Avis Crocombe (c. 1839–1927) was an English domestic servant who was the head cook during the 1880s at Audley End House, a 17th-century country house near Saffron Walden in England. She found fame nearly a century after her death due to being portrayed in a series of YouTube videos made by English Heritage, who now manage the site. These include a small selection from her own manuscript cookery book. Crocombe and other individuals from the 1880s are the focus of a long-running live interpretation project at Audley End, which started in 2008 and is still ongoing as of 2022. Life Avis Crocombe was born into a large family at Martinhoe, Devon, around 1839 to Richard Crocombe, a farmer, and Agnes Crocombe. Avis entered domestic service before her 13th birthday. She initially worked for her brother John in Devon, but by 1861 was working as a kitchenmaid for John Townshend, Viscount Sydney, one of a staff of at least 10, including a male cook and several footmen. By 1871, she was working as a cook and housekeeper in the household of Thomas Proctor Beauchamp at Langley Hall, Norfolk, one of 16 servants employed by the family. Sometime before 1881, she became cook to the family of the 5th Baron Braybrooke whose country seat was at Audley End House near Saffron Walden. As was usual for cooks, she also worked at the family's home in London at Upper Brook Street, and for them in their seaside home at Branksome Towers in Bournemouth. She replaced a male French chef (a Mons. Merer), as the family was probably cost-cutting. Avis would have been substantially cheaper. Although staff wages are not known at Audley for 1881, in general male cooks commanded around £100-120 p.a., (the upper end if French), whereas women's salaries ranged from £40-60. Those who, like Avis, had trained under male cooks could expect higher wages than those who had not. Avis Crocombe left Audley End in 1884 when she married Benjamin Stride, who ran a lodging house in London. He died in 1893, leaving £496.6s.8d, and she continued to run the business, along with his daughter (her step-daughter) Anna-Jane. She died in 1927, aged 88, by now a servant-keeper herself. Legacy In 2008, English Heritage, a charity which cares for over 400 monuments and sites across England, including Audley End, undertook a multi-million pound restoration of the service wing, funded by the