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Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: nadiawalton on Thursday 13 April 06 10:23 BST (UK)
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Hi all
Does anybody know of a detailed website that would have info on what tlife would have been like "Below stairs"? any info would br very much appreciated!
Regards,
Nadia
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Hi Nadia
Not a website but a book!...........
The Servants' Hall: A Domestic History of Erddig by Merlin Waterson.
It's a brilliant account of life of the servants at Erddig Hall near Wrexham, North Wales...........I'm slightly biased as a few members of my family worked there!! ;D but it gives you a good idea of "below-stairs" life in country and stately homes in the 18 and 19 centuries.
Copies of the book are easy to get on e-bay or www.abebooks.co.uk
Little more about Erddig , which has one of the best preserved servants quarters in the country....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/wrexham/pages/erddig2.shtml
I visited the house a few times on school trips when I was little.......and since investigating my family tree have realised that a couple of the servants portraits that greet you are my g. grandmother and her sister!!!....
Sarah :)
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There's another book - probably out of print now, but very good, called, if I remember correctly "Below Stairs" by Margaret Powell, who was a servant in her early life.
You might be able to find a copy ???
Wendi
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Hi Nadia,
There is a book called Life Below Stairs by Pamela Horn. Youmay be abel to get it from your local library.
I am about to start reading The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant by the same author.
Dolly
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Hi Nadia, you don't say what period you are interested in but here are a couple of links found by googling!
http://www.kirtlingandupend.org.uk/html/life_below_stairs.html
http://www.findonvillage.com/0536_daisy_minns.htm
http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/sga/Gayhurst/esther-wesley.html
They all make interesting reading
Suey
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I've always found this interesting and amusing - no. 41 for general servants http://www.household-management.com/household/chapter41.html
Biker
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Sorry forgot to say, as others have, that the period is critical as well as the social standing of the employing family - the latter would especially affect the meaning of 'domestic servant'. Many upwardly mobile middle classes employed a 'maid of all work' as a status symbol if they could afford it, who basically did everything, cleaning, cooking, ironing etc etc. In more wealthy families the duties of each servant was more clearly defined.
Cheers
Biker
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Sorry forgot to say, as others have, that the period is critical as well as the social standing of the employing family - the latter would especially affect the meaning of 'domestic servant'. Many upwardly mobile middle classes employed a 'maid of all work' as a status symbol if they could afford it, who basically did everything, cleaning, cooking, ironing etc etc. In more wealthy families the duties of each servant was more clearly defined.
How right you are!! my husbands Great Grandmother had a 'maid of all work' 1895-1900. I envisage some poor little girl who came in daily to scrub the step and do the laundry. The family concerned were certainly not wealthy but husband had been in the Army for 25 years and had a pension, so a few pence a week for help in house was affordable.
Suey
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There's another book - probably out of print now, but very good, called, if I remember correctly "Below Stairs" by Margaret Powell, who was a servant in her early life.
You might be able to find a copy ???
Wendi
I've got a copy of this book! (& I'm open to offers:-)
Another good one is "A Child in the Forest", by Winifred Foley.
Romilly.
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Romilly ;D I think mine went when my mom made me clean my room up and it was either Margaret or Anne Frank ;D Glad someone has still got a copy it's a great book.
Off to look up " A Child in the Forest" - it's not about the New Forest is it? :)
Wendi
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No Wendi,
It's about the Forest of Dean...& its a lovely book, - I have a copy!
Romilly.
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I've always found this interesting and amusing - no. 41 for general servants http://www.household-management.com/household/chapter41.html
Biker
Biker Beeton ......... has a nice ring to it ..... doesn't it ?!! ;) ;) ;)
Biker ... that's how we clean house now - and there's just "us"!!!!!
:P
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Annie, watchit you terror ;D
BB
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uh oh !!
Hi Biker ! :) :) :) :) :)
I was just talking about you !! ............ ::)
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Hi Nadia, you don't say what period you are interested in but here are a couple of links found by googling!
They all make interesting reading
Suey
Sorry I did mean to put the dates in the first posting!
My ancestor was a servant from approx. 1830 to 1840; well, 1838 actually because she then got pregnant by another worker there and I have the feeling was subsequently dismissed :)
I'mnot sure on the standing of the family itself, though it was at a place called Esholt Hall, Esholt, Yorkshire.
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Hi Nadia, you may have seen this already, a little 'potted history' on Esholt...the Hall is mentioned
http://www.arch.wyjs.org.uk/AdvSrv/index.asp?pg=ConsEsh.htm
Suey