Antique dealer's treasured television collection gifted to Yorkshire's historic Kiplin Hall

Director of Kiplin Hall and Gardens, James Etherington, pictured outside of the historic house museum holding an antique swan shaped ice-cream mould.

Known for its grand rooms and opulent decor, the historic Kiplin Hall's cherished art and fine furniture has been amassed over centuries from treasures found in its family collection.

Now with a vast bequest of Victorian 'kitchenalia' from a renowned antiques dealer, the country house museum hopes to explore the stories of all who might have lived here.

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 housed such a dairy on site, and would have held servants quarters, but museum leaders say there is a "gap" in its history with these demolished so long ago.

Annie Marchant a ‘lively, talkative and strong-minded woman’ who has
bequeathed her extensive collection of Victorian Kitchen and Dairy
objects to Kiplin Hall and Gardens — Annie Marchant a ‘lively, talkative and strong-minded woman’ who has bequeathed her extensive collection of Victorian Kitchen and Dairy objects to Kiplin Hall and Gardens

"Much of our current collection includes art, fine furniture, and the possessions of the families who lived here at Kiplin over the last 400 years," said James Etherington, director of Kiplin Hall and Gardens.

"But those items do not always tell the whole story of the people who worked and lived here. A house like Kiplin would have required staff and servants.

"We know there was a dairy on site, and larger kitchens and servant’s accommodation existed next to the hall, but they were demolished some time ago.

"Annie’s collection will help us to explore the stories and lives of the sorts of people who worked and lived at Kiplin outside of the family ownership.”

A swan pictured on the lake at the 400 year old Kiplin Hall and Gardens in North Yorkshire.

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Miss Marchant, who lived in Kent, died this spring aged 68, leaving instructions in her will for her collection to be donated to a museum.

Kiplin Hall and Gardens, an accredited museum, has been successful in acquiring it, along with a generous financial sum to ensure its safe keeping for the future.

Miss Marchant's obituary was written by a friend of hers, Hugh Darrah, and was published in The Guardian in April.

Director of Kiplin Hall and Gardens, James Etherington. Pictured in front of the museum holding an antique milk churn from Miss Marchant’s extensive collection of antique kitchen and dairy equipment which will be displayed in the hall in 2021.

He described Miss Marchant as a “lively, talkative and strong-minded woman who held unshakeable views about almost everything – the best word I can think of to describe her thought processes was that everything should be proper – it was, she believed, proper to be frugal, proper to reuse and recycle, proper to grow your own vegetables, proper to preserve produce at harvest time, proper to look after wounded animals.”

Mr Etherington said: “At Kiplin we have a number of strong women in the family tree, but on reading Annie Marchant’s obituary we were struck by just how similar she sounds to our own Bridget Talbot.

"Miss Talbot was the last owner of Kiplin Hall and is credited with saving it for the nation. They sound very similar in their tenacity and will to preserve history.

"The Victorian walled garden, produce from which is used in our tea room, alongside the fine dining room in the hall set the perfect context for the Annie Marchant collection which fills a gap in the telling of Kiplin’s story.

This shop display for meats from Selby is part of the vast kitchenware collection which finds a new home in North Yorkshire at Kiplin Hall & Gardens

"We feel confident that the previous owners of the Hall, especially Miss Talbot, would be delighted to have Annie’s collection here.”

Boost to rural economy

The funding which accompanies the collection will secure the services of a project officer to create a temporary exhibition set to open next February.

It is hoped research can be undertaken into the collection's history ahead of the creation of learning materials to ensure its long-term display.

The bequeathment is not only a boost to Kiplin Hall's collection, the museum's directors have said, but at such a time when many jobs in the heritage sector have been lost it is helping to create employment opportunities in a rural area.

With rising numbers of families and visitors seeking settings to enjoy the outdoors this summer, Kiplin has reported its busiest ever July. This, they add, alongside the new acquisition, leaves the future "looking brighter" for the setting.

Kiplin Halls grand interior tells one side of the story of upper class country living; the new collection will help the museum to explore the lives of the people who worked at the house which had its own dairy and large kitchen and servants wing, now demolished.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson