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Along with the junior kitchen-maid, the scullery maid did not eat at the communal servants' dining hall table, but in the kitchen in order to keep an eye on the food that was still cooking. [ 3 ] Duties of the scullery maid included the most physical and demanding tasks in the kitchen [ 1 ] such as cleaning and scouring the floor, stoves, sinks ...
In the Victorian household, the children's quarters were referred to as the 'nursery', but the name of the responsible servant had largely evolved from 'nurse' to 'nanny'. The Nursery Maid was a general servant within the nursery, and although regularly in the presence of the children, would often have a less direct role in their care.
Nursery maid: also an "upstairs maid", but one who worked in the children's nursery, maintaining fires, cleanliness, and good order. Reported to the nanny rather than the housekeeper. The nursemaid would often stay with one family for years or as long as their services were needed. [19]
The servants' hall is a common room for domestic workers in a great house, typically referring to the servants' dining room. [ 1 ] If there is no separate sitting room, the servants' hall doubles as the place servants may spend their leisure hours and serves as both sitting room and dining room.
However, being a governess was one of the few legitimate ways by which an unmarried, middle-class woman could support herself in Victorian society. [6] The majority of governesses were women whose fortunes had drastically declined (e.g. Sarah Bennett [ 6 ] ), due to perhaps the death of their father or both of their parents, or the failure of ...
In the great houses of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the housekeeper could be a woman of considerable power in the domestic arena. [citation needed] The housekeeper of times past had her room (or rooms) cleaned by junior staff, her meals prepared and laundry taken care of, and with the butler presided over dinner in the Servants' Hall.
Victorian kitchen display at Lulworth Castle Victorian Dining Room, Waddesdon Manor. Many Victorian meals were served at home as a family, prepared by cooks and servants who had studied French and Italian cookbooks. Middle and upper class breakfasts typically consisted of porridge, eggs, fish and bacon. They were eaten together as a family.
[2] [3] Servants in the 19th and 20th century were found in all but the very poorest houses, ranging from a single "skivvy" in a poor household, to country houses whose staff numbered in the hundreds. Lethbridge has drawn from a wide range of both oral and written accounts to create a book that is "empathetic, wide-ranging and well-written".