Books by Elizabeth Raffald

Mrs. Raffald (1733-1781) was an unusual and energetic entrepreneur. Not only was she a brilliant cook and housekeeper (she worked in several households, the last of which, Arley Hall in Cheshire, was where she met and married the gardener, John Raffald), but she also ran a successful shop and catering business in Manchester, compiled the first street directory there, started the first servant's registry, used newspaper advertising to some effect to publicise her various businesses, and ran the King's Head in Salford while coping with a family of daughters and a profligate husband. At the King's Head she started compiling recipes, training young ladies and eventually published her book which was an instant success. Queen Victoria passed off several of her receipts as her own, and countless family recipe books include at least some of them. Roy Shipperbottom was born in Bolton, Lancashire, in 1930 and died in Laon, France in just before the publication of Southover's edition of The Experienced English Housekeeper for which he provided the introduction. He pursued careers in building, bookbinding and academia, retiring as a senior lecturer in humanities from North Manchester College in 1982. By that time, the history of food had become his main interest and Elizabeth Raffald, his passion. He spent twenty years researching her life and work from sources in Lancashire and Yorkshire and at Arley Hall where she was housekeeper.