The Cream of Hampton

The Cream of Hampton. Dairy, constructed c. 1800. The ingenious design of this building enabled the Ridgelys to produce fine dairy products here for 150 years. Built into the ground to maintain coolness, the structure is also shaded by low-hanging eaves. Inside you will see a natural refrigeration system. Cool water from a nearby spring bubbles to the ground and runs through a tap into a trough that surrounds the dairy floor. Workers set urns of milk and tubs of butter into the cold water to keep them from spoiling. In the early years fresh milk, cream, and butter were luxuries mainly supplied for the master's table. Hampton's dairy products were sold commercially and helped support the estate., [Caption:] , The Ridgelys' famous Alderney and Jersey cows were kept in a large stone barn, which once stood beyond the Long Barn in front of you. Fences circled the area to keep the animals from straying. If you visited the dairy in the 19th century, you would have seen women hauling heavy milk pails on yokes and churning cream into butter. In the 20th century, mainly men were hired to run the dairy.