Kiplin Hall to host exhibition of Victorian 'kitchenalia' after acquiring bequest from late Annie Marchant

Kiplin Hall will host an exhibition of the Annie Marchant Kitchen and Dairy Collection when it reopens after winter, prospectively on March 5.

The exhibition comes after a vast bequest of Victorian ‘kitchenalia’ from a renowned antiques dealer.

The impressive collection from Annie Marchant was often hired out and used on television shows such as comedian Victoria Wood’s soap-opera parody Acorn Antiques in the 1980s, and includes pots, pans and utensils that would have been used in a dairy in Victorian times.

The Jacobean house in Richmond once homed such a dairy on site, and would have held servants quarters, but museum leaders have said there is a “gap” in its history with these demolished so long ago.

Miss Marchant, who lived in Kent, died in January last year aged 68, leaving instructions in her will for her collection to be donated to a museum. Kiplin Hall and Gardens, an accredited museum, was successful in acquiring it, along with a generous financial sum to ensure its safe keeping for the future.

Project officer Alice Rose said: “I think it’s a really exciting opportunity for Kiplin HOuse to acquire a collection like this and be able to get something in its entirety.”

Visitors will get into how a museum gets a collection and what they do with them and in this case it will explore the sorts of objects servants would have used.

Those attending double check before attending under the current circumstances, says the attraction.

Kiplin Hall is set in 100 acres of grounds between Northallerton and Richmond offering visitors woodland, parkland, a lakeside and lawns.