8. Kitchen Garden

Narrator:

MUSIC: Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses Levasseur to fade in at Once a week the cook had a conference

Fruit and vegetables have probably been grown in this area since the 16thcentury. Even in Bowles’ day the house was virtually self sufficient - with a strict rotation of crops. Potatoes, swedes, kale, lettuce, turnips and cabbage all grew here. As well as vegetables there were trained fruit trees, which supplied the house with apples, pears, plums, peaches and nectarines. Once a week the cook had a “conference” with Bowles, to discuss the meal requirements for the week ahead. The Head Gardener was issued with a list of fruit and veg, which an under-gardener gathered together and took to the kitchens by eleven o’clock each morning. But things did not always run so smoothly! Alfred Swatton, the head gardener here for over 40 years, kept an eagle eye on his kitchen garden. Early one morning he caught Mina, the Austrian cook, taking his best apples from the tree near his house.

MUSIC: Continues and runs under scene

Short scene:

Male voice shouts

SFX sound of feet running across gravel

MALE VOICE

Oi, you! What do you think you’re doing?

Narrator:

He was livid, and stormed out in his pyjamas to give her a piece of his mind! She never did it again.