It is early in the morning of March 31st 1881 - Census Day - and we must imagine ourselves at the premises of William Delafield, a boot and shoe maker in Frankfort Street, Plymouth. In a few years, this will be one of Plymouth's busiest streets, housing large stores and, opposite William's house,  the headquarters of The Western Morning News, one of the leading newspapers in the South West.

Map showing Frankfort Street in the 1890s

That's all to come though - for now, Frankfort Street is a street of small shops and private residences, most of which are not unlike the house on the previous page. Perhaps William's house is a little larger to accommodate his work area and stores. Perhaps there is an extra floor at the top of the house complete with a tiny room lit by a skylight in the ceiling where the servant sleeps. The house has a basement kitchen, interminable flights of stairs and fireplaces in all of the family rooms. It probably has a single cold-water tap down in the basement and an ash pit privy accessed from the rear yard which may be shared with other families. Outside William's house, an iron grating is set in the pavement through which coal is delivered into the cellar next to the kitchen. The house  is dark, extremely inconvenient and rather smelly.

Today, the local enumerator is calling to collect the Census Forms which list William Delafield, his wife Amelia, Charles their unmarried son, Polly their unmarried daughter, their granddaughter Lily, Alfred Hayes - a civil servant who boards with them and 16-year old Rose Jane Stentiford who, single-handedly, performs almost all the tasks required to keep this household going.

"To clean the back of the grate, the inner hearth and the fronts of cast iron stoves:

Boil about a quarter of a pound of the best black lead with a pint of small beer and a bit of soap the size of a walnut. When that is melted, dip a painter's brush, and wet the grate, having first brushed off all the soot and dust; then take a hard brush, and rub it till of a beautiful brightness."

Rose is first up in the mornings - 6.0am in summer, an hour later in winter. She goes downstairs and begins her day by clearing out the fire box in the kitchen range, laying a new fire, lighting it and hanging the kettle over it. She then visits the parlours and dining room to clear and re-lay the fires there. The brass fenders have to be polished, the ornate grates have to be black-leaded, the tiled inlays cleaned and Rose must take special care to remove soot from the inside of the grate as a precaution against chimney fires. All the cinders and ash must be carefully saved for use in the outside privy.*

Rose visits the cellar to refill the large wooden coal scuttles kept in each room and carries them up, past the shop on the ground floor to the family rooms above - two flights of stairs carrying a considerable weight. The kitchen range alone will burn around 51kg (112 lbs) of coal each day - all of it carried in by Rose.

Time to carry hot water to the bedroom floor next. Three flights of stairs to be negotiated, carrying large enamel jugs , then down to the dining room to set the table for the family breakfast. China, cutlery, food and drink, everything is carried up two flights of stairs from the basement before a meal and carried down afterwards - by Rose, of course.

Cold meat, rashers of bacon and poached eggs would certainly be expected by Mr. Hayes, their lodger and by the other men of the family. If they were on a tight budget, the women of the family would eat a lighter diet.