Just like so many family homes, the heart of this home is the kitchen.

It isn’t by accident that this is the most connected room in the house; From here Mrs Calthorpe, and Mary - the maid - manage the flow of daily life. Provisions are brought to the back of the house, into the back porch, and straight to the kitchen.

Fresh food and dried food are quickly off to pantry; either into the ice box or the cupboards.

Every day, a healthy breakfast of fresh eggs – from the hens in the garden of course - are passed through the hatch straight to the breakfast room.

Tea, lunch and dinner are carried off through a separate door to the family and sometimes their guests too, in the Dining Room.

The laundry and Mary’s room are right off the kitchen, letting her come and go, and keeping the domestic jobs out of the way of the family.

A lot of care has gone into the design of the kitchen. There is even a hole cut into the cupboard above the sink so the water from the washing-up brush and the soap saver doesn’t drip into the cupboard; it passes straight through and back into the sink below.

You may have noticed something very unusual.  Most homes don't have three stoves in one kitchen! While so much of Calthorpes’ House remains unaltered, over time Mrs Calthorpe added new more modern cookers;  the Herald stove is the original, then she added the blue Early Kooka electric stove, and later still the electric hob.