What was originally stored in a buttery?
Buttery (room) Hall, which led, respectively, to the buttery, kitchen, and pantry, each of which formed separate household departments. In a large house, the buttery's principal function was storage of wine and its preparation for serving. Candles were also dispensed from the buttery as was beer to those lower members of the household not entitled to drink wine. Today in colleges in Cambridge, Dublin, and Oxford, drinks are served from the "Buttery Bar". The buttery generally had a staircase to the beer cellar below. The wine-storage area of the buttery, in keeping with the higher value of its contents, was often more
Buttery (room) Buttery (room) A buttery was originally a large cellar room under a monastery, in which food and drink were stored for the provisioning of strangers and passing guests. Nathan Bailey's "An Universal Etymological English Dictionary" gives "CELLARIST – one who keeps a Cella, or Buttery; the Butler in a religious House or Monastery." As the definition in John Stevens's "The History of the Antient Abbeys" shows, its initial function was to feed and water the guests rather than monks: "The Buttery; the Lodging for Guests". In a monastery a buttery was thus the place from which travellers would seek 'doles'