Then & Now: Life Below Stairs

[CanadaSue]

I very much enjoyed the first season of Downton Abbey & as I grow more absorbed in the story lines & characters, it got me thinking more about life below stairs. My family immigrated from across the pond & we come from very much below stairs roots. When I lived in the UK for 3 years, I toured a lot of stately piles. As impressive as upstairs was, I loved downstairs - always was intrigued by the work that had to have been needed to keep up such BIG places. Yup - I'm a peasant at heart.

I found a couple of web sites - it's not hard - that detail a servant's life & the hierarchy below stairs. The second site is great. It also gives servants' salaries - back then & in today's dollars. There's an added comment. If the salaries in today's dollars seem ridiculously low... there were no taxes to be paid & few of today's expenses either. No phone or other media bills, no vehicles to pay for, etc.

Interesting reading:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...-quarters.html

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/servantwages.htm

[Potemkin]

I think people forget that people wanted these jobs. They were highly sought after.

I also think a lot of these were jobs by [i]noblesse oblige[i]. In other words many were not needed but they were there to provide monies to the people who lived on the nobles land.

Evidence for my view is when mooney to orun the estate is squandered. The nobles did some of the work or no one needed someone to do that job anymore.

Of course, some just like to have a special servant and room to brush hunting clothese. They were born to expect things like that.

[CanadaSue]

They certainly were sought after. Jobs in service were highly sought after. Your fortunes weren't subject to the vagueries of weather & harvest. There was a clear path upwards for those who worked their butts off - harder than everybody else who worked their butts off anyway.

You were relatively warm & CLEAN. You were gifted with material to make up your uniforms yearly & could expect a half day off a week if your employers were generous. Even the plain fare fed to lower members of staff was decent & plentiful - not to mention less likely to be contaminated with nasties.

The better masters & there were a great many, DID see to the welfare of servants too old to work. Many had small cottages on their estates or attic rooms where retired staff could remain until their death if they chose to stay. Looking after them physically when that became necessary would have been good 'basic training' to become a body servant - valet or ladies' maid.

Considering the times, there were rather far nastier ways to earn a living.