The Old Dovecote
Doves were a very important part of estate life. Their droppings were used as fertiliser and as a primitive
type of washing powder in the laundry. The eggs could be eaten as could the young birds - under a certain age
they were not classed as meat and so could be eaten on a Friday, traditionally a meat free day.
This room, which was once home to over 1,200 breeding pairs of doves, now houses an exhibition about birds, a
hatchery for poultry bred on the farm and a selection of brooders, incubators etc. used to rear chicks and
other poultry.
The undercroft of the Dovecote contains one of the Estate's two stonemason's shops. The other was situated in
a roundhouse at the edge of North Plantation and was demolished in 1910 after a tree fell on it.
