A HUGE collection of antique kitchen equipment – including props used on TV by comedian Victoria Wood – has been donated to a museum in North Yorkshire.
The collection of Victorian pots, pans and utensils was donated to Kiplin Hall and Gardens, near Catterick, by renowned antiques dealer Annie Marchant, who died this year.
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Items from the collection were sometimes hired out and used on television, including by Victoria Woods in her 1980s soap opera parody Acorn Antiques.
James Etherington, director of Kiplin Hall and Gardens, said: "We are very grateful to become the new home for Annie Marchant’s impressive collection.
A shop display for meats, from Selby, which is part of the collection
"Much of our current collection includes art, fine furniture, and the possessions of the families who lived here at Kiplin over the last 400 years.
"But those items do not always tell the whole story of the people who worked and lived here.
"A house like Kiplin would have required staff and servants.
"We know there was a dairy on site, and larger kitchens and servant’s accommodation existed next to the hall, but they were demolished some time ago. Annie’s collection will help us to explore the stories and lives of the sorts of people who worked and lived at Kiplin outside of the family ownership.”
Miss Marchant, from Kent, died in April, aged 68.
She chose to donate the collection to a museum in her will.
Kiplin Hall applied for the collection and has been successful in acquiring it, along with a generous financial sum to ensure its safe keeping for the future.
The funding has meant the hall can appoint a new member of staff for the project, which will include staging a temporary exhibition, which is scheduled to start next February.
The project officer will also contribute to long term plans to house and display the collection.
Miss Marchant was described in her obituary as a "lively, talkative and strong-minded woman who held unshakeable views about almost everything."
Annie Marchant
Mr Etherington added: “At Kiplin we have a number of strong women in the family tree, but on reading Annie Marchant’s obituary we were struck by just how similar she sounds to our own Bridget Talbot.
"Miss Talbot was the last owner of Kiplin Hall and is credited with saving it for the nation. They sound very similar in their tenacity and will to preserve history."
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