The Servants’ Quarters

When Lady Baillie bought Leeds Castle in 1926 this room was part of the 19th century Great Hall. She had it altered for use as a library.

The plaster ceiling is taken from a mould of a 17th century house in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1938 the room was reduced to its present size and became the servants’ quarters.

Engraving of the frst-foor front room of Sir Paul Pindar’s house, 1810 by John Thomas Smith

The Great Hall, c 1900 Portrait of Catherine, Lady Fairfax, née Culpeper, oil on canvas, c 1680, attributed to Willem Wissing (1656-87)

The running of a country estate like Leeds Castle required the organisation and co-ordination of more than 40 members of staff, all with their own specifc duties and responsibilities.

The portraits above the wood panelling tell the story of ‘above stairs’ at Leeds Castle in the 17th and 18th centuries. They mostly depict members of the Fairfax family who inherited the Castle as a consequence of the marriage between Catherine Culpeper and Thomas, 5th Lord Fairfax, in 1690.