"Smoky, Noisy, Bloody, Violent, and Smelly": Ferryland’s Mansion House Kitchen

This project will examine the artifactual and architectural remains of a detached kitchen associated with George Calvert’s mansion house in Ferryland, Newfoundland. Built during the 1620s, the kitchen may have been in use throughout the seventeenth century until its destruction in the French attack of 1696, serving the occupants of the mansion house during both the Calvert (1621-1638) and Kirke (1638-1696) eras. Key research goals include determining how the structure was used—whether it functioned primarily as a service kitchen, or was repurposed as a small dwelling, or even fell out of use—gaining insight into the daily lives of its occupants; determining how the kitchen related to other culinary and domestic spaces in seventeenth-century Ferryland; and comparing the structure’s layout and architectural design to other kitchens and outbuildings in England and North America. By answering these questions, this project will add to our understanding of daily life, work, and foodways in seventeenth-century Ferryland and explore the adaptation of an Old World architectural style in a New World setting.

John David Archer