposing opinions...


My response now posted here:

Ed,
First let me assure you that I haven't done nearly as much textual and pictorial research as you have. I am just trying to put forward some alternatives based on what I have imagined and my experience of English housing. Remember the Lake District is almost as far north in the United States as southern Alaska, say about Juneau. Now the climate in England is a bit more temperate but heat is not going to be a major concern. Cold is.

Also you mention wanting to see a picture of Beckfoot from the boat house. May I refer you to the little sketch at the start of Chapter 14 The Noon-Tide Owl. It clearly shows the house in the background with the smaller northern extension joined to the main house. It also looks as though the GA is pointing out daisies in the picture which would move your location of the lawn a bit. The river side of the house is up against trees and shrubbery. A similar effect can be seen in the picture "Up the Amazon River" in the next chapter. I am sure that is the boat house in the background and Beckfoot emerging from the shrubbery on the right hand side of the picture.

Referring to your original sketch as modified by Ian
http://the-stable.lancs.ac.uk/~esarie/tarboard/messages/10824.htm

I would put the pantry where you show it but put the kitchen at the rear of the house opposite the pantry just as the parlour and Captain Flint's study are opposite each other, I would have them as a two storey extension to the end of the house, the extension to the north seen in No Go is the kitchen & pantry. Cook and the maid could sleep above the kitchen/pantry. The kitchen would have a door into the pantry with the pantry sharing a common wall with the dining room. Perhaps the door in the picture of Nancy with mumps could be off the pantry or the kitchen.

The pictures seem to show three "posh rooms" overlooking the lawn and towards the boathouse and then a smaller lower northern extension which is close to the bushes and trees. This lower extension is where I would put the pantry and kitchen.

The door of the dining room I would put in the corner nearest your drawing room. The passage way would then be from the kitchen and pantry doors up the passage which you have labelled a hall. In my parlance the hall would normally only refer to the area immediately inside the front door where outer clothes would be taken off by visitors.




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