Detail of servant's bells on the Ground floor Digital image of C/34656

Description Detail of servant's bells on the Ground floor Digital image of C/34656

Date 27/4/1994

Catalogue Number SC 759634

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 34656

Scope and Content Servants' bells in basement, Newhailes, Musselburgh, East Lothian This shows the servants' bells that were connected, by wires and bell-pulls (levers), to different rooms in the house. Originally, there would probably have been a plaque beside each bell with the name of the room that the bell was connected to. The bell system was introduced during Lord Shand's tenancy. Country houses could easily be fitted with a wire and lever bell-pull system by the end of the 18th century. Electric servant bell systems were developed in the late 19th century and were a vast improvement on the old system which was liable to become clogged with dust. James Smith (c.1645-1731) architect, designed and built Newhailes House (originally known as Whitehill) in 1686. Sir David Dalrymple (c.1665-1721) bought the estate in 1709 and started the construction of the library wing in 1718 which was completed after his death in 1721 by his son, Sir James Dalrymple (1692-1751). The house was modernised in 1871-3 when Lord Shand was tenant, and has remained largely unchanged since. The National Trust for Scotland became the owners of Newhailes House in January 1997. The house opened to the public on 1 June 2002 after a £12.7 million conservation project that ensured the house was stabilised without losing the patination of the interior decoration. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/759634

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap