My grandmother was illegitimate and was brought up by an aunt. After a bout of scarlet fever at age 12 she became profoundly deaf. Nevertheless she was sent, at the age of 14, to a house about 10 miles away to be a maid. The loneliness and lowliness of an illegitimate, deaf 14 year old house maid is beyond what I can imagine.
I’m deaf and just been spoken at nastily (I can lip read) and in tears now, I can’t imagine how it must have been for your grandmother. No BSL, probably no ability to write and read no support.
@@2ndRodeo_Keziah It is possible. But maybe unlikely. Still, people usually find ways to manage things. Little out to help themselves. We may never know exactly.
A sad reminder of the huge toll of infectious diseases before modern vaccines. It was not uncommon for half of the children born in a family to not reach adulthood (for my own great-grandfather, the family tombstones show 5 of the total 7 children died of infectious illnesses). And more commonly, previously healthy children would spend the rest of their lives deaf, or blind, or infertile (especially if little boys caught measles) or paralyzed (polio), and many other complications for those caught the infectious disease but lived.
Imagine having enough skill with needle and thread to be able to write legibly by sewing. Domestics had skills that went utterly unappreciated and unacknowledged. A huge segment of the population was utterly taken for granted.
Embroidery is a really important form of women's art, as it's been basically the only form of art open to women for at least most of modern European history, also mostly true through the medieval period (before that we don't have a ton of art or the recorded names of artists so it's harder to say, and I don't know a lot about art outside Europe). Of course a lot of embroidery is more decoration than making a profound statement, but we certainly have surviving embroidery pieces in which women told us exactly what they were thinking. I think my favorite is "Patty Polk did this and she hated every stitch she did in it. She loves to read much more." Done by a 10-year-old girl circa 1800 in Maryland, it's a beautiful sampler with garlands of flowers and a tombstone (it's actually sort of funny how early-mid modern period motifs cover a whole ton of plant life, some animals and figures, and then a bunch of death symbols -- it was very pious to make something beautiful with a skull or a tombstone or an hourglass on it because a good Christian should never forget that they have to die and face God one day). Modern embroiderers and cross-stitchers can still write with a needle and thread if we want to, but we have the benefit of the internet and books where people have come up with millions of alphabets that we can just copy, lol.
Really fascinating. The phrase, "A man just works from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done" also applies to domestic help. Thank goodness for unions, the "permission" for women to now work married or not, laws and such that protect workers, health insurance, and so many other things - all this in addition to washing machines, dish washers, grocery stores, cars, and who knows what else.
My grandmother (born in 1898) 'went into service', as she always referred to it, and lived very much the kind of life described here. It was more or less the only option for a working class girl from rural Somerset. Later she became a lady's maid - a promotion, of sorts - to the first wife of Guglielmo Marconi, Beatrice O'Brien, while the Marconis were living in Britain. She travelled around Europe with the Marconis, but always had to carry out her duties, so she never really *saw* Europe. The one exception to this was an occasion when she and another maid were sent back to Britain by themselves, as a kind of advance guard to prepare for the family's return. In those days the idea of two young girls - and servants, at that - travelling across Europe without any men in attendance was downright scandalous - and my grandmother was duly scandalised. I think she was so scandalised that it never occurred to her to enjoy this interlude of freedom. Many decades later she would still tell the story in shocked tones: "And we didn't know a soul on the train! Not a SOUL!"
My grandmother was born in 1889 and after meeting a random minister on the road, chose to travel with him and his mother as their house maid as they traveled all around NSW for his minister duties. The mother had just lost her youngest son to WW1, her husband on hearing the news of his death, and 2 sons to accidents leaving just two sons remaining. One had left for another state leaving just her and her minister son (my grandfather). It was seen as scandalous even in a fairly progressive Australia because she wasn't married to him. When the mother eventually passed away she married him and they had my father in 1933.
What did she do after O'Brien and Marconi separated? Did she get another job? Stay with a lady in the Marconi household? Follow O'Brien? I've always wanted to know what happened to personal servants after a separation since a newly single person may no longer have the resources for a servant, especially a now-divorced woman with a ladies' maid.
@@loudemopsychic As far as I know she went back to the agency which found her the Marconi job, and got another job with another household. The Marconis, who had a reputation of being very considerate to their servants, which definitely wasn't usual at the time, gave her very good references. But she wasn't in service for much longer, because shortly after this she met my grandfather - a widower with three children - married him, and had three more children, one of whom was my mum. So after the international jet set (well, ship-and-train-set) period with the Marconis, she ended up as the wife of a farmworker, living in a succession of tied cottages in rural Somerset. This was well into the 20th century, but in many ways the life was still very 19th century. The cottages didn't have electricity - my mum told stories of carrying a candle upstairs to bed. It was all very Dickensian. Then WW2 happened, and everything changed again...
This is soo fascinating. I bet she loved telling you those stories. And I am so glad you remembered them so well. I would read a book about your grandmother’s experiences back then. ❤️🥹
This made me think about all of the cleaners, security guards, canteen staff and other "as a service" gig roles people now work. We don't have a cook in house but instead order takeaways, we don't have many nannies but instead large nurseries / schools, we don't hire a driver but instead order a minicab driver.
People never used to have those things. WEALTHY people had, and still have those things. If you don't have enough money to hire a cook, private security, a nanny, and a driver, you did those things yourself.
My grandmother, a farmer's wife until 1973, remembered with horror having to spend the entirety of every second weekend doing laundry, the gas-heated copper the only technology (as late as the mid-60s). She fully embraced washing machines, dishwashers, microwave ovens ect. and didn't care to bake, can or make jam. She didn't even cook often, her 2nd husband was mostly the cook. She had done plenty of that back when it was not a choice, but a necessity.
That embroidery sampler diary entry is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The dedication to writing a stream-of-consciousness account of your life and internal thoughts when you can't actually write at the speed of your thoughts, and then to be putting down pretty subversive thoughts about workplace abuse, child abuse, implied sexual assault of a minor, trauma (dissociation, flashbacks, the inability to work, etc), suicidality, and the guilt and shame associated with all that, and to say all that in little tiny cross stitched letters is nothing short of amazing and heartbreaking. I do wonder why she stopped in the middle of her thoughts, while she still had quite a bit of fabric left. I'm certainly glad to know it's not because she finally ended her life, but that she was able to leave domestic service, become a teacher, and live into her 70s. I wonder how and why the sampler was kept and preserved so well before it came into the hands of the V&A as well.
Honestly what frightens me the most is thought of the potential abuse that happens behind closed doors. In a factory you have your co-workers to back you up in adispute. If you work in domestic service often times it's just your word against theirs. And I fear we all know whose reputation people will belikely to believe. If it's just you than no ones there to help you.
AND because everything runs on word-of-mouth and character references, even if there are other servants neither the victim of abuse nor their coworkers will be keen to speak out against it or offer any resistance, because they might lose any prospect of finding a job in service again if their employer decides to badmouth them. at least in the factory there might be some sort of legal recourse, or other figures of authority you could appeal to. and you could always leave and find work somewhere else, since you were just another pair of hands anyway, who cares about a reference!
We still live in a culture where people often tolerate the violation of their rights in the work-place since they don't want to lose their job, and often won't even sue their employer after being fired, because of the very same threat of being deprived of a recommendation letter (if they can even afford a lawyer). Now imagine also having to live at your workplace, you can't even go home and unwind because you have no home and no time to yourself.
I was employed by an agency at various factories all over England during the last recession. Work with an agency was very, very casual and often at the discretion of your direct manager, you would turn up to work at the start of the shift and they would pick who they wanted out of a lineup and everyone else went home with no work or money. I know that there were women sexually exploited for the chance to work, ie, if you gave me a BJ last night, you can work today. And these people are still walking about with all their skin and limbs today.
My great-great grandmother was an English maid working in an aristocratic country house at the tail end of the Victorian era. What we know for a fact is that one of the men in that family got her pregnant, and the family arranged for her to be quietly shipped off to the US to avoid scandal. Given the massive difference in power between them, it isn't hard to fill in the blanks as to how she got pregnant. So yeah ... abuse was almost certainly rampant, and almost completely unreported. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that upper class families managed to sweep even murders of servants under the rug. Servants of middle class families probably had it better, but only because their employers didn't have the money to make the more obvious consequences disappear. The most they could do is slander you to the community and any future employers.
@@andrewb1921 My 7xgreat grandmother was in a similar position, but about a century earlier. She was a chambermaid, and was impregnated by a visiting Earl. Interestingly, while she was dismissed from service, she was also given ownership of a shop in the local village, and came up to the castle weekly to present her son and to recieve a stipend. I'm not sure whether that means he liked her a lot but was not able to marry her due to the class difference, or whether her employer just felt really bad about what had happened to her.
My Mother left home in Wales to become a housemaid in England as a BET. She was 14 and didn’t come from a poor family. She and one other 14 year old girl ran a house for a Lord and Lady. Both girls were treated very badly and starved. When Mother became sick and returned to Wales fir a few days, to everyone’s horror she had a bloated stomach . My Nan took her to doctors. No she wasn’t pregnant but was suffering severe malnutrition . This was because she was starving. That goodness my Nan forbade her to return to work.
@@LinkoofHyrule A bet, I understand; it was probably written in capital letters to emphasise how a "small" deal between two teenagers can have such desasterous consequences.
Wow that Lord and Lady must’ve been doing a lot to keep up the pomp and circumstance. What Lady and what Lord has an inexperienced 14 year old run their home? Probably owed a lot to the bank, I bet. What losers.
An Open University tutor of mine once remarked that unless you are a member of the Royal Family, you are no more than four generations away from a domestic servant. Researching my family history, I found he was absolutely correct. Great video. I have subscribed and am off to watch another on your channel.
Is this solely the case in the UK, or is this also true worldwide? I don't know what all of my ancestors did, but most people in my family worked in industrial settings until very recently rather than as domestic servants.
That tracks pretty well actually. well, I do believe quite a lot of my great grandparents etc. had some experience as servants, for some time atleast. the only ecxeption might be my paternal granfathers direct male ancestors, as they have owned a farm and its associated pastures in some form since at least the black death. When my grandad was a kid, in the 1920s and early 30s, they even had servants, one farmhand and one maid.
@@jequirity1 Well, if there was a rural family with more children, chances are at least some of them went to become domestic servants - and since they rarely had kids, their part of the lineage died out and they were mostly forgotten. There was only a number of people who were able to inherit land and if you were, let’s say, a fourth girl in the family, your chances of marriage weren’t very high.
@@jequirity1I can't say anything about other people, but it does pretty much apply to me here in Hungary. My grandmother's grandmother was a cook in a castle/mansion. My mother told me that she was illiterate (which wasn't uncommon in that era at all) so the small jars she kept the spices in had nothing written on them and she was the only one who knew which is which.
@jequirity1 industry isn't so old. Thought time has occurred so it may be 5 or 6 generations by now. At 31, I have a picture as a small baby with 5 generations of my family. Veterans, coal miners, waitresses and wash women. And that's Pennsylvania, US.
This was so fascinating! I volunteer with an activist group that works on labor rights for domestic workers in the US, and so much of what you mention here -- the isolation making it difficult to organize and easy for abuses to stay hidden, the long hours and unreasonable standards, the power dynamic that leans on the "almost like family" aspects of the job to further exploit workers -- is still very much with us today. The treatment we saw during covid was like seeing the paint stripped off and the same old attitudes made bare again.
My great grandma was a domestic in Canada in the 30s. My great grandpa has said multiple times that he felt he had to marry her very quickly because he was afraid her employers would literally work her to death.
@@missmelodies52 I asked because no one in the UK seems to realize how many kids bloody Barnardos and their vile minions sent over here as "British Home Children" to be worked, beaten, frozen, or starved to death. Barnardos is actually considered a non-controversial charity there!
@@spaceman081447 here's what I found on the British Home Children program: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Children#:~:text=Home%20Children%20was%20the%20child,New%20Zealand%2C%20and%20South%20Africa.
Speaking of the hard work, I was reminded of this sad poem (it was left as a suicide note) On a Tired Housewife Here lies a poor woman who was always tired, She lived in a house where help wasn’t hired: Her last words on earth were: ‘Dear friends, I am going To where there’s no cooking, or washing, or sewing, For everything there is exact to my wishes, For where they don’t eat there’s no washing of dishes. I’ll be where loud anthems will always be ringing, But having no voice I’ll be quit of the singing. Don’t mourn for me now, don’t mourn for me never, I am going to do nothing for ever and ever.’
I’ve looked this poem up and there’s hardly any information about it. It’s mentioned by Virginia Woolf in a letter to Robert Cecil where she says that it was found pinned to the body of a ‘Charwoman’ following a suicide - as you said. It says that the coroner found that the woman in question was ‘mad’ and Woolf decries that’s what it takes to be a poet these days….
My Grandmother was deserted in the Depression years by her husband and managed to raise six children as a Cleaning Lady. No Child Support. She demanded her three girls go to college as she said so they didn't have to clean toilets. My Mother and Aunts also cleaned when in High School and college in the summers.
@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 Thank you very much! She did any odd jobs she could find. The women relatives were pretty strong, It was never spoken out loud but women shouldn't depend on a man. They were traditional homemakers but if something happened could support themselves. I felt the same way. She made the best homemade bread and rolls. Long hair in braids wrapped around her head in a house dress and apron. Bohemian heritage.
@@georgiafrye2815 I fully agree about women being independent. Both my grandmothers put their foot down, and left their husbands. In the early1930's.... My mum was sent to New York, to live with friends of my Nana. (Who worked as a doctor's housekeeper in Spitsbergen. Then post WW2 becoming a stewardess onboard oil tanker the "Tank Monarch". Where she met her second husband to be. Who happened to be dad's uncle) ! Mum was just 5 on arrival in Brooklyn, (the Norwegian enclave in N.Y. But she returned fluent in English ! Dad was raised by his grandparents, while his mum made a living as a nurse. Love from Norway 🇧🇻
I was a ‘steward’ at Kew Gardens working on weddings and with a few exceptions most Bride/Groom’s & families (especially mother of the bride) treated you like you were a servant it used to give me great pleasure saying no you can’t do that I was there to protect the Grade 2 listed building Cambridge Cottage where the original Dukes of Cambridge lived (and Queen Victoria visited there a few times for funerals/weddings) no matter what they paid the building came first
@@Iluvthe1960s is that by any chance the building with the large painting in one of the rooms?? Because if so, I snuck in one day when nobody seemed to be around and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the building. Was I allowed to be in there? I'd *NEVER* do anything to cause any sort of problems for the staff (and I suppose the owner), but I wondered whether I should actually be allowed in there, or I somehow "got lucky" and was never caught!
My aunt worked as a servant in a large house in her late teens just before the great depression. My dad said she was paid "buttons" but got food and a place to sleep. After she moved to the US she worked as a server at banquets until she retired in the late 1980s. I remember my dad teaching me to polish men's shoes. We used 2 (not 3) brushes and a soft cloth along with a small tin of black shoe polish. He did this frequently so his shoes would be shiny. I think he learned from his dad (a Scottish soldier from the 1880s until he was wounded at Gallipoli) or maybe my dad learned while he was in the RAF in the 50s. His first job in the US was as a butler for the DuPont family. He worked as an "expeditor" at several companies until he retired in the late 90s. This meant he was responsible for coordinating supply orders for the section of the company. He actually had been trained as an air traffic controller in the RAF but here in the US you had to be a citizen to be an air traffic controller.
Omg, I used to be so obsessive about "bulling" my shoes and boots. I used 3 brushes and two cloths - 1. Brushing off dirt etc 2. Adding the polish or "dubbin". 3. This brush was wrapped in the third cloth to gently buff the polish and blend it well on scuffs. The second cloth was a chamois and used as the final polishing cloth to get that perfect, mirror shine. Used to take me two hours to fully do a pair of doc martens. I was 12, but hated anyone else polishing my shoes, or ironing my school uniform. My sleeve and trouser creases were razor sharp. 😂
She told me, "I was in service for several years after school but then someone started a war and I went to the factory and made shells. Thousands of them".
The stitched diary of Elizabeth Parker is an incredible work of art. She wrote that she thought of or attempted suicide multiple times and felt a great deal of guilt and fear of god. She must have had a very sad life. The website I read said she lived to be 76.
My maternal grandmother and eldest of at least 10 siblings that I can recall, was sent to a "big house" to be a domestic from the age of 8/9. In the summers she would live there, and learnt from the very bottom. When school was in session, she'd go there on a Friday, and return home on a Sunday. My great grandmother died when my gran was 13/14, and so she had to leave school to look after her siblings, and instead of living at the "big house", she'd work there as soon as the kids were dressed and ready for school, and then the second and third eldest would care for them until she got home in the evening. On laundry day, the owners of the "big house" would ask gran to bring her siblings up to help, and they'd get a ha'penny or (half penny- pronounced "hayp-neigh") each for helping. As all the siblings grew older, the boys would work on coal lorries, as milk boys, and the girls into domestic work or even childcare. I never realised how hard a life my gran had had, until I met my mother in law. She went to school with gran, and lived near her, too. She told me a lot of what my gran had to do to survive after losing both parents and prevent the siblings being taken away to an orphanage. The "big house" still stands, but I think it's converted into flats now. I remember my gran telling me that it was a "rite of passage" to become a domestic girl, and if a parent/s couldn't work, the kids were fully expected to do their part. My gran knew how to cook and clean before becoming a domestic, but she learned so much more when she started working. I remember her telling me that she was so tired sll the time, but that's whst life was like and everybody accepted it.
I live in the US, and my grandmother and mother were as you say, 'servants." When grandmother could no longer work, my mother took her place, my father had a job as a city employee. My mother cooked, did 'light' house keeping and watched their youngest child. When my mother first started, she did not do the cooking, but at some point the master of the house asked my mother if she could cook for them, along with the other duties. My mother's reply was yes, she could, but she told him, that she was only able to do, 'plan' cooking, aka, she was not a 'fancy' cook. He said that was fine. Of note, my mother was a great cook, but she felt that her skills were not up to their standards, but they were, and they enjoyed what she prepared. Eventually my mother gave it up, and moved on. Before my grandmother died, she made my sister and I promise that we would never, 'clean anyone's floors, but our own, and I knew that she was referring to her years as a 'servant.' Ms. B, Churchill
After the Napier earthquake in the 1930s in New Zealand a local wealthy family donated lots of food to the victims and received much acclaim. My great grandmother who was the cook for the whole farm and frequently covered for her husband when he'd had too much to drink, was given the task of making all the food to be donated in addition to all her arduous regular tasks. No thanks or assistance offered.
Actually the unstitch the triming kind of dress still exist but now we have dry cleaners that can work with delicate lace and such Yes, I looking at you ridiculously fragile wedding dress and lolita dress with delicate lace
@cathpalug1221, when the video mentioned that servants rarely moved up in society, I was like wait what about marrying the boss ?(like Maria from the sound of music, Jane eyre or Evangeline the maid from the first nanny macfee movie) they go from being the halp to getting hitched to the master of the house.😂😂.
@@nataliapanfichi9933 it's quite rare actually since at that time, you married people around your class. Yes, the master of the house or his children can fool around with servants but usually such child count as illegitimate It's still happening nowadays tho so not surprised. Even those who is a middle class commoner that marries royalty often got a side eye from purebred nobles
Wow I love this I work as a housekeeper/nanny/support worker/cook for families and what you said in the end is so true the work is never ever done and employees want to get everything they can from you it's also nearly impossible to change anything as you don't have contact with other workers.
I inherited my mum's cook book. A wedding gift. From her mum, presumably... It's an 18th edition ! With lots of recipes we'd think wasted today. Like slaughtering. Making conserves. Laying out a table for a Ladies Lunch. Or a childrens' birthday... Napkins and place cards and little porcelain figurines to amuse the children... My favourite recipe is how to prepare a seagull roast ! L🍩ve from Norway 🇧🇻 📚🫖🍪👵
Seagull roast? Usually any fowl that eat fish taste TERRIBLE. (I'm thinking of grebes, which my duck-hunting father wouldn't touch.) A rubber tire would probably taste better.
I have got lots of 19th and early to 1950s housekeeping cum cookery books, my faves are a 1930's Mrs Beeton book, a 1930's School of Domestic service and a 1930's Keeping house with Elizabeth Craig. Who was she?!
My husband had fond memories of reading The Phoenix and the Carpet, so when the kids were old enough, we got it out from the library. With any book that old, I read it first to see if there's anything I need to discuss with them. I don't remember whether it was that book or Five Children and It, but in one scene the children arrive at home when they're supposed to be in another city, and the housemaid has gone to a party. They end up blackmailing her about this "inappropriate" behaviour, and it struck me. Not just because of the idea that it was horribly inappropriate for a servant to have time off, but because the author, according both to her biography at the back of the book and things that she includes in the story, was a socialist. She believed in better conditions for the working class. But that understanding apparently didn't extend to those in service.
My grandmother was 14 when she was sent to Paris in the sixties to be the cleaner of some rich guy. As every cleaner, she lived in a "chambre de bonne", basically the attic. She hadn't the right to use the elevator (that wouldn't go all the way to the her room anyway) and had to use small staircases that weren't directly connected to the flat you were working to. (These places are now mostly rented to students, and they still don't have elevators, it's too small to make the place for one.) She was very sad and lonely, didn't want to go to Paris all alone, and it still weights on her now that she is in her eighties. When she talks about it, you can see it's still hurting her. But after getting her three children (from a guy that couldn't keep it in his pants (we learned about a new family member some five years ago) that she would divorce years later and would need to beg for the money he owed her every month), she studied and she went to nurse school, and became a nurse. It was "late" in life, but she still managed to do something she wanted, and I think that's incredible because she didn't have an easy life.
Another great lesson from a fantastic teacher! I'm from the USA, but have read many books written in the UK by people who lived through this period, as well as during its decline and after. The social settings were described as the writers saw and accepted them, and the subject of domestic servants has always fascinated me. From Dickens to Conan Doyle to Virginia Woolf, and many others, servants were as constant a presence as the food, clothing, and clean rooms they provided. Just a part of the setting. Reading between the lines, their social status can be discerned, as well as the authors' feelings about them as a class. Sociology in the background.
Wow. I'm a stay-at-home mom (having left my profession as an elementary school teacher to do so) and the 'work never being done' is something I relate with so much. Even with a small cottage-sized house and only two children, a toddler and a newborn, I feel like I'm never going to catch up on all the work that my home would need to be perfectly run. It's all I can do sometimes to make the meals for the day, nurse the baby, clean the house, and keep the toddler from doing something dangerous, bathe the children, keep the fish alive and healthy, do the gardening, plan developmentally appropriate activities and outings for the kids, do the laundry, meal planning, and shopping, etc. That's before I get time to read and sew and watch and make UA-cam videos. I'm really glad for our robot vacuum that sweeps for me, I can't imagine having to do that every day with a messy toddler. My husband does help but I tend to notice more of the things that need doing, plus he's in his home office working most of the day.
Isn’t that all what you bought into when you made the choice to get pregnant and quit your job? Was any of this really a surprise? I chose not to have children 35 years ago because we have always known about this exchange. Listing it out only serves you.
Not sure what’s wrong with these replies, it’s very natural to want kids and not everyone is told truthfully about how much work it is. And just because it could be worse doesn’t mean things are okay! It sounds very overwhelming and it sounds like you could do with some help. I really hope you can get the support you need from your community and your husband! I’ve noticed every mother I know says their lives were turned upside down when they had kids. But only some fathers say that. If your husband doesn’t feel how you feel I honestly would question if he’s fully transitioned into parenthood! You might find it helpful to learn about mental load and invisible labour if you’re not familiar with those ideas already? I find it really helpful language to have when I talk with my partner about how household tasks are divided! And I imagine it would be even more relevant to parenting. I’m not a mum myself but I’ve worked with a lot of kids and families so I see how challenging it is, especially when you’re the “default” parent, and especially these days. Take care and good luck!!
Wow, that V&A sampler... malicious compliance: Master level. She should be angry and bitter inside, and yet she was able to produce that labour of love and beauty. It gives so much to think about.
@@donaldhysa4836 but why would I be angry and bitter? Where do you even get that I am angry and bitter? This story does not affect me personally. One minute of thinking before you type will make you look ten times less foolish online.
@@jorgecalero6325 Because you assume people you dont know and have never met are angry and bitter for no good reason. You are projecting your own feelings on them
6:40 Somehow it never occurred to me that an equivalent to the Tyranny of the Rocket Equation (i.e. you need fuel to lift the payload, then fuel to lift the fuel, then fuel to lift THAT fuel...) also applied to the domestic needs of the domestic servants
Hotels nowadays are run similar to how a Victorian House was run by servants. Waiters, Room attendants, cooks/chefs, Kitchen porters ( a bit like a scullery maid as it's mainly washing up), Housekeeping. Tips from guests.
Slight nitpick on the butter: I doubt it would have been that hard, as I doubt it would have been refrigerated. Butter needn't be chilled (unless you're making a pastry) and can be kept in a larder, on on a counter in a container like a butter dish. It won't go rancid. I kept my block butter like this for many years at university. It remains soft and easy to spread, easier even than spreadable varieties we have today.
My modern way of making butter is to toss heavy cream and salt into the mixer. But they have to make the heavy cream, and hand churn it. Which takes forever. Edit because I was curious Well into the 19th century butter was still made from cream that had been allowed to stand and sour naturally. The cream was then skimmed from the top of the milk and poured into a wooden tub. so that then hours of churning.
@@BimboCommentaryYep! When you took the butter out of the churn you had to wash it well to remove all traces of buttermilk, which goes rancid much faster than butter. Then you kneaded in the salt, which acted as a preservative. I’m not sure how they prevented butter from going rancid over long periods, but preventing exposure to air is key. That said, I’m surprised England didn’t discover ghee on its own. Jarred ghee keeps for years.
Excellent. One thing not noted - one way the very wealthy of the period displayed their wealth was by owning a home with dozens, if not hundreds of guest rooms. It was an era before the hotel after all, and interestingly the closest modern equivalent to a Victorian home is the hotel.
You know the thing about needing approval from your previous job to get hired is actually a lot like what we're doing nowadays. There are no entry level jobs
And there are still so many people who treat anyone working in a "service" profession like this today. I'm glad that at least the outsourced service workers have a bit of leverage nowadays
My grandmother was a lady's maid, and later a nurse to the woman she cared for. My grandmother was given flappers string of pearls, not real pearls of course.she was given several pretty dresses as well. The lady remembered my grandmother in her will. She was given $500. A very nice sum in those days.
While the names of the job and specifics have changed, sometimes it feels like the attitudes have not changed. I've worked in house cleaning and honestly it can be absolutely humiliating. Especially if you end up with someone who sees themselves as the boss of you rather than a contracted service. Like Eliza I long since realized I was never going to get an apology for their behavior, ever.
Excellent piece : ) I remember watching the series, 'Manor House' and being shocked at the ending where the 'Lady' of the house was literally crying over the loss of such an elegant age while the servants couldn't wait to get away. Great job expressing the despair of that age!
A quick look in the BNA reveals "The Servant Problem" being discussed quite extensively from 1900-1940. The "problem" is getting good, cheap servants, and (conversely) how to manage without them...
Been watching your films for some time. First time I've felt moved to comment. You have such a talent for engaging story telling and applause to the professional productions.
Some of these quotes are So Similar to how were expected to act in the service industry. Down to the spa I work at forcing employees to use fake names if there is another employee with the same name so as not to confuse clients
I watched this last night and i keep finding myself thinking about it today. I have never throught about the effort it took to maintain hourses, furniture and clothes before we had plastics and synthetic fabrics. I also never knew how much they had to make scratch houses had to be little cottage industries just by themselves. Fascinating!
I really enjoyed this. I loved it. Thank you so much for sharing this video essay with me. All of your obvious hard work here is genuinely appreciated. Thanks again, 🙂🐿🌈❤️ P.s one thing that I cannot believe is that you went out and actually purchased (presumably) a tub of “I can’t believe it’s not butter”, in order to add a 2 second visual layer to a perfectly understandable verbal gag 😳 Now that’s dedication ❤lol
Thanks for the informative video!! I love learning about how ordinary people lived back in the days. The jobs they worked, their hobbies, the way they dressed. There is a lot of content made about the nobility of past eras and much less about the regular people and how their lifes were! So thanks! 😊
Main duties my grandmother had when she started in service in the mid-1920's when 14 - the fireplaces, all of them, couple of dozen at least. From well before 6am in the morning until late.
Actually, "in-house" employment isn't gone, it's just rare. I once had a job as an "in-house" nanny. Had my own apartement within the families big apartement. No expenses except my phone bill. It was my best-paid job ever.
This was absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much for doing a more in depth look at life below stairs. I've seen many programmes, documentaries and of course, Upstairs Downstairs! I find the way you describe and relay information really interesting but also easy to understand, it's like you each to convey your very passion for history to others. I marvel at how much information you squeeze into sports, this was bliss for me. I would do a walking tour with you in a heartbeat, and my husband agrees, but I'm a Londoner born and raised, worked in the City for a while and know it pretty well. I know walking tours, by their nature, are hard to make accessible and I'm now a wheelchair user. I can't currently go out, but when I can, if there are any walks you consider accessible (no stairs, if you think a big clunky electric wheelchair will do it, we'll try it, if it fails we just go home, no biggie). I hope to make one of your tours or talks or however you do things at some point, until then, videos I can get lost in are treats I will watch several times. I really love your commitment to costume and your ability to convey the human in all its glorious, sad, mad or bad and reality of the their lives. Thank you so much, brilliant video! 👏
The choice of doing almost all of this as voiceover while you perform various tasks a servant had to do, which we no longer do today, was really cool and powerful. I was cross stitching along in solidarity!
@@MorganChaoseven sneakers need to be cleaned with a toothbrush and saddle soap and shoelaces washed because then you’re walking around with filthy shoes. 😂 “We” still polish our leather shoes, dust and polish our wood furniture, scrub our floors, and even mend (sew) our clothes. None of that has changed for many of us people who keep a tidy home and appearance. The only difference is we as the owners now do it instead of a housemaid.
@@3810-dj4qz The vast majority of people are not cleaning their sneakers with a toothbrush lol. Most of us just accept that sneakers don't look new forever. Not to mention I'm not sure how that would work on sneakers that are mostly fabric.
@@MorganChaosyou wash them the same way, rinse, then just let them dry. Some people put them in the washing machine, but I dont recommend it because it can ruin the sole glue. You dont have to accept your shoes looking worn out. Take a bit of time to clean them (heck while watching tv). Saves a lot of money and a person with clean shoes, ironed clothing, brushed hair, etc…always looks more presentable. Many of “us” still exist. We are the ones NOT wearing pajamas to the market. 😂
Reality check as always! But I'm also deeply grateful for the first explanation I've ever heard of why servants were a big deal, then ubiquitous, then suddenly gone from view. It's as fascinating as everything else about the servant class. Kerry Greenwood shows a lot of both the disastrous working conditions servants had, and their hidden depths, in her Phryne Fisher novels, set in roaring-twenties Australia. Phryne's lady's maid, Dot, is a respected font of information regarding forensic housekeeping, and Phryne's compassionate and respectful attitude toward her servants contrasts sharply with the other upper class characters' households.
Servants or jobs of servants aren’t gone from view everywhere. If you go to Mexico, almost every middle class house has a maid and/or cook. Of course the conditions are better and it’s not seen as a low job. Just a job to make some extra cash.
I have been a maid of all work and lady’s maid and companion for $500 CAD a month plus room and board. This was working for an elderly woman with a disability who lived in a remote wilderness home with no electricity and no plumbing. I also was the gardener, the groundskeeper, the mechanic, the curator of her museum and the chamber maid of her rental cabins. I cut brush, hauled firewood, cut firewood, dug a garbage pit, pumped gasoline, maintained the propane fridges and range, did laundry by hand in a wringer washer with a hand crank and a scrub board, hauled bath water and chamber pots, and cooked all the meals and did all the dishes, picked berries and made jam, managed the greenhouse and vegetable garden, changed out wood stoves and chimneys in cabins, babysat her grandchildren, sorted her warehouse and storage shed, and entertained her guests. I was on call and working 24/7. But I was allowed to read books and go swimming and ride the ATV when there were slow times. I was allowed to talk her, that was part of my job, I was a companion because I was the only other human for a hundred miles. She treated me like garbage and her daughter in law told me frankly that I was an idiot to stay. But I survived the season and she gave me a gold nugget for a bonus at the end of the summer. I did not return for second season even though I was invited. I went on to become a housemaid and nurse maid to a family in town who expected me to do all the housework and care for their four children and six more who came into the house during the day. The father was an alcoholic and sexually abusive and violent and the male friends put their hands on me. I have done the servant thing. It is as bad a it seems.
I had no idea of how the concept of Victorian servants “worked“ until I watched all six seasons of Downton Abbey. Your explanation here covers more of the lower cast of workers and what their jobs entailed than the television show did. It concentrated on a large house with a large staff and never really showed the jobs of the “lesser servants”. It did however show the long hours, low pay, and the living conditions of service in a large upper class house, with unusually generous employers.
Thank you for this wonderful and instructive video. It is spot on. I am a Norwegian and recognize this system from my relatives who came from both top and bottom of society. It is mostly forgotten now, also that the renting farmers and workers called this “ slave contracts”. The payment was poor, but you had some kind of housing (it could be among the animals in the barn), food and clothes. The alternative was a life on the roads or in the forest where no-one could survive. So people saw it as they worked as slaves (the young female workers had to accept that the farmers used them as sex toys as well). If the work was especially hard, tiresome and boring without any pay, they called it “nigger arbeid” (negro work), which was a tribute to those who withstood such work - and not looking down on black peoples that they of course never had met in their entire life. It is also mostly forgotten today, but the Free Soil movement in USA collected many poor Norwegian immigrants under the slogan: “No slavery for Blacks nor Whites”, fighting for this before, under and after the American Civil War. They new perfectly what is was, and for many this was the reason they left beautiful Norway where life was not as it is today. How it changed is another and interesting story of standing up for humanity, equality, and a proper life.
Tror likevel flertallet av britiske tjenere ble mer sett ned på og nedverdiget psykisk sett enn de norske.Selv om leve-og arbeidsvilkårene kanskje var vel så harde.
For a realistic view of domestic service, watch The Remains of the Day with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. “Do not let your feelings show” might be the strap line of the movie.
At a rather rarified level! I would love to see how many servants worked in lower middle class households (only small numbers per household) vs upper class households (higher numbers, fewer households). I'd also love to know how many 'farm servants' - my grandmother's role in the 1930s.
domestic servitude is still huge here in the middle east; even my family (who is considered middle class in the US) had a maid. she worked three days a week and cooked, cleaned, and did laundry. we ended up moving, but my father also had to give her a character!
Thank you so much for making this video! I just finished writing the first chapter of my book about a housemaid in the 1830s and came to the unpleasant realisation that I have no idea what she would be doing all day. It's a slightly different era but I assume most is transferrable! You've saved the book (or at least saved me days of research)!
I was an au pair during covid and while I was very lucky with the family I worked for, the feeling of isolation, of not really belonging to a family but still loving them, of your work never being done and of always being on call made me really relate to Victorian books about governesses. It also really made me aware of how the laws around those jobs are easy to exploit-my host family were amazing, but knowing that I was essentially at their mercy in a foreign country introduced an odd dynamic. Overall I had a great experience, but it wasn’t always easy. I can only imagine what it would’ve been like for someone in the 19th century with even less protections
This video gave me a perspective I feel would have been inaccessible to me unless I were to formally study this period of history. Thank you for this truly enlightening and easily-digestible window into this part of the past and the people who lived it.
My sister used to throw dinner parties for more than 30 people, and use inherited china, silver utensils, and so on. Your description reminds me of those. It was a lot of work.❤
Lovely bit of know-who and know-how for writers and such. Knowing the ins and outs of historical periods is quite useful and fascinating. And absolutely necessary if you are to present well-crafted historical fiction.
I watched this, fascinated and riveted, until the end. Found your channel a few days ago and this started. Whoa. Thank You Very Much for the education and the excellent production. Your care and attention is self-evident. Best Regards and Best Wishes!
Thanks for a great look at this, and I really enjoyed the bits from Mrs Beeton. When I was young, there was a very old woman who lived three doors down the street. She was really quite lovely. She was sent to Australia by the household when the young Master of the house behaved improperly, forcing the family to do something. They were reasonably good about it, compared to what happened to young women in other households. They secured her a place in Sydney, and gave her a good amount of money to help set herself up. She had a gold pin that she gave me, an arrow with a horseshoe, which she said was a gift from the family. This definitely happened in the early 20th C.
I just wanted to leave a comment to say how much I appreciate your channel, this is one of the first long form videos that I think requires a hearty rewatch from me. Also side note, your comment section rules are very helpful for the imagination to step into a good conversation.
I used to live in a servant's room while in uni. It was 8 square meters right next to the kitchen. BUT! I had a window! And also the smallest door in the whole apartment, only 170 cm high. The ceiling was around 3,5 meters high, so it looked ridiculous. But I've managed to stuff everything I owend there. Bed, clothes, books, food and writing desk with a computer. It took me two months to get used to the cramped space. The first few weeks I had to leave my door ajar just to stove off claustrophobia. In the end, I was glad that I was so far away from everyone else who lived in the apartment, because I had to get up at 4AM to get to work and this way I didn't disturbed anyone, especially on weekends.
Sooooo eye opening. It seems so much worse than I had previously thought, and that is saying something. I can't even imagine how those overworked and underpaid had the time or indeed, the energy to form any sort of ties with other people in any meaningful ways. I've always wondered what our society would look like if ALL people had done all these for themselves from day one??? Lots of food for thought. TFS ☺
I hope you’ve read: Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift. Very funny. (I believe he was a footman at one point) pre Victorian but not published till 1830 or thereabouts.
My friend has a family country Castle, as heirs to François Guizot and his grandchildren, the Schlumberger brothers. The bed where he died is still there, the castle still has s huge servants quarters. It's amazing. The kitchen has hardly been upgraded. There are still bells to announce meals where we must change before attending. And on the long table, there is a ring connected to the kitchen, so the elder at the meal will decide when it's time for the next service. 5 to 6 usually. They all come out at once, take our plates and bring a new one. It's like a ballet! That's 4 times a day! In between, we lay the clothes we want washed in a special cupboard. They come back pressed, mended, like new. I seriously felt like i was back in time. In a dream life.
My Gran was a Lady's Maid in the 1930s. To be honest, she didn't talk about it much but there were some advantages for her - one of the families she worked for travelled a lot, and she went with them (including sailing on the the Queen Mary). Then when she was widowed and self-employed doing dressmaking and repairs, the 'Lady' from that family sent business her way. I think it must have been quite a lonely job though, she was at the lady's beck and call, and they were travelling a lot so she was far from family and friends
It's not the Victorian era but my Nan run away from home in 1914 she was 14. She got a job in service and she worked her way up from under stairs maid to becoming Cook for The Bishop of London and she lived in Lambeth Palace until she married my granddad. When I was a child my mum used to watch Upstairs Downstairs in the 70's a precursor to Downton Abbey and she used to tell me about my nan
That moment when you are an extremely overworked, barely passing, aerospace engineering student, watching a history video to give your mind a moment of break from physics and math and then you hear "The more servants you have, the more servants you need to clean after those servants" and just start crying feeling haunted (for those who don't get it: "The more fuel you take, the more fuel you need to carry that fuel", or "tyranny of the rocket equation")
I love the breadth and depth of your knowledge of English history (and sometimes United Kingdom). As a historian your work is brilliant and very well produced! Bravo!
My mother had a full service cutlery set. It was a set of drawers on it's own, hundreds of food tools. Not silver though, damn! - Sheffield stainless steel.
Hard-line conservatives, yeah. They want servants, and social supremacy. It's the same as all the libertarian tech bros. They just want to be able to exploit people without pesky regulations. It's unfortunate that so many regular people who just want less taxes, or tougher justice laws, align with them. So, so many people really have overall progressive/liberal politics, yet get swayed to the other side over wedge issues. The left needs to be more open to minor dissent, and the right needs to be willing to acknowledge when they're actually left. The main defining characteristic of "the west" is liberal democracy, ffs. If it was just the villains and crazies on the right, they'd never win, and they would stop holding us back.
I am incredibly privileged. I readily admit that. I have a disability that means I can never work "normal" jobs, but I have enough of a safety net in my fiancé and parents that I don't strictly /need/ to. I should work. I want to. I will need to in order to actually save any money. But I'm not in a position that I have to push myself to breaking point to afford a solid roof and a good-if-simple meal, especially not those as nice as I'm lucky enough to have. After all, a warm, dry house is all the more important when your body reacts with pain, inflammation, cramps, and illness to damp cold. I still do most of the menial work around the house - the laundry and the grocery shopping, most of the tidying and weeding, and we split the cooking and cleaning - but I have someone kind and understanding to fall back on when my body flares up and pushing a vacuum threatens to tear my shoulders from their joints. And I only have the security I do because of the sound decisions and good luck of the three poor generations before me, as well as those of my fiancé's family, and even that is dependant on the kindness and love of those around me. I never would have survived in any other period of history, if for no other reason than I wouldn't have lived long enough to suffer. I ache for my ancestors living with a genetic condition that didn't have a name, for those worked beyond suffering more severe than I could possibly imagine, for those who suffer still.
One theory I read was the beginning of the industrial revolution, especially with the use of coal for heating and cooking, the amount of cleaning needed because of the oily residue left everywhere.
I have been looking into my family history, and many of the women were servants, though being in the country, most are the only servant in house (at least listed in the census), which, based on your video, was not easy! Wives are often described as 'domestic service', presumably meaning they are housewives (though those that are married to farm labourers are also written as farm labourers). Thank you for making such an interesting and in depth video.
I work in the service industry, not as a domestic but a cashier at a grocery store, and the way some people treat people they perceive as there to serve them is appalling. I had one woman throw an apple at me because the woman in front of her was taking too long to find her credit card for her liking. Like, how is this lady struggling to find her card in her massive purse my fault?? I’ve never worked in work as difficult or long-lasting as this, but your comments about the uniform ring true. I hate my uniform, and I only work part time!
My grandmother was illegitimate and was brought up by an aunt. After a bout of scarlet fever at age 12 she became profoundly deaf. Nevertheless she was sent, at the age of 14, to a house about 10 miles away to be a maid. The loneliness and lowliness of an illegitimate, deaf 14 year old house maid is beyond what I can imagine.
I’m deaf and just been spoken at nastily (I can lip read) and in tears now, I can’t imagine how it must have been for your grandmother. No BSL, probably no ability to write and read no support.
I can’t imagine- narcissists.
Perhaps the reality was nothing like you imagine? It is possible.
@@2ndRodeo_Keziah It is possible. But maybe unlikely. Still, people usually find ways to manage things. Little out to help themselves. We may never know exactly.
A sad reminder of the huge toll of infectious diseases before modern vaccines. It was not uncommon for half of the children born in a family to not reach adulthood (for my own great-grandfather, the family tombstones show 5 of the total 7 children died of infectious illnesses). And more commonly, previously healthy children would spend the rest of their lives deaf, or blind, or infertile (especially if little boys caught measles) or paralyzed (polio), and many other complications for those caught the infectious disease but lived.
Imagine having enough skill with needle and thread to be able to write legibly by sewing. Domestics had skills that went utterly unappreciated and unacknowledged. A huge segment of the population was utterly taken for granted.
That was her being skilled enough because that's all that she can do since she can't write.
@@RexOedipus. Couldn't write or wasn't permitted to write? You need access to pens, ink, and paper in order to write.
Domestic labor is criminally undervalued and it's 100% because it's been traditionally done by women.
The stitches were supposed to be as neat on the back as on the front, as well.
Embroidery is a really important form of women's art, as it's been basically the only form of art open to women for at least most of modern European history, also mostly true through the medieval period (before that we don't have a ton of art or the recorded names of artists so it's harder to say, and I don't know a lot about art outside Europe). Of course a lot of embroidery is more decoration than making a profound statement, but we certainly have surviving embroidery pieces in which women told us exactly what they were thinking. I think my favorite is "Patty Polk did this and she hated every stitch she did in it. She loves to read much more." Done by a 10-year-old girl circa 1800 in Maryland, it's a beautiful sampler with garlands of flowers and a tombstone (it's actually sort of funny how early-mid modern period motifs cover a whole ton of plant life, some animals and figures, and then a bunch of death symbols -- it was very pious to make something beautiful with a skull or a tombstone or an hourglass on it because a good Christian should never forget that they have to die and face God one day).
Modern embroiderers and cross-stitchers can still write with a needle and thread if we want to, but we have the benefit of the internet and books where people have come up with millions of alphabets that we can just copy, lol.
Really fascinating. The phrase, "A man just works from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done" also applies to domestic help. Thank goodness for unions, the "permission" for women to now work married or not, laws and such that protect workers, health insurance, and so many other things - all this in addition to washing machines, dish washers, grocery stores, cars, and who knows what else.
My grandmother (born in 1898) 'went into service', as she always referred to it, and lived very much the kind of life described here. It was more or less the only option for a working class girl from rural Somerset. Later she became a lady's maid - a promotion, of sorts - to the first wife of Guglielmo Marconi, Beatrice O'Brien, while the Marconis were living in Britain.
She travelled around Europe with the Marconis, but always had to carry out her duties, so she never really *saw* Europe. The one exception to this was an occasion when she and another maid were sent back to Britain by themselves, as a kind of advance guard to prepare for the family's return. In those days the idea of two young girls - and servants, at that - travelling across Europe without any men in attendance was downright scandalous - and my grandmother was duly scandalised. I think she was so scandalised that it never occurred to her to enjoy this interlude of freedom. Many decades later she would still tell the story in shocked tones: "And we didn't know a soul on the train! Not a SOUL!"
My grandmother was born in 1889 and after meeting a random minister on the road, chose to travel with him and his mother as their house maid as they traveled all around NSW for his minister duties. The mother had just lost her youngest son to WW1, her husband on hearing the news of his death, and 2 sons to accidents leaving just two sons remaining. One had left for another state leaving just her and her minister son (my grandfather). It was seen as scandalous even in a fairly progressive Australia because she wasn't married to him. When the mother eventually passed away she married him and they had my father in 1933.
What did she do after O'Brien and Marconi separated? Did she get another job? Stay with a lady in the Marconi household? Follow O'Brien? I've always wanted to know what happened to personal servants after a separation since a newly single person may no longer have the resources for a servant, especially a now-divorced woman with a ladies' maid.
@@loudemopsychic As far as I know she went back to the agency which found her the Marconi job, and got another job with another household. The Marconis, who had a reputation of being very considerate to their servants, which definitely wasn't usual at the time, gave her very good references.
But she wasn't in service for much longer, because shortly after this she met my grandfather - a widower with three children - married him, and had three more children, one of whom was my mum. So after the international jet set (well, ship-and-train-set) period with the Marconis, she ended up as the wife of a farmworker, living in a succession of tied cottages in rural Somerset. This was well into the 20th century, but in many ways the life was still very 19th century. The cottages didn't have electricity - my mum told stories of carrying a candle upstairs to bed. It was all very Dickensian.
Then WW2 happened, and everything changed again...
"Not a *soul* !" 😂
This is soo fascinating. I bet she loved telling you those stories. And I am so glad you remembered them so well. I would read a book about your grandmother’s experiences back then. ❤️🥹
This made me think about all of the cleaners, security guards, canteen staff and other "as a service" gig roles people now work. We don't have a cook in house but instead order takeaways, we don't have many nannies but instead large nurseries / schools, we don't hire a driver but instead order a minicab driver.
Only those to afford nanny's back then were the rich
People never used to have those things. WEALTHY people had, and still have those things. If you don't have enough money to hire a cook, private security, a nanny, and a driver, you did those things yourself.
@@2020-p2z Not quite - in most UK cities takeout was very common, as many people didn't have space for ovens.
We're regressing as a society imho
@@nylasharper1788 why, because people are not as poor?
My grandmother, a farmer's wife until 1973, remembered with horror having to spend the entirety of every second weekend doing laundry, the gas-heated copper the only technology (as late as the mid-60s).
She fully embraced washing machines, dishwashers, microwave ovens ect. and didn't care to bake, can or make jam. She didn't even cook often, her 2nd husband was mostly the cook.
She had done plenty of that back when it was not a choice, but a necessity.
That embroidery sampler diary entry is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The dedication to writing a stream-of-consciousness account of your life and internal thoughts when you can't actually write at the speed of your thoughts, and then to be putting down pretty subversive thoughts about workplace abuse, child abuse, implied sexual assault of a minor, trauma (dissociation, flashbacks, the inability to work, etc), suicidality, and the guilt and shame associated with all that, and to say all that in little tiny cross stitched letters is nothing short of amazing and heartbreaking.
I do wonder why she stopped in the middle of her thoughts, while she still had quite a bit of fabric left. I'm certainly glad to know it's not because she finally ended her life, but that she was able to leave domestic service, become a teacher, and live into her 70s. I wonder how and why the sampler was kept and preserved so well before it came into the hands of the V&A as well.
hm i think she kept the thing secret....
Honestly what frightens me the most is thought of the potential abuse that happens behind closed doors. In a factory you have your co-workers to back you up in adispute. If you work in domestic service often times it's just your word against theirs. And I fear we all know whose reputation people will belikely to believe. If it's just you than no ones there to help you.
AND because everything runs on word-of-mouth and character references, even if there are other servants neither the victim of abuse nor their coworkers will be keen to speak out against it or offer any resistance, because they might lose any prospect of finding a job in service again if their employer decides to badmouth them. at least in the factory there might be some sort of legal recourse, or other figures of authority you could appeal to. and you could always leave and find work somewhere else, since you were just another pair of hands anyway, who cares about a reference!
We still live in a culture where people often tolerate the violation of their rights in the work-place since they don't want to lose their job, and often won't even sue their employer after being fired, because of the very same threat of being deprived of a recommendation letter (if they can even afford a lawyer). Now imagine also having to live at your workplace, you can't even go home and unwind because you have no home and no time to yourself.
I was employed by an agency at various factories all over England during the last recession. Work with an agency was very, very casual and often at the discretion of your direct manager, you would turn up to work at the start of the shift and they would pick who they wanted out of a lineup and everyone else went home with no work or money. I know that there were women sexually exploited for the chance to work, ie, if you gave me a BJ last night, you can work today. And these people are still walking about with all their skin and limbs today.
My great-great grandmother was an English maid working in an aristocratic country house at the tail end of the Victorian era. What we know for a fact is that one of the men in that family got her pregnant, and the family arranged for her to be quietly shipped off to the US to avoid scandal. Given the massive difference in power between them, it isn't hard to fill in the blanks as to how she got pregnant.
So yeah ... abuse was almost certainly rampant, and almost completely unreported. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that upper class families managed to sweep even murders of servants under the rug.
Servants of middle class families probably had it better, but only because their employers didn't have the money to make the more obvious consequences disappear. The most they could do is slander you to the community and any future employers.
@@andrewb1921 My 7xgreat grandmother was in a similar position, but about a century earlier. She was a chambermaid, and was impregnated by a visiting Earl. Interestingly, while she was dismissed from service, she was also given ownership of a shop in the local village, and came up to the castle weekly to present her son and to recieve a stipend. I'm not sure whether that means he liked her a lot but was not able to marry her due to the class difference, or whether her employer just felt really bad about what had happened to her.
My Mother left home in Wales to become a housemaid in England as a BET. She was 14 and didn’t come from a poor family. She and one other 14 year old girl ran a house for a Lord and Lady. Both girls were treated very badly and starved. When Mother became sick and returned to Wales fir a few days, to everyone’s horror she had a bloated stomach . My Nan took her to doctors. No she wasn’t pregnant but was suffering severe malnutrition . This was because she was starving. That goodness my Nan forbade her to return to work.
What is a BET? I tried looking on google but it only shows william hill etc.
@@LinkoofHyrule A bet, I understand; it was probably written in capital letters to emphasise how a "small" deal between two teenagers can have such desasterous consequences.
Wow that Lord and Lady must’ve been doing a lot to keep up the pomp and circumstance. What Lady and what Lord has an inexperienced 14 year old run their home? Probably owed a lot to the bank, I bet. What losers.
An Open University tutor of mine once remarked that unless you are a member of the Royal Family, you are no more than four generations away from a domestic servant. Researching my family history, I found he was absolutely correct. Great video. I have subscribed and am off to watch another on your channel.
Is this solely the case in the UK, or is this also true worldwide? I don't know what all of my ancestors did, but most people in my family worked in industrial settings until very recently rather than as domestic servants.
That tracks pretty well actually. well, I do believe quite a lot of my great grandparents etc. had some experience as servants, for some time atleast. the only ecxeption might be my paternal granfathers direct male ancestors, as they have owned a farm and its associated pastures in some form since at least the black death. When my grandad was a kid, in the 1920s and early 30s, they even had servants, one farmhand and one maid.
@@jequirity1 Well, if there was a rural family with more children, chances are at least some of them went to become domestic servants - and since they rarely had kids, their part of the lineage died out and they were mostly forgotten. There was only a number of people who were able to inherit land and if you were, let’s say, a fourth girl in the family, your chances of marriage weren’t very high.
@@jequirity1I can't say anything about other people, but it does pretty much apply to me here in Hungary. My grandmother's grandmother was a cook in a castle/mansion. My mother told me that she was illiterate (which wasn't uncommon in that era at all) so the small jars she kept the spices in had nothing written on them and she was the only one who knew which is which.
@jequirity1 industry isn't so old. Thought time has occurred so it may be 5 or 6 generations by now.
At 31, I have a picture as a small baby with 5 generations of my family. Veterans, coal miners, waitresses and wash women. And that's Pennsylvania, US.
This was so fascinating! I volunteer with an activist group that works on labor rights for domestic workers in the US, and so much of what you mention here -- the isolation making it difficult to organize and easy for abuses to stay hidden, the long hours and unreasonable standards, the power dynamic that leans on the "almost like family" aspects of the job to further exploit workers -- is still very much with us today. The treatment we saw during covid was like seeing the paint stripped off and the same old attitudes made bare again.
It is still so very atrocious!
It's nothing like then, however. But that labor laws still don't protect domestic workers and farm workers is beyond the pale.
In any situation where one human being has power of any kind over another, there has to be laws to safeguard the one with lesser power.
"We must hardly dwell on the boot-cleaning process--"
Proceeds to talk about boot-cleaning in detail for a substantial paragraph.
My great grandma was a domestic in Canada in the 30s. My great grandpa has said multiple times that he felt he had to marry her very quickly because he was afraid her employers would literally work her to death.
Was she one of the British Home Children?
@@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co No, her mother was.
@@missmelodies52 I asked because no one in the UK seems to realize how many kids bloody Barnardos and their vile minions sent over here as "British Home Children" to be worked, beaten, frozen, or starved to death. Barnardos is actually considered a non-controversial charity there!
@@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co
Who were the British Home Children?
@@spaceman081447 here's what I found on the British Home Children program: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Children#:~:text=Home%20Children%20was%20the%20child,New%20Zealand%2C%20and%20South%20Africa.
Speaking of the hard work, I was reminded of this sad poem (it was left as a suicide note)
On a Tired Housewife
Here lies a poor woman who was always tired,
She lived in a house where help wasn’t hired:
Her last words on earth were: ‘Dear friends, I am going
To where there’s no cooking, or washing, or sewing,
For everything there is exact to my wishes,
For where they don’t eat there’s no washing of dishes.
I’ll be where loud anthems will always be ringing,
But having no voice I’ll be quit of the singing.
Don’t mourn for me now, don’t mourn for me never,
I am going to do nothing for ever and ever.’
This is very sad but also a very boss bitch move. The poor dear.
I’ve looked this poem up and there’s hardly any information about it. It’s mentioned by Virginia Woolf in a letter to Robert Cecil where she says that it was found pinned to the body of a ‘Charwoman’ following a suicide - as you said. It says that the coroner found that the woman in question was ‘mad’ and Woolf decries that’s what it takes to be a poet these days….
While I'm not of the mindset to cause myself harm, I do feel this. Like, so done with all the nonsense.
My Grandmother was deserted in the Depression years by her husband and managed to raise six children as a Cleaning Lady. No Child Support. She demanded her three girls go to college as she said so they didn't have to clean toilets. My Mother and Aunts also cleaned when in High School and college in the summers.
Wow !
Your grandmother was a SUPERHERO !
Worthy of a🥇!!!
@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 Thank you very much! She did any odd jobs she could find. The women relatives were pretty strong, It was never spoken out loud but women shouldn't depend on a man. They were traditional homemakers but if something happened could support themselves. I felt the same way. She made the best homemade bread and rolls. Long hair in braids wrapped around her head in a house dress and apron. Bohemian heritage.
@@georgiafrye2815
I fully agree about women being independent.
Both my grandmothers put their foot down, and left their husbands.
In the early1930's....
My mum was sent to New York, to live with friends of my Nana.
(Who worked as a doctor's housekeeper in Spitsbergen. Then post WW2 becoming a stewardess onboard oil tanker the "Tank Monarch". Where she met her second husband to be. Who happened to be dad's uncle) !
Mum was just 5 on arrival in Brooklyn, (the Norwegian enclave in N.Y.
But she returned fluent in English !
Dad was raised by his grandparents, while his mum made a living as a nurse.
Love from Norway 🇧🇻
I was a ‘steward’ at Kew Gardens working on weddings and with a few exceptions most Bride/Groom’s & families (especially mother of the bride) treated you like you were a servant it used to give me great pleasure saying no you can’t do that I was there to protect the Grade 2 listed building Cambridge Cottage where the original Dukes of Cambridge lived (and Queen Victoria visited there a few times for funerals/weddings) no matter what they paid the building came first
Good on you !
Bridezillas are bad, but their mothers can be Medusa Mumsters ! 👹
L💋ve from Norway 🇧🇻
Oh, what a coincidence, I want to work at Kew Gardens when I grow up! :) Although my goal is to be a botanist.
@@Iluvthe1960s is that by any chance the building with the large painting in one of the rooms??
Because if so, I snuck in one day when nobody seemed to be around and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the building.
Was I allowed to be in there?
I'd *NEVER* do anything to cause any sort of problems for the staff (and I suppose the owner), but I wondered whether I should actually be allowed in there, or I somehow "got lucky" and was never caught!
My aunt worked as a servant in a large house in her late teens just before the great depression. My dad said she was paid "buttons" but got food and a place to sleep. After she moved to the US she worked as a server at banquets until she retired in the late 1980s.
I remember my dad teaching me to polish men's shoes. We used 2 (not 3) brushes and a soft cloth along with a small tin of black shoe polish. He did this frequently so his shoes would be shiny. I think he learned from his dad (a Scottish soldier from the 1880s until he was wounded at Gallipoli) or maybe my dad learned while he was in the RAF in the 50s. His first job in the US was as a butler for the DuPont family. He worked as an "expeditor" at several companies until he retired in the late 90s. This meant he was responsible for coordinating supply orders for the section of the company. He actually had been trained as an air traffic controller in the RAF but here in the US you had to be a citizen to be an air traffic controller.
Omg, I used to be so obsessive about "bulling" my shoes and boots. I used 3 brushes and two cloths - 1. Brushing off dirt etc 2. Adding the polish or "dubbin". 3. This brush was wrapped in the third cloth to gently buff the polish and blend it well on scuffs. The second cloth was a chamois and used as the final polishing cloth to get that perfect, mirror shine. Used to take me two hours to fully do a pair of doc martens. I was 12, but hated anyone else polishing my shoes, or ironing my school uniform. My sleeve and trouser creases were razor sharp. 😂
The Dupont family? Wow!
Buttons???? What type of money is that
I am sure you are very proud of him and rightly so.
She told me, "I was in service for several years after school but then someone started a war and I went to the factory and made shells. Thousands of them".
A ‘maid of all work’ sounds just like a mum.
Without even the satisfaction of love...
The stitched diary of Elizabeth Parker is an incredible work of art. She wrote that she thought of or attempted suicide multiple times and felt a great deal of guilt and fear of god. She must have had a very sad life. The website I read said she lived to be 76.
My maternal grandmother and eldest of at least 10 siblings that I can recall, was sent to a "big house" to be a domestic from the age of 8/9. In the summers she would live there, and learnt from the very bottom. When school was in session, she'd go there on a Friday, and return home on a Sunday. My great grandmother died when my gran was 13/14, and so she had to leave school to look after her siblings, and instead of living at the "big house", she'd work there as soon as the kids were dressed and ready for school, and then the second and third eldest would care for them until she got home in the evening. On laundry day, the owners of the "big house" would ask gran to bring her siblings up to help, and they'd get a ha'penny or (half penny- pronounced "hayp-neigh") each for helping. As all the siblings grew older, the boys would work on coal lorries, as milk boys, and the girls into domestic work or even childcare.
I never realised how hard a life my gran had had, until I met my mother in law. She went to school with gran, and lived near her, too. She told me a lot of what my gran had to do to survive after losing both parents and prevent the siblings being taken away to an orphanage. The "big house" still stands, but I think it's converted into flats now.
I remember my gran telling me that it was a "rite of passage" to become a domestic girl, and if a parent/s couldn't work, the kids were fully expected to do their part. My gran knew how to cook and clean before becoming a domestic, but she learned so much more when she started working. I remember her telling me that she was so tired sll the time, but that's whst life was like and everybody accepted it.
all my resprect and admiration for your grandma, hope shes still doing well and relaxing her days away
I live in the US, and my grandmother and mother were as you say, 'servants." When grandmother could no longer work, my mother took her place, my father had a job as a city employee. My mother cooked, did 'light' house keeping and watched their youngest child.
When my mother first started, she did not do the cooking, but at some point the master of the house asked my mother if she could cook for them, along with the other duties. My mother's reply was yes, she could, but she told him, that she was only able to do, 'plan' cooking, aka, she was not a 'fancy' cook. He said that was fine. Of note, my mother was a great cook, but she felt that her skills were not up to their standards, but they were, and they enjoyed what she prepared.
Eventually my mother gave it up, and moved on. Before my grandmother died, she made my sister and I promise that we would never, 'clean anyone's floors, but our own, and I knew that she was referring to her years as a 'servant.'
Ms. B, Churchill
After the Napier earthquake in the 1930s in New Zealand a local wealthy family donated lots of food to the victims and received much acclaim. My great grandmother who was the cook for the whole farm and frequently covered for her husband when he'd had too much to drink, was given the task of making all the food to be donated in addition to all her arduous regular tasks. No thanks or assistance offered.
so actually your greatgrandma donated the food :)
Some "wow" moments:
10:15 (restitching trimming)
19:45 (governess class paradox)
25:35 (prohibition on reading)
26:15 (Elizabeth Parker)
etc
Actually the unstitch the triming kind of dress still exist but now we have dry cleaners that can work with delicate lace and such
Yes, I looking at you ridiculously fragile wedding dress and lolita dress with delicate lace
@cathpalug1221, when the video mentioned that servants rarely moved up in society, I was like wait what about marrying the boss ?(like Maria from the sound of music, Jane eyre or Evangeline the maid from the first nanny macfee movie) they go from being the halp to getting hitched to the master of the house.😂😂.
@@nataliapanfichi9933 it's quite rare actually since at that time, you married people around your class. Yes, the master of the house or his children can fool around with servants but usually such child count as illegitimate
It's still happening nowadays tho so not surprised. Even those who is a middle class commoner that marries royalty often got a side eye from purebred nobles
Wow I love this I work as a housekeeper/nanny/support worker/cook for families and what you said in the end is so true the work is never ever done and employees want to get everything they can from you it's also nearly impossible to change anything as you don't have contact with other workers.
The audio in this video is like listening to a high quality audio book. I feel like I am transporting back to the Victorian age. 👍👍
I love reading old cookbooks, and I read a US one from 1950 that still had suggested menus for houses with and without servants.
I inherited my mum's cook book.
A wedding gift. From her mum, presumably...
It's an 18th edition !
With lots of recipes we'd think wasted today.
Like slaughtering.
Making conserves.
Laying out a table for a Ladies Lunch.
Or a childrens' birthday...
Napkins and place cards and little porcelain figurines to amuse the children...
My favourite recipe is how to prepare a seagull roast !
L🍩ve from Norway 🇧🇻
📚🫖🍪👵
Seagull roast? Usually any fowl that eat fish taste TERRIBLE. (I'm thinking of grebes, which my duck-hunting father wouldn't touch.) A rubber tire would probably taste better.
I have got lots of 19th and early to 1950s housekeeping cum cookery books, my faves are a 1930's Mrs Beeton book, a 1930's School of Domestic service and a 1930's Keeping house with Elizabeth Craig. Who was she?!
My husband had fond memories of reading The Phoenix and the Carpet, so when the kids were old enough, we got it out from the library. With any book that old, I read it first to see if there's anything I need to discuss with them. I don't remember whether it was that book or Five Children and It, but in one scene the children arrive at home when they're supposed to be in another city, and the housemaid has gone to a party. They end up blackmailing her about this "inappropriate" behaviour, and it struck me. Not just because of the idea that it was horribly inappropriate for a servant to have time off, but because the author, according both to her biography at the back of the book and things that she includes in the story, was a socialist. She believed in better conditions for the working class. But that understanding apparently didn't extend to those in service.
My grandmother was 14 when she was sent to Paris in the sixties to be the cleaner of some rich guy. As every cleaner, she lived in a "chambre de bonne", basically the attic. She hadn't the right to use the elevator (that wouldn't go all the way to the her room anyway) and had to use small staircases that weren't directly connected to the flat you were working to. (These places are now mostly rented to students, and they still don't have elevators, it's too small to make the place for one.)
She was very sad and lonely, didn't want to go to Paris all alone, and it still weights on her now that she is in her eighties. When she talks about it, you can see it's still hurting her.
But after getting her three children (from a guy that couldn't keep it in his pants (we learned about a new family member some five years ago) that she would divorce years later and would need to beg for the money he owed her every month), she studied and she went to nurse school, and became a nurse. It was "late" in life, but she still managed to do something she wanted, and I think that's incredible because she didn't have an easy life.
Another great lesson from a fantastic teacher! I'm from the USA, but have read many books written in the UK by people who lived through this period, as well as during its decline and after. The social settings were described as the writers saw and accepted them, and the subject of domestic servants has always fascinated me. From Dickens to Conan Doyle to Virginia Woolf, and many others, servants were as constant a presence as the food, clothing, and clean rooms they provided. Just a part of the setting. Reading between the lines, their social status can be discerned, as well as the authors' feelings about them as a class. Sociology in the background.
Wow. I'm a stay-at-home mom (having left my profession as an elementary school teacher to do so) and the 'work never being done' is something I relate with so much. Even with a small cottage-sized house and only two children, a toddler and a newborn, I feel like I'm never going to catch up on all the work that my home would need to be perfectly run. It's all I can do sometimes to make the meals for the day, nurse the baby, clean the house, and keep the toddler from doing something dangerous, bathe the children, keep the fish alive and healthy, do the gardening, plan developmentally appropriate activities and outings for the kids, do the laundry, meal planning, and shopping, etc. That's before I get time to read and sew and watch and make UA-cam videos. I'm really glad for our robot vacuum that sweeps for me, I can't imagine having to do that every day with a messy toddler. My husband does help but I tend to notice more of the things that need doing, plus he's in his home office working most of the day.
My mom used to pretend she had to do an errand then would quietly climb the back stairs to the attic where she would read.
Isn’t that all what you bought into when you made the choice to get pregnant and quit your job? Was any of this really a surprise? I chose not to have children 35 years ago because we have always known about this exchange. Listing it out only serves you.
You could do with some home help
And imagine: that husband and children are yours. And you can talk to your friends on the phone. And you have a name, and clothes of your own.
Not sure what’s wrong with these replies, it’s very natural to want kids and not everyone is told truthfully about how much work it is. And just because it could be worse doesn’t mean things are okay! It sounds very overwhelming and it sounds like you could do with some help. I really hope you can get the support you need from your community and your husband! I’ve noticed every mother I know says their lives were turned upside down when they had kids. But only some fathers say that. If your husband doesn’t feel how you feel I honestly would question if he’s fully transitioned into parenthood! You might find it helpful to learn about mental load and invisible labour if you’re not familiar with those ideas already? I find it really helpful language to have when I talk with my partner about how household tasks are divided! And I imagine it would be even more relevant to parenting. I’m not a mum myself but I’ve worked with a lot of kids and families so I see how challenging it is, especially when you’re the “default” parent, and especially these days. Take care and good luck!!
Wow, that V&A sampler... malicious compliance: Master level. She should be angry and bitter inside, and yet she was able to produce that labour of love and beauty. It gives so much to think about.
Maybe not all women were angry and bitter inside like you
@@donaldhysa4836 who says I am angry and bitter, or even a woman, fool?
@@jorgecalero6325 I said not all wome were angry and bitter like you are angry and bitter
@@donaldhysa4836 but why would I be angry and bitter? Where do you even get that I am angry and bitter? This story does not affect me personally. One minute of thinking before you type will make you look ten times less foolish online.
@@jorgecalero6325 Because you assume people you dont know and have never met are angry and bitter for no good reason. You are projecting your own feelings on them
6:40 Somehow it never occurred to me that an equivalent to the Tyranny of the Rocket Equation (i.e. you need fuel to lift the payload, then fuel to lift the fuel, then fuel to lift THAT fuel...) also applied to the domestic needs of the domestic servants
i'm glad i'm not the only person who immediately thought of that :-))
Hotels nowadays are run similar to how a Victorian House was run by servants. Waiters, Room attendants, cooks/chefs, Kitchen porters ( a bit like a scullery maid as it's mainly washing up), Housekeeping. Tips from guests.
Slight nitpick on the butter: I doubt it would have been that hard, as I doubt it would have been refrigerated. Butter needn't be chilled (unless you're making a pastry) and can be kept in a larder, on on a counter in a container like a butter dish. It won't go rancid. I kept my block butter like this for many years at university. It remains soft and easy to spread, easier even than spreadable varieties we have today.
My modern way of making butter is to toss heavy cream and salt into the mixer. But they have to make the heavy cream, and hand churn it. Which takes forever.
Edit because I was curious
Well into the 19th century butter was still made from cream that had been allowed to stand and sour naturally. The cream was then skimmed from the top of the milk and poured into a wooden tub. so that then hours of churning.
@@BimboCommentaryYep! When you took the butter out of the churn you had to wash it well to remove all traces of buttermilk, which goes rancid much faster than butter. Then you kneaded in the salt, which acted as a preservative. I’m not sure how they prevented butter from going rancid over long periods, but preventing exposure to air is key.
That said, I’m surprised England didn’t discover ghee on its own. Jarred ghee keeps for years.
@@mrjones2721 don’t know how true this is, but I’ve heard that butter was stored in honey for long journeys by boat. Honey is antiseptic.
There are always those excuses for abuse. Why the hell do you even doubt the hell those people lived? Are you a devil? You MUST be. Yuck!
Houses were much colder so butter wouldn't be as spreadable. But yes, you won't have too much trouble going without spreadable butter.
Excellent.
One thing not noted - one way the very wealthy of the period displayed their wealth was by owning a home with dozens, if not hundreds of guest rooms. It was an era before the hotel after all, and interestingly the closest modern equivalent to a Victorian home is the hotel.
Or a boarding house, where people rented out rooms to people.
I have the absolute respect for how much tie and effort you've put in to this video. Very informative and entertaining. great job!
You know the thing about needing approval from your previous job to get hired is actually a lot like what we're doing nowadays. There are no entry level jobs
And there are still so many people who treat anyone working in a "service" profession like this today. I'm glad that at least the outsourced service workers have a bit of leverage nowadays
My grandmother was a lady's maid, and later a nurse to the woman she cared for. My grandmother was given flappers string of pearls, not real pearls of course.she was given several pretty dresses as well. The lady remembered my grandmother in her will. She was given $500. A very nice sum in those days.
While the names of the job and specifics have changed, sometimes it feels like the attitudes have not changed. I've worked in house cleaning and honestly it can be absolutely humiliating. Especially if you end up with someone who sees themselves as the boss of you rather than a contracted service. Like Eliza I long since realized I was never going to get an apology for their behavior, ever.
Excellent piece : ) I remember watching the series, 'Manor House' and being shocked at the ending where the 'Lady' of the house was literally crying over the loss of such an elegant age while the servants couldn't wait to get away.
Great job expressing the despair of that age!
I haven’t seen it but no wonder the lady of the house was crying at the servants leaving, I imagine the work then fell on her
@@em6644 Karen gets what's coming to her
A quick look in the BNA reveals "The Servant Problem" being discussed quite extensively from 1900-1940. The "problem" is getting good, cheap servants, and (conversely) how to manage without them...
Been watching your films for some time. First time I've felt moved to comment. You have such a talent for engaging story telling and applause to the professional productions.
Some of these quotes are So Similar to how were expected to act in the service industry.
Down to the spa I work at forcing employees to use fake names if there is another employee with the same name so as not to confuse clients
I watched this last night and i keep finding myself thinking about it today. I have never throught about the effort it took to maintain hourses, furniture and clothes before we had plastics and synthetic fabrics. I also never knew how much they had to make scratch houses had to be little cottage industries just by themselves. Fascinating!
How many times a year do we have to iron clothes? It's close to zero if you take away fancy clothing for fancy occasions.
I really enjoyed this.
I loved it. Thank you so much for sharing this video essay with me. All of your obvious hard work here is genuinely appreciated.
Thanks again,
🙂🐿🌈❤️
P.s one thing that I cannot believe is that you went out and actually purchased (presumably) a tub of “I can’t believe it’s not butter”, in order to add a 2 second visual layer to a perfectly understandable verbal gag 😳
Now that’s dedication ❤lol
Thanks for the informative video!! I love learning about how ordinary people lived back in the days. The jobs they worked, their hobbies, the way they dressed. There is a lot of content made about the nobility of past eras and much less about the regular people and how their lifes were! So thanks! 😊
Main duties my grandmother had when she started in service in the mid-1920's when 14 - the fireplaces, all of them, couple of dozen at least. From well before 6am in the morning until late.
Actually, "in-house" employment isn't gone, it's just rare.
I once had a job as an "in-house" nanny. Had my own apartement within the families big apartement.
No expenses except my phone bill.
It was my best-paid job ever.
This was absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much for doing a more in depth look at life below stairs. I've seen many programmes, documentaries and of course, Upstairs Downstairs! I find the way you describe and relay information really interesting but also easy to understand, it's like you each to convey your very passion for history to others. I marvel at how much information you squeeze into sports, this was bliss for me.
I would do a walking tour with you in a heartbeat, and my husband agrees, but I'm a Londoner born and raised, worked in the City for a while and know it pretty well. I know walking tours, by their nature, are hard to make accessible and I'm now a wheelchair user. I can't currently go out, but when I can, if there are any walks you consider accessible (no stairs, if you think a big clunky electric wheelchair will do it, we'll try it, if it fails we just go home, no biggie). I hope to make one of your tours or talks or however you do things at some point, until then, videos I can get lost in are treats I will watch several times. I really love your commitment to costume and your ability to convey the human in all its glorious, sad, mad or bad and reality of the their lives. Thank you so much, brilliant video! 👏
The choice of doing almost all of this as voiceover while you perform various tasks a servant had to do, which we no longer do today, was really cool and powerful. I was cross stitching along in solidarity!
Wait, you don’t polish your shoes or furniture? 😂
@@3810-dj4qz All my shoes are sneakers or flip flops and all my furniture is from ikea lol.
@@MorganChaoseven sneakers need to be cleaned with a toothbrush and saddle soap and shoelaces washed because then you’re walking around with filthy shoes. 😂
“We” still polish our leather shoes, dust and polish our wood furniture, scrub our floors, and even mend (sew) our clothes. None of that has changed for many of us people who keep a tidy home and appearance. The only difference is we as the owners now do it instead of a housemaid.
@@3810-dj4qz The vast majority of people are not cleaning their sneakers with a toothbrush lol. Most of us just accept that sneakers don't look new forever. Not to mention I'm not sure how that would work on sneakers that are mostly fabric.
@@MorganChaosyou wash them the same way, rinse, then just let them dry. Some people put them in the washing machine, but I dont recommend it because it can ruin the sole glue. You dont have to accept your shoes looking worn out. Take a bit of time to clean them (heck while watching tv). Saves a lot of money and a person with clean shoes, ironed clothing, brushed hair, etc…always looks more presentable. Many of “us” still exist. We are the ones NOT wearing pajamas to the market. 😂
Reality check as always! But I'm also deeply grateful for the first explanation I've ever heard of why servants were a big deal, then ubiquitous, then suddenly gone from view. It's as fascinating as everything else about the servant class.
Kerry Greenwood shows a lot of both the disastrous working conditions servants had, and their hidden depths, in her Phryne Fisher novels, set in roaring-twenties Australia. Phryne's lady's maid, Dot, is a respected font of information regarding forensic housekeeping, and Phryne's compassionate and respectful attitude toward her servants contrasts sharply with the other upper class characters' households.
Servants or jobs of servants aren’t gone from view everywhere. If you go to Mexico, almost every middle class house has a maid and/or cook. Of course the conditions are better and it’s not seen as a low job. Just a job to make some extra cash.
I have been a maid of all work and lady’s maid and companion for $500 CAD a month plus room and board. This was working for an elderly woman with a disability who lived in a remote wilderness home with no electricity and no plumbing. I also was the gardener, the groundskeeper, the mechanic, the curator of her museum and the chamber maid of her rental cabins. I cut brush, hauled firewood, cut firewood, dug a garbage pit, pumped gasoline, maintained the propane fridges and range, did laundry by hand in a wringer washer with a hand crank and a scrub board, hauled bath water and chamber pots, and cooked all the meals and did all the dishes, picked berries and made jam, managed the greenhouse and vegetable garden, changed out wood stoves and chimneys in cabins, babysat her grandchildren, sorted her warehouse and storage shed, and entertained her guests. I was on call and working 24/7. But I was allowed to read books and go swimming and ride the ATV when there were slow times. I was allowed to talk her, that was part of my job, I was a companion because I was the only other human for a hundred miles. She treated me like garbage and her daughter in law told me frankly that I was an idiot to stay. But I survived the season and she gave me a gold nugget for a bonus at the end of the summer. I did not return for second season even though I was invited. I went on to become a housemaid and nurse maid to a family in town who expected me to do all the housework and care for their four children and six more who came into the house during the day. The father was an alcoholic and sexually abusive and violent and the male friends put their hands on me. I have done the servant thing. It is as bad a it seems.
I had no idea of how the concept of Victorian servants “worked“ until I watched all six seasons of Downton Abbey. Your explanation here covers more of the lower cast of workers and what their jobs entailed than the television show did. It concentrated on a large house with a large staff and never really showed the jobs of the “lesser servants”. It did however show the long hours, low pay, and the living conditions of service in a large upper class house, with unusually generous employers.
Thank you for this wonderful and instructive video. It is spot on.
I am a Norwegian and recognize this system from my relatives who came from both top and bottom of society. It is mostly forgotten now, also that the renting farmers and workers called this “ slave contracts”. The payment was poor, but you had some kind of housing (it could be among the animals in the barn), food and clothes. The alternative was a life on the roads or in the forest where no-one could survive. So people saw it as they worked as slaves (the young female workers had to accept that the farmers used them as sex toys as well). If the work was especially hard, tiresome and boring without any pay, they called it “nigger arbeid” (negro work), which was a tribute to those who withstood such work - and not looking down on black peoples that they of course never had met in their entire life.
It is also mostly forgotten today, but the Free Soil movement in USA collected many poor Norwegian immigrants under the slogan: “No slavery for Blacks nor Whites”, fighting for this before, under and after the American Civil War. They new perfectly what is was, and for many this was the reason they left beautiful Norway where life was not as it is today. How it changed is another and interesting story of standing up for humanity, equality, and a proper life.
Vi lever i et samfunn
Tror likevel flertallet av britiske tjenere ble mer sett ned på og nedverdiget psykisk sett enn de norske.Selv om leve-og arbeidsvilkårene kanskje var vel så harde.
For a realistic view of domestic service, watch The Remains of the Day with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
“Do not let your feelings show” might be the strap line of the movie.
At a rather rarified level! I would love to see how many servants worked in lower middle class households (only small numbers per household) vs upper class households (higher numbers, fewer households). I'd also love to know how many 'farm servants' - my grandmother's role in the 1930s.
Looks like a good advice to me
This will come on helpful when I use a Time Machine and find myself as a servant in the Victorian era 👍🏻
domestic servitude is still huge here in the middle east; even my family (who is considered middle class in the US) had a maid. she worked three days a week and cooked, cleaned, and did laundry. we ended up moving, but my father also had to give her a character!
WHERE I LIVE (SOUTH FRICA) IT IS NOTHING UNUSUAL TO HAVE SERVANTS - AT LEAST ONE, EVEN THE LOWER CLASSES HAVE SERVANTS
@@michelleduplooymalherbe2837Servants, or char women? There is a difference.
Sad life for these servants May they Rest in Peace and their next Life Experience be Happy and Peaceful!❤❤❤
This is such a stunning channel, I came across a short recently and I am so excited to catch up with all of your content. Stunning work
I like the floating dishes overlay it really conveys being overwhelmed by dishes
Thank you so much for making this video! I just finished writing the first chapter of my book about a housemaid in the 1830s and came to the unpleasant realisation that I have no idea what she would be doing all day. It's a slightly different era but I assume most is transferrable! You've saved the book (or at least saved me days of research)!
I was an au pair during covid and while I was very lucky with the family I worked for, the feeling of isolation, of not really belonging to a family but still loving them, of your work never being done and of always being on call made me really relate to Victorian books about governesses. It also really made me aware of how the laws around those jobs are easy to exploit-my host family were amazing, but knowing that I was essentially at their mercy in a foreign country introduced an odd dynamic. Overall I had a great experience, but it wasn’t always easy. I can only imagine what it would’ve been like for someone in the 19th century with even less protections
This video gave me a perspective I feel would have been inaccessible to me unless I were to formally study this period of history. Thank you for this truly enlightening and easily-digestible window into this part of the past and the people who lived it.
My sister used to throw dinner parties for more than 30 people, and use inherited china, silver utensils, and so on. Your description reminds me of those. It was a lot of work.❤
Lovely bit of know-who and know-how for writers and such. Knowing the ins and outs of historical periods is quite useful and fascinating. And absolutely necessary if you are to present well-crafted historical fiction.
What an excellently detailed description of servant life. I found this immensely interesting. Not seen anything like this before. Thanks
I’ve only watched half of this video and I’ve already subscribed. What a delightfully informative, extremely interesting video. Thank you so much!
I watched this, fascinated and riveted, until the end. Found your channel a few days ago and this started. Whoa. Thank You Very Much for the education and the excellent production. Your care and attention is self-evident. Best Regards and Best Wishes!
I did not expect this to be so fascinating. Im hooked
Some of the dinner table items , plates, silverware, bowls, cups saucers, and all was just incredible!! Thank you my queen and goddess 🌹👸
Great video I learned a lot about the "Being in Service", thought it very interesting video. Thanks
Thanks for a great look at this, and I really enjoyed the bits from Mrs Beeton. When I was young, there was a very old woman who lived three doors down the street. She was really quite lovely. She was sent to Australia by the household when the young Master of the house behaved improperly, forcing the family to do something. They were reasonably good about it, compared to what happened to young women in other households. They secured her a place in Sydney, and gave her a good amount of money to help set herself up. She had a gold pin that she gave me, an arrow with a horseshoe, which she said was a gift from the family. This definitely happened in the early 20th C.
I just wanted to leave a comment to say how much I appreciate your channel, this is one of the first long form videos that I think requires a hearty rewatch from me. Also side note, your comment section rules are very helpful for the imagination to step into a good conversation.
I used to live in a servant's room while in uni. It was 8 square meters right next to the kitchen. BUT! I had a window! And also the smallest door in the whole apartment, only 170 cm high. The ceiling was around 3,5 meters high, so it looked ridiculous. But I've managed to stuff everything I owend there. Bed, clothes, books, food and writing desk with a computer. It took me two months to get used to the cramped space. The first few weeks I had to leave my door ajar just to stove off claustrophobia. In the end, I was glad that I was so far away from everyone else who lived in the apartment, because I had to get up at 4AM to get to work and this way I didn't disturbed anyone, especially on weekends.
Sooooo eye opening. It seems so much worse than I had previously thought, and that is saying something. I can't even imagine how those overworked and underpaid had the time or indeed, the energy to form any sort of ties with other people in any meaningful ways.
I've always wondered what our society would look like if ALL people had done all these for themselves from day one??? Lots of food for thought. TFS ☺
This lady would make for a great period actress. With her breadth of knowledge she could also be a historical consultant.
I hope you’ve read: Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift. Very funny. (I believe he was a footman at one point) pre Victorian but not published till 1830 or thereabouts.
Excellent work. I've watched Downton and Jeeves and Wooster and never really understood all the intricacies of the servant world.
My friend has a family country Castle, as heirs to François Guizot and his grandchildren, the Schlumberger brothers. The bed where he died is still there, the castle still has s huge servants quarters. It's amazing. The kitchen has hardly been upgraded. There are still bells to announce meals where we must change before attending. And on the long table, there is a ring connected to the kitchen, so the elder at the meal will decide when it's time for the next service. 5 to 6 usually. They all come out at once, take our plates and bring a new one. It's like a ballet! That's 4 times a day! In between, we lay the clothes we want washed in a special cupboard. They come back pressed, mended, like new. I seriously felt like i was back in time. In a dream life.
My Gran was a Lady's Maid in the 1930s. To be honest, she didn't talk about it much but there were some advantages for her - one of the families she worked for travelled a lot, and she went with them (including sailing on the the Queen Mary). Then when she was widowed and self-employed doing dressmaking and repairs, the 'Lady' from that family sent business her way. I think it must have been quite a lonely job though, she was at the lady's beck and call, and they were travelling a lot so she was far from family and friends
A window into the past. Amazingly well-done and so very interesting.
It's not the Victorian era but my Nan run away from home in 1914 she was 14. She got a job in service and she worked her way up from under stairs maid to becoming Cook for The Bishop of London and she lived in Lambeth Palace until she married my granddad. When I was a child my mum used to watch Upstairs Downstairs in the 70's a precursor to Downton Abbey and she used to tell me about my nan
That moment when you are an extremely overworked, barely passing, aerospace engineering student, watching a history video to give your mind a moment of break from physics and math and then you hear "The more servants you have, the more servants you need to clean after those servants" and just start crying feeling haunted
(for those who don't get it: "The more fuel you take, the more fuel you need to carry that fuel", or "tyranny of the rocket equation")
Thank you for making this! It's clear that you did a lot of research and crafted the video carefully
It's very enlightening and awakening to what these usual "immigrants'" jobs really are in fact. You've managed to convey the gist. Thank you!
That was excellent. I particularly liked the end piece where you described the servants of today.
I love the breadth and depth of your knowledge of English history (and sometimes United Kingdom). As a historian your work is brilliant and very well produced! Bravo!
My mother had a full service cutlery set. It was a set of drawers on it's own, hundreds of food tools. Not silver though, damn! - Sheffield stainless steel.
Utensils.
@@genxx2724 Flatware would be a better name. You would have a full set of Flatware and Cutlery. So the poster was half right.
@@tammybenaytv4631 I took issue with the ridiculous term “food tools”.
Wow. Knew about your videos from shorts. Just sat for almost forty minutes listening to this.
Thank you.
This was incredibly informative and interesting! Absolutely love this.
the story about the woman who made a diary out of a quilt really hit me
And these were supposedly the "good old days" that the Conservatives want us to return too.
Hard-line conservatives, yeah. They want servants, and social supremacy. It's the same as all the libertarian tech bros. They just want to be able to exploit people without pesky regulations.
It's unfortunate that so many regular people who just want less taxes, or tougher justice laws, align with them. So, so many people really have overall progressive/liberal politics, yet get swayed to the other side over wedge issues. The left needs to be more open to minor dissent, and the right needs to be willing to acknowledge when they're actually left. The main defining characteristic of "the west" is liberal democracy, ffs.
If it was just the villains and crazies on the right, they'd never win, and they would stop holding us back.
I am incredibly privileged. I readily admit that. I have a disability that means I can never work "normal" jobs, but I have enough of a safety net in my fiancé and parents that I don't strictly /need/ to. I should work. I want to. I will need to in order to actually save any money. But I'm not in a position that I have to push myself to breaking point to afford a solid roof and a good-if-simple meal, especially not those as nice as I'm lucky enough to have. After all, a warm, dry house is all the more important when your body reacts with pain, inflammation, cramps, and illness to damp cold.
I still do most of the menial work around the house - the laundry and the grocery shopping, most of the tidying and weeding, and we split the cooking and cleaning - but I have someone kind and understanding to fall back on when my body flares up and pushing a vacuum threatens to tear my shoulders from their joints.
And I only have the security I do because of the sound decisions and good luck of the three poor generations before me, as well as those of my fiancé's family, and even that is dependant on the kindness and love of those around me.
I never would have survived in any other period of history, if for no other reason than I wouldn't have lived long enough to suffer.
I ache for my ancestors living with a genetic condition that didn't have a name, for those worked beyond suffering more severe than I could possibly imagine, for those who suffer still.
One theory I read was the beginning of the industrial revolution, especially with the use of coal for heating and cooking, the amount of cleaning needed because of the oily residue left everywhere.
I have been looking into my family history, and many of the women were servants, though being in the country, most are the only servant in house (at least listed in the census), which, based on your video, was not easy! Wives are often described as 'domestic service', presumably meaning they are housewives (though those that are married to farm labourers are also written as farm labourers). Thank you for making such an interesting and in depth video.
This is the first video of your chanel I watched and I loved it! It's so well put together and so entertaining.
I work in the service industry, not as a domestic but a cashier at a grocery store, and the way some people treat people they perceive as there to serve them is appalling. I had one woman throw an apple at me because the woman in front of her was taking too long to find her credit card for her liking. Like, how is this lady struggling to find her card in her massive purse my fault??
I’ve never worked in work as difficult or long-lasting as this, but your comments about the uniform ring true. I hate my uniform, and I only work part time!
Excellent channel , im subscribing- thank you for your well presented content 😁👍