Buttery (room)
Encyclopedia
A buttery was a domestic room in a large medieval house. Along with the pantry
, it was generally part of the offices pertaining to the kitchen. Reached from the screens passage at the low end of the Great Hall
the buttery was traditionally the place from which the yeoman of the buttery served beer from the wooden butts standing by to those lower members of the household not entitled to drink wine. Candles were also dispensed from the buttery. Even today in Oxford and Cambridge colleges drinks are served from the buttery bar. The buttery generally had a staircase to the beer cellar below. The wine cellars, however, belonged to a different department, that of the yeoman of the cellar and in keeping with the higher value of their contents were often more richly decorated to reflect the higher status of their contents.
From the mid-17th century, as it became the custom for servants and their offices to be less conspicuous and sited far from the principal reception rooms, the Great Hall and its neighbouring buttery and pantry lost their original uses. While the Great Hall often became a grand staircase hall or large reception hall, the smaller buttery and pantry beyond the hall screens were often amalgamated to form a further reception or dining room.
Pantry
A pantry is a room where food, provisions or dishes are stored and served in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. The derivation of the word is from the same source as the Old French term paneterie; that is from pain, the French form of the Latin panis for bread.In a late medieval hall, there were...
, it was generally part of the offices pertaining to the kitchen. Reached from the screens passage at the low end of the Great Hall
Great Hall
Great Hall may refer to* Great hall, the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or large manor house* Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, Beijing* Great Hall of the University of Sydney, Australia* Cooper_Union#The_Great_Hall, New York...
the buttery was traditionally the place from which the yeoman of the buttery served beer from the wooden butts standing by to those lower members of the household not entitled to drink wine. Candles were also dispensed from the buttery. Even today in Oxford and Cambridge colleges drinks are served from the buttery bar. The buttery generally had a staircase to the beer cellar below. The wine cellars, however, belonged to a different department, that of the yeoman of the cellar and in keeping with the higher value of their contents were often more richly decorated to reflect the higher status of their contents.
From the mid-17th century, as it became the custom for servants and their offices to be less conspicuous and sited far from the principal reception rooms, the Great Hall and its neighbouring buttery and pantry lost their original uses. While the Great Hall often became a grand staircase hall or large reception hall, the smaller buttery and pantry beyond the hall screens were often amalgamated to form a further reception or dining room.