House

Keys to the door

There is a cracking door latch on the basement bathroom – it looks more like something out of a dungeon than belonging on a domestic door.

Unfortunately most of the locks on the internal doors in the rest of the house have been ruined.  Either the lock has been torn out altogether, or they have been rendered inoperable by sloshing layers of gloss paint over them.  Sheer vandalism.

We have acquired some vintage furniture which in some cases does not have the correct keys – so I acquired this bunch of skeleton keys.  The claim made for them is that they would open 95% of simple old locks – and so far I have had a lot of success with them.  They also have some significance for me as I am supposed to be the household manager.  In Victorian times, that would have been the Housekeeper – a woman in charge of all the female staff and domestic running of the household.  This position in a large house was one of the most senior a woman from a working class background could aspire to – as she would have started out as a housemaid and ended up with 30 or more staff.  This woman (think Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey) wore a black silk dress and a bunch of keys which opened all the store cupboards and was a symbol of her authority.

Here is my bunch of keys.

 

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