Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian Servants

by Maloney, Alison

  It may seem unbelievable to us today but the domestic servants’ position was jealously guarded to the point of cruelty. Even the lowly parlourmaid would refuse to speak to anyone who worked in the kitchen, seeing the cook’s underlings as beneath her. In Not in Front of the Servants, fourteen-year-old scullery maid Beatrice Gardner remembered a particularly nasty trick played on her by one such ‘superior’.

  I well remember having to carry cans of hot water up many flights of stairs when her ladyship was changing for dinner, and being met en route by one of the housemaids who with a straight face said that I must also take a certain china article (used in the days of no bathrooms) and hand this to her lady in her room, together with a can of hot water. This I duly did and to my utter dismay, received a month’s notice for being ‘rude and insolent’, which was really funny when I think how terrified I was to even speak to anyone. But of course no one knew it was the fault of this wretched house-maid, playing a trick on a child who had just left home.

  The Nursery

  As well as these basic staff, the presence of children in the household would require still further staffing. A nanny would preside over the care of youngsters and under her were a few junior nurses or nursemaids, often children themselves, to take on the everyday care of babies and infants.

  In the 1871 census, almost 20 per cent of nurses in full-time domestic service were under the age of fifteen. In fact, 710 girls in the job were under the age of ten.

  A fully fledged nanny, who ran the nursery, was ranked high enough on the social scale to have another member of staff waiting on her, usually called a nursery maid. Nanny was not expected to wash up a plate or cup or tidy the nursery, and the menial tasks, such as warming milk, were left to the nurse. Even though the youngsters saw no one but the nanny and the children all day, they were not permitted to mix with the ordinary domestic staff.

  Serving the Children

  Mrs G. Edwards became an under-nurse in Kensington at 15.

  The head nurse was above me. I called her ‘Nurse’ and she called me by my Christian name. The house had a cook, a kitchen maid, a housemaid, a parlourmaid, a coachman and a groom. My job involved attending to the children. I got up at six o’clock to walk the children’s dog round the square. Then I went downstairs to fetch anything for the children. I used to take their shoes and boots to be cleaned in the kitchen. The children lived in the nursery and we had our food sent up to us, but sometimes the two eldest children went down to dine with the family and I would go down with them to serve them. I stood in the dining room with them.

  Max Arthur, Lost Voices of the Edwardians

  Playtime in the nursery

  The Governess

  In the Victorian era, older children, especially girls who would not be sent away to boarding school, required a governess. By the turn of the century, with many girls now getting a formal education, fewer and fewer families were employing governesses.

  Although a paid member of staff, the governess would have come from a similar social class as her employers and she was not considered a servant as such. As she would need to be educated, the majority were unmarried daughters of middle-class or well-to-do families who, for one reason or another, needed to support themselves or simply wanted to work. Being too genteel to consider work as a servant, they entered the house in a social limbo. They were often scorned by the servants who saw their elevated status as unfair and may well have been looked down on by the family, who would see a woman’s need to work as an indication of her family’s failure.

  OUTDOORS STAFF

  Land Steward

  Only to be found on the larger estates, which included farmland or tithe cottages, the land steward was more employee than servant and was responsible for managing the rents and keeping the business profitable. He was well educated, highly paid and lived in a house on the estate so his social status was closer to that of the family itself and he would be in charge of hiring and firing outdoor staff.

  The Gardener

  The head gardener was considered ‘upper staff’ and on a par with the housekeeper in the hierarchy. Although this meant higher wages and good living conditions, his position as outdoor help meant he was separate from the upper servants of the house.

  The job of under-gardener was seen as a valuable position for a young boy

  In smaller houses the gardener might have worked alone or with one under-gardener but in the larger country houses and stately homes he would have had a formidable workforce. For example, at the Buckinghamshire mansion of Waddesdon Hall, owned by the hugely wealthy Rothschild family at the turn of the century, the head gardener tended the vast gardens with a staff of six under-gardeners.

  The Stable Master

  Like the head gardener, the head groom or stable master was ranked with the ‘upper staff’, although he would not have been afforded all their privileges. Depending on the size of the house, he would have presided over several grooms and stable boys, some of whom started as young as ten.

  Coachmen

  Although cars were becoming fashionable in the Edwardian era, most families still relied on horse-drawn carriages and it was the coachmen’s task to keep them in good working order and pristine at all times. They were also responsible for cleaning the tack, although this job might have been delegated depending on how many stable hands were employed. The coachmen ranked above the grooms.

  DAILY DUTIES

  The Valet

  Although he commanded as much respect as the butler, the master’s personal valet had no staff directly under him. His sole responsibility was to tend to the master’s needs, such as his wardrobe and toilette. He would rise before his employer and go to bed after him, so he needed to be able to survive on little sleep.

  Every day he would ensure that the correct outfit for each occasion was pressed and ready to be worn and that his master’s shoes and boots were clean and polished, often with newly ironed shoelaces. In the morning he would shave his employer, sometimes using a shaving soap or balm of his own recipe, and he would make sure a bath was drawn when his master demanded it.

  Manny Lane

  Minnie Lane’s brother Manny had always wanted to be a gentleman’s valet and found a position at a house in Manchester. After a three-month absence the family heard a knock at the window at four o’clock one Sunday morning as the prodigal son returned, complete with a northern accent. ‘We asked him why he’d come home and he said the gentleman he worked for wanted him to cut his toenails, and he wouldn’t do it. He’d do a lot of things but he wouldn’t do that.’

  Max Arthur, Lost Voices of the Edwardians

  A valet had special standing in the household, treated as he was as a close friend and confidant of the head of the household. On shooting days on larger estates he might be responsible for looking after the guns and loading his master’s weapon, unless there was a ‘loader’ or under-keeper to take that role, and on outings he would take charge of train timetables and travel arrangements, as well as supervise the packing of suitcases. He would travel with his master, often abroad, and would even act as a translator and tour guide on the trips, sorting out any problems that arose through ignorance of local customs.

  In order to procure all the goods and services required, a top valet would be phenomenally well connected and discreet, rather like the best hotel porters of today. The famous fictional valet Jeeves, created by P.G. Wodehouse in 1915, is the perfect example of the invaluable ‘fixer’, able to lay his hands on whatever his master, Bertie Wooster, requires at short notice and capable of helping him out of any tight spot.

  As well as a top-end salary, the valet received many tips and gifts, and would often be given unwanted clothes to sell or wear himself. In fact, many made enough money to go into the hotel business, or open high-end stores. Lord Byron’s valet James Brown and his wife Sarah became the founders of the famous Brown’s Hotel, in Mayfair.

  By the Edwardian era, as servant numbers reduced in all but the biggest households, de
dicated valets were becoming rare, with many of their duties being taken on by the butler.

  The Lady’s Maid

  Like the valet, the lady’s maid was a luxury few could afford but, for those with the means, she became a trusted and valued companion. Her duties were somewhere between dresser and secretary and she needed to be well versed in the latest fashions, charged as she was with keeping her mistress up to date with elegant trends. In fact, in the Victorian era, when they had been more numerous, French ladies’ maids became something of a status symbol because they were thought to know more about the Parisian designs.

  The lady’s maid would look after the wardrobe, help her mistress choose dresses for each occasion, and help her with her hair and make-up. With some society ladies changing up to five times a day for various engagements, this was a full-time job in itself. She would also be on hand to suggest lotions and beauty enhancements to stem the march of time, and help with the brimming social calendar. In large houses, she would be the only person permitted to enter the lady’s boudoir, forbidden ground even for the master of the house.

  Although they were invariably young, with the majority leaving to marry by the time they were in their mid-twenties, ladies maids enjoyed a senior position similar to that of the valet. This meant they were regarded with some suspicion and even hatred by the lower staff, because they had the ear and the trust of the mistress.

  They too would receive perks in the shape of cast-off dresses and beauty products, and many developed airs and graces above their station, objecting strongly if asked to attend to any other female. A Victorian guide entitled The Lady’s Maid warned them against such pretensions and urged them to bear in mind that their elevated position, better clothes and ‘seat in the dressing room and on your master’s carriage’ were merely temporary perks of the job. ‘Your heart should still be where your station is – among the poor; so that if you have to return to your old ways of living when your years of service are over you may not feel hurt or degraded but as if you were returning home.’

  The Butler

  During the Victorian era the butler had seen his position elevated by the paring down of household staffs. The house steward, once his superior, had almost disappeared and valets were retained only by the wealthiest of families, leaving the butler to tend to the master of the house and to run the domestic staff.

  The butler oversaw the running of the household and was directly in charge of the serving staff, footmen and hall staff and, therefore, held responsible for their conduct. In addition, he would liaise with the housekeeper on the duties and conduct of the kitchen and household staff. He ran the extensively stocked wine cellar, polished the family silver and oversaw the smooth running of all meals, keeping a watchful eye on the footmen waiting at table to make sure they observed the correct etiquette. When guests were being entertained, he would oversee the menu and choose the wine, filling the glasses himself.

  Keeping a watchful eye

  At lunch he might serve the meal alone, as the footmen were often otherwise engaged, and at dinner he was required to set the starter on the table before calling in the family. Mrs Beeton observed that

  He carries in the first dish, and announces in the drawing-room that dinner is on the table, and respectfully stands by the door until the company are seated, when he takes his place behind his master’s chair on the left, to remove the covers, handing them to the other attendants to carry out. After the first course of plates is supplied, his place is at the sideboard to serve the wines, but only when called on.

  As a mark of respect the other members of staff always addressed the butler as ‘sir’.

  The Housekeeper

  The duties of a housekeeper, and the meaning of the term, varied widely depending on whether she was employed in a middle-class home or a ‘big house’. Widowed or single men of means often had a housekeeper who would provide the most basic functions of a housewife, keeping the home clean, cooking meals, looking after children and, in some cases, even sharing the bed.

  In wealthy households, however, the housekeeper was the head of the domestic staff, and would run the establishment with military precision. She was in charge of the kitchen staff and the maids and was assisted in her domination by the cook and, in some instances, by the head housemaid. According to the 1825 householders’ bible, The Complete Servant, she should be ‘a steady middle-aged woman, of great experience in her profession and a tolerable knowledge of the world’. The description was as relevant at the turn of the century as it was when it was written.

  One of her most important duties was to greet the master and mistress when they returned home from a journey, or even a day out, by standing at the top of the main staircase or inside the front door. She would also greet weekend guests in order to show them to their rooms. She invariably jangled with the many keys attached to her waist as she controlled the storerooms, china cupboards and linen cupboards and carried keys for all of the rooms in the building. She kept the household accounts and oversaw orders to tradesmen. She was also the sole keeper of the ‘still-room’ where the preserves, fruit wines and cordials were kept.

  The housekeeper was addressed as ‘Mrs’ regardless of marital status and often inspired more fear from the ‘unders’ than the mistress or the butler. In his memoirs Albert Thomas, who went on to become a butler at Brasenose College, Oxford, recalled having to wash the butler’s gout-stricken feet during his time as a footman to the Duke of Norfolk. Afterwards he joked to the other servants that he was pleased the old man wasn’t a centipede, so unpleasant had been his task, but his jocular remark was overheard by the tyrannical housekeeper. He wrote, ‘I would rather his grace had heard us, he was human but her, Oh Lor’ we did cop it.’

  The 6th Marquess of Bath remembered being intimidated by one formidable lady in his father’s employ at Longleat:

  ‘Everyone, including us, was terrified of the housekeeper, Mrs Parker, dead a long time now I’m afraid,’ he revealed. ‘She would go round the house running her fingers along the tops of the shelves to see that they were dusted. The housemaids used to tremble.’

  Housemaids

  In the best houses both chambermaids and parlourmaids would be employed, as well as ‘between-stairs maids’ or ‘tweenies’ who performed tasks in both the kitchen and the rest of the house, and the lowly maid-of-all-work. Parlourmaids were responsible for the reception rooms of the house, such as the drawing room, dining room, morning room and library, should there be one. She would dust and sweep each day, clear out the grates and light the fire in each room. She would also wash woodwork, clean lamps and polish tables in the rooms. The chambermaid had similar duties in the bedrooms, beginning each day by taking buckets of hot water and tea trays to the family and the guests, then lighting the fires, making the bed, cleaning the bedrooms and dusting under the bed.

  As staffs shrunk in the early twentieth century, however, the two jobs were combined in the title ‘housemaid’, so that the duties overlapped. If the family could afford it, there may have been a first, second and third housemaid, with their ranks made clear in their titles. The lower housemaids would clean the rooms of those above them. Margaret Thomas was employed as a kitchen maid and, even though she was below the parlourmaids, she still outranked the lowest of the housemaids.

  ‘I learned there was a footman as well as a butler […] I had their bedroom to keep clean, which was in the basement,’ she recounted in The Day Before Yesterday edited by Noel Streatfeild. ‘My own bedroom was at the top of the house but the under housemaid cleaned it. I only had to make my bed.’

  The Cook

  There were two types of cook to be found in the kitchen of the grander homes – professed cooks and plain cooks. The professed cook was an expert at creating the fine dining experience the upper-class employers needed for entertaining but would not turn her hand to general kitchen work or even ‘plain cooking’, and had the ingredients prepared in advance by a kitchen maid or under-cook. The plain cook was often
kept on for the day-to-day meals and for cooking for the servants. For families who could only afford one cook, an all-rounder was sought but not always found. Margaret Thomas remembered one household where she was employed as a kitchen maid but was surprised to find her duties included cooking for dinner parties. ‘This I discovered was because she [the cook] could only do plain cooking and so had always employed a kitchen maid who could cook.’

  The cook was absolute ruler in the territory of the kitchen and some were just as tyrannical as many housekeepers. At fourteen, Londoner Beatrice Gardner worked for a cook who made her polish the kitchen range with a piece of velvet to give it a perfect shine. ‘I used to run and hide in the coalhouse if I upset any milk or gravy. Her rage had to be seen to be believed.’

  As well as preparing the main meals, the cook would come up with a daily menu that was then presented to the mistress of the house for approval or alteration. Between mealtimes she would make jams and preserves, pastries and soups in advance.

  Kitchen and Scullery Maids

  The kitchen maid was a cook’s closest assistant, and was employed to prepare all the ingredients before she started preparing the meal. She would chop vegetables, herbs and any meat that needed to be cut. She would also help with cooking, perhaps by boiling vegetables, preparing coffee and easier items such as toast, and she would often be expected to cater for the servants while the cook concentrated on the many courses to go upstairs. She would cut sandwiches for tea and, if no scullery maid were employed, would also be responsible for the washing up.