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"The maid-of-all -work has to do in her own
person all the work which in larger establishments is performed by the
cook, kitchen-maid and housemaid, and occasionally the part of a
footman's duty, which consists in carrying messages."
Mrs. Beeton - Book of Household Management (1861) |
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By
the end of the 19th century, over one million people were engaged in
domestic service in private homes in Britain. One in three were young
women under the age of twenty of whom the majority were aged between 13
and 15.
They
were expected to work 18 hours a day with just half a day off once a
week for wages as low as £3 a year. They were fed (just about) and
given one or two items of cast-off clothing occasionally. Some found
good places where they were treated kindly; many were less fortunate and
were beaten and starved by their employers - kept in place by the
constant threat of being turned out without a reference. |
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Typical artisan house of the period
front view |
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Floor plan of the house above
(Not
to scale)
This
site slopes from front to back. Similar houses occur throughout
Devon and, on level sites, the basement area (shaded on the plan above)
becomes a large cellar with a grill outside, under the front bay window,
covering a coal delivery chute.
The
roof ridge between the chimneys shows how narrow the houses really are.
Gas was added to most at the start of the 20th century; this meant that
the coal-fired kitchen range could be replaced by a gas-heated wash
boiler (for hot water and boiling linen) and a gas cooker. Gas lighting
was installed in the main rooms at the same time. Electricity came
along much later with meters and connections being installed outside the
front door - even then, many houses retained gas lighting in some parts
of the house because it was cheaper to run. Bathrooms were a very recent
addition and most resulted from government grants given in the 1960s and
70s.
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This
house is typical of many built in Devon in the 19th century for what
were called "artisans" - tradesmen and craftsmen
with skills and ambitions to live in a better way than did their
forefathers. The builder of this pattern of house appealed to that desire
for improvement by designing the house with the assumption that there
would be a domestic servant (known then as the maid-of-all-work) to
run the house and attend to the needs of the family. In a sense, it
was like incorporating a refrigerator or a washing machine in the
design - the necessity for a servant was implicit in the layout of the
lower ground floor and if you were not ready for this, then you did
not give any consideration to this type of home. Incidentally, very
few were sold; it was the custom of that time for the builder to lease
out houses for set periods of time as an investment, so most people
paid rent instead of repaying a mortgage or loan.
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The
artisan way of life in England mimicked the lifestyle of the middle
and even the upper classes. The design of the house, with its entrance
hall, separation of the servant's quarters from the family part of the
house, together with front and rear entrances approached through tiny
areas of garden, aped details of much grander designs as did the little
projecting bays tacked on to the main rooms.
Equally,
the manner in which the family occupied the house copied details of a
grander lifestyle. No matter that they could not afford a retinue of
servants - the inhabitants of these houses heartily agreed with Mrs.
Beeton that "one must do the work of all" even if that
"one" was only a half-starved 13 year old from the local
workhouse.
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Rear
view of house
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Postmen,
coalmen, milkmen - all trade callers to the house used the lower
ground floor kitchen entrance at the rear, accessing each house along
what was the called the "back lane". Any rubbish which could
not be burned, including cinders from the fires and house dust, was
stacked outside each garden gate to await the intermittent arrival of
the dustman.
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The
Milkman*
From
a Victorian Scrapbook by courtesy of Steve Johnson |
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Unusually
for the times in Devon, the outside privy of this house, which is in
a seaside town, was connected to a main sewer so ashes were not used
in the disposal of waste as was customary elsewhere. The coming of
Brunel's railway line raised the hopes of the local town council that the
place would become a resort, with visitors pouring in to increase
local prosperity. There had been serious outbreaks of cholera in
Devon in the 1830s and 1840s so they realised that nobody would want
to visit unless they took drastic action. The sewer pipe was laid
throughout the little town before being taken out on to the seashore
just beyond the low-water mark - not very satisfactory by modern
standards but a great deal better than the ash pit** sanitation then
widely in use in Devon.
The
outside privy consisted of a wooden box. A hole in the top formed a
seat and a
handle on one side of the box, when pulled, opened a trap at
the bottom directly into the sewer pipe. A large jug of water was
kept in the privy to rinse it after use and once a week, the servant
scalded it with hot water and soda. Another of her duties was to cut
up the weekly newspaper into small squares and thread these on a
string to hang in the privy and later, in the upstairs water closet
when that was added at the turn of the century.
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| *Milkmen called twice a day. Ladles
were used to measure the milk which was poured into the customer's
jug and covered with a bead-edged net to keep out flies. Unused milk
was scalded at the end of each day for use at breakfast. |
| **Ash pit or earth closet
sanitation is still around - the National Trust has holiday cottages
available in 2003 if you feel the need to sample this particular
blast from the past! |
Click
here to continue
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