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In my historical novel ‘A Ha’penny Will Do’ my heroine Kate McCarthy has to go into domestic service in order to earn a living. I’d like to try and give a picture of how hard it really was. As a ‘maid of all work’ in Liverpool Kate had to do everything without any other help, except a washer woman once a week, for the heavy stuff like bed linen. This was a common occurrence in middle class households at the time. Middle class trades people could only afford one servant so full use was made of them. They would start work at the unearthly hour of 6am and work through to at least 9pm, often sleeping in a damp basement or a garret room. In the novel Kate bemoans her lot:
“Every day, I get up at 5am and start work by 6. The list of things to do seems endless – lighting fires, sweeping floors, cleaning hearths and grates, washing dishes, cooking meals, dusting – oh, always dusting! The dusting is a task I can never hope to finish – chairs, tables, furniture, window frames and ledges, doors, shelves, ornaments, china, glasses – it never stops. Then there’s the beds to change and make, and the children to see to….”
Not only was the work exhausting, but no ‘followers’ were allowed, meaning no visitors, especially not any gentlemen callers. The household rules were very strict on this and on many other things, which had to be obeyed at all times. Servants in those days had to be ‘invisible’ to the household, not talking unless spoken to and as Kate describes it: “… a non-person’, a ‘nobody’ who just exists to serve.”
Luckily for Kate she ends up being taken into the MABYS servants programme when she gets to London. MABYS stands for Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants and they ran a variety of centres around London to help train and place servants into decent households. The regime was strict but fair and fees had to be paid for the servants’ training and lodging, but it was a very good organisation which helped many people. As Kate notes in her diary:
“I never been much of a one for cooking, but now I’m learning fast. We’re also being taught all about the different roles in a grand house. As for the home itself – well, the beds are hard but clean, and the food basic but plentiful.”
This leads to Kate getting a much better placement as a parlour maid in a big house in Bloomsbury but even here the work is hard. There was also a strict hierarchy within the servants. At the top was the butler and the housekeeper, who were generally older and more experienced than the rest. Housekeepers were usually addressed as Mrs Smith, Jones or whatever, though they were rarely married! Names were often changed by the mistress of the house anyway, to suit what she felt was proper. Ladies’ maids were often called Jane (even if they weren’t) and the footman, James. The Master and Mistress had ultimate say over their servants lives and there was little freedom. Usually servants only got one day off a month, plus a half day once a week.
At the bottom of the hierarchy was the poor scullery maid, and this is what Kate sadly gets demoted to, after a lot of anti-Irish feeling in the country. This is where we get the term ‘skivvy’ from. It was the lowest of the low, and they weren’t even allowed to eat with the rest of the servants. In this extract from Kate’s diaries, she describes what it is like:
“Oh woe! I’m fed up with being wet and cold. From half past six in the morning to half past nine at night all I do is boil, wash, scrub, scour and heave water around! Water rules my life, as much as the sea does a sailor. My hands and arms are red raw and the only way I keep me feet dry is by standing on a wooden platform. The minute a utensil is used by Lizzie or Martha it has to be washed, dried and returned for further use; it’s a never ending cycle.
Not only that, but I also have to clean the kitchen, all the servant’s rooms, the offices and scrub the front steps of the house, just to show how respectable we are. We have to keep up appearances at all times. They may be very fine steps but I’m beginning to hate them!”
As we can see domestic service was not an easy option for anyone, but it was regular employment, plus board and lodging, which in those days was not to be under-estimated.
About the author
Let
me tell you a bit about myself – I am married, have five cats (yes five!), a
rabbit and I live in Devon, England. I
used to work as a teacher of English and maths to teenagers, but now I just
concentrate on my work as an author.
My
inspiration for my books comes from the research I have done into my own family
history. The reason I have been so
fascinated by this is mostly because I am an only child of two only children,
which thus means I have no brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts or cousins! I am sure this is very unusual. Is there anyone else out there in the same
position? I’d love to know.
My
debut novel was ‘The Glass Bulldog’ in 2019, followed by short novella ‘Someone
Else’ in 2020. ‘A Ha’penny Will Do’ is
my latest full length historical novel, set at the end of the 19th
Century.
Recently I have started up the South Hams Authors Network, based in South Devon, to support and encourage local authors. We meet regularly in the local pub to discuss issues such as publishing, marketing, social media etc and to create opportunities for the group. We have been reading from our works at local libraries, doing radio interviews as well as getting coverage from the local press. It has been a truly collaborative effort.
BOOK LINKS
https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/ha%E2%80%99penny-will-do
Amazon US:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-hapenny-will-do-alison-huntingford/1140863962?ean=9781398408135
https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-hapenny-will-do/alison-huntingford/9781398408135
Website:
https://alisonhuntingford.com
Email:
alisonhuntingford91@gmail.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ahuntingford9/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ahuntingford9
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahuntingford9/
Books By Helen Hollick
Website: https://helenhollick.net/
Amazon Author Page: https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
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| A Mirror Murder #1 in the Jan Christopher Cosy Mystery Series set in a 1970s London library |
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Helen