History
Cliffe House
James Senior, his wife Jane and their 3 children, Amy, Mabel & Edward (then aged 4) moved into Cliffe House in 1889. At this time, the family was one of the wealthiest in Shepley and Cliffe House was the finest in the area.
The house had been built of the best local stone from nearby quarries. All the family rooms had stained glass windows with hand painted birds and flowers. The ceilings were decorated with ornate plasterwork and the walls adorned with the finest wall coverings.
The Dining Room – Cliffe House in the early 1900’s
One of the beautiful stained glass windows still intact at Cliffe House - 2003
The grounds were carefully planned with a formal lawned garden to one side of the house, an evergreen shrubbery in front, lining the driveway, and a kitchen garden behind the house where fruit, vegetables and herbs would be grown for use in the kitchens.
Cliffe House gardens as they are today
In the centre of the kitchen garden was a sundial. This was inscribed with a memorial to Norman Senior, one of James & Jane’s children who had died at just 4 months old, before the family moved to Cliffe House.
A Victorian sundial
The family rooms were on the ground and first floors. Downstairs were the dining room, the drawing room and the lounge. Upstairs were the family bedrooms. Mr & Mrs Senior had separate rooms, each with an adjoining dressing room. The children’s nursery was at the top of the main staircase. It had a door leading onto the servants’ staircase so that the nursemaid or nanny could get to the children without going out onto the family’s landing. Other rooms on the first floor would have been for the children (as they got older) and for guests staying at the house.
On the second floor in the attics were the servants’ quarters. The butler was the most important servant and he had a room to himself. He also had his own pantry (or kitchen) on the ground floor. The housekeeper and the cook would have had their own rooms as well, but the other servants would have shared rooms, where they would sleep and keep their few possessions. A back staircase went from the basement to the kitchen and from there straight up to the servants’ floor, so that the servants were never seen in the family’s part of the house.
The large kitchen was on the first floor opposite the dining room. Here the cook was in charge of several maids. The food was stored on stone tables in cool rooms in the basement of the house, where there would have also been a wine cellar.
A typical Victorian kitchen
In 1889 travel for families like the Seniors was by carriage and the family would also have horses to ride. The coaches and horses were kept in the Coach House at the far end of the driveway. Coaches could be driven in to the Coach house through the large, sliding doors. Part of the coach house was stabling for horses and there would also be a tack room and hay-loft. The coachman probably had a house nearby, but the stable boys and grooms slept over the stables.
A coach & four
In about 1910 the Seniors were one of the first families in the area to own a car and, of course, they had a chauffeur. The cars were kept in the Coach House along with the coaches.
A 1910 Napier