In the latest of our series of reminiscences of life ‘below stairs’ at The Talbot Hotel, Malton, KAREN DARLEY catches up with the elegant figure caught on camera in the hotel’s doorway.

WHEN the Gazette published a selection of old photos of staff at The Talbot, readers were quick to add names to the faces and supply their own images.

One lovely photo which emerged was one of Betty Wilkins. And Betty, now Mrs Jackson, was among the former staff who met up to share their memories.

Mrs Jackson went to work part-time as a waitress at the hotel in 1954, while she studied at Scarborough Catering College.

The following year, she was appointed as general assistant – a job title which she remembers covered “a multitude of sins”.

“In the wage book it read general assistant and my main duties were in reception where I was being taught all about accounts, taking and confirming bookings,” she said.

“But I could just as easily be called upon to make beds, clean floors and scrub pans in the scullery.”

Mrs Jackson said the hotel was run by Trust Houses Ltd, later to become Trusthouse Forte.

“The managers were Mr and Mrs Manser – I never knew their first names. He was very strict and when I asked for an extra day to go back to catering college to take the next part of my City and Guilds, he asked how he thought he could teach me the hotel trade in only five days a week,” she said.

Mrs Jackson said her work involved covering for days off so she could be filling in the chef, head waiter or chambermaid.

“I even had to cover for the porter, which was an early start as residents’ shoes had to be cleaned if they were left outside their bedroom doors,” she recalled.

“I also completed my bar training long before I was 18 and could tap a barrel and clean beer pipes out as well as any man.”

Mrs Jackson said among the guests were horse owners, Mr Dewhurst of Dewhurst Cottons, Mr and Mrs Coates, of Coates Cottons, trainers, bookmakers and the Hartleys of Hartley’s Jams.

“Many came year after year, always leaving us chocolates at reception, but very rarely a tip as they must have thought we were above being given money,” she said.

“I did try to turn down the first tip in the dining room that I was ever given telling the gentleman paying the bill: ‘no, it was OK, I enjoyed serving you’. Ken Pickering, who was our head chef at the time, soon put me in the picture.”

Mrs Jackson said nearly all the staff lived in and to begin with she shared a loft bedroom.

“As the years went by I was given a room of my own in the main body of the hotel,” she said.

“I am still able to recall all the room numbers and what type of room it was – single, double, twin or family room – and of course exactly where it was, often carrying guests’ suitcases to their rooms and showing them where the nearest bathroom was, as there was no en-suite in those days.”

Mrs Jackson left The Talbot in 1960 for an exchange scheme to France with British hotels and restaurants.

“I was inspired by a French student Michel Soubester who came over here to learn the language on an exchange scheme,” she said.

“He was meant to stay a year but he was called home after about 10 months to do his National Service with the French forces, but was killed during the French/Algerian war.”

“He was the reason I left The Talbot to go to France and have only made a brief visit to the hotel since.”

Where are they now?

SEVERAL readers have mentioned these wooden dolls which were on display in the reception area.

This picture was sent to us by Nick Fletcher who found it among his mother’s archive material.

But no one knows where they are now.

Does anyone have any knowledge of what happened to them, and what they actually were?

Email us at gazette@gazetteherald.co.uk