My mother also worked as a chamber maid to Lord and Lady Ropner along with her best friend. Mothers name was Kate Flanagan and her friend was Celia ?. My father also worked as an under gardener.. His name was Alec Coates Jackson. When they got married…Lord Ropner took my mother to a jewellers and asked her if she would like a clock for a wedding present. She wanted a grandfather clock but because there was no where she could keep it (she was living with her in-laws when she first got married). She chose a small mother of pearl carriage click instead… I inherited it when she died.
Hope this was of some interest…I am trying to complete my family history.
Loved this because my Mother Olive Jennings at the time actually worked at Preston Hall at around 1915 as a chambermaid for Lord Ropner, so when we were kids and it was a museum she would take us there and show us what each room used to be. Her 1 day off a week was Thursday when she would visit her Dad and Mam at Hampton Road in Stockton, then catch the last bus back and on dark nights Cook used to wait at the gates with a lantern to see her safely through the dark tree lined grounds back to the house.
Lord Ropner, my Mother told us , had a wooden leg , and he took the M.P. for Stockton and his wife Harold and Dorothy Macmillan in to stay at the Hall when they were boo-ed and run out of town. My Mum was on leave as her Mother was ill and while she was away Lord Ropner suddenly died, and so she had no job to return to as the House was closed up. Lord and Lady Ropner are actually buried in St .Mary the Virgins church cemetery on The Green at Norton -on -Tees. Hope this is of interest to your readers. As I said my Mother was Olive Trattles nee Jennings.
Thanks and yours sincerely , Malcolm Trattles.
My mother also worked as a chamber maid to Lord and Lady Ropner along with her best friend. Mothers name was Kate Flanagan and her friend was Celia ?. My father also worked as an under gardener.. His name was Alec Coates Jackson. When they got married…Lord Ropner took my mother to a jewellers and asked her if she would like a clock for a wedding present. She wanted a grandfather clock but because there was no where she could keep it (she was living with her in-laws when she first got married). She chose a small mother of pearl carriage click instead… I inherited it when she died.
Hope this was of some interest…I am trying to complete my family history.
Joan Horton nee Jackson
My Grandmother also worked for Lord Ropner as a chambermaid…Florence (Florrie) Robson
Loved this because my Mother Olive Jennings at the time actually worked at Preston Hall at around 1915 as a chambermaid for Lord Ropner, so when we were kids and it was a museum she would take us there and show us what each room used to be. Her 1 day off a week was Thursday when she would visit her Dad and Mam at Hampton Road in Stockton, then catch the last bus back and on dark nights Cook used to wait at the gates with a lantern to see her safely through the dark tree lined grounds back to the house.
Lord Ropner, my Mother told us , had a wooden leg , and he took the M.P. for Stockton and his wife Harold and Dorothy Macmillan in to stay at the Hall when they were boo-ed and run out of town. My Mum was on leave as her Mother was ill and while she was away Lord Ropner suddenly died, and so she had no job to return to as the House was closed up. Lord and Lady Ropner are actually buried in St .Mary the Virgins church cemetery on The Green at Norton -on -Tees. Hope this is of interest to your readers. As I said my Mother was Olive Trattles nee Jennings.
Thanks and yours sincerely , Malcolm Trattles.