Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
At 18th-century Holkham Hall, service and secondary wings (foreground) clearly flank the mansion and were intended to be viewed as part of the overall facade.. Servants' quarters, also known as staff's quarters, are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation.
There is no precise definition of "great house", and the understanding varies among countries. In England, while most villages would have had a manor house since time immemorial, originally home of the lord of the manor and sometimes referred to as "the big house", not all would have anything as lavish as a traditional English country house, one of the traditional markers of an established ...
Gatekeeper - Job of guarding the main entrance to the estate. Groundskeeper – A worker who tends to the person's large property. Hall boy – The lowest ranking male servant who is usually found only in large households. Handyman – A worker who handles household repairs. Head Gardener in charge of all gardening.
The hall boy was the lowest-ranked male servant, but he could rise to a higher position in the household, [5] eventually becoming a valet or butler. Arthur Inch, a former butler who acted as a technical consultant for the film Gosford Park and the television series Downton Abbey , stated in an interview that he began his life in service as a ...
Meals in the servants' hall were sometimes very formal affairs, depending on the size and formality of the household.At dinner in a formal house, the butler and housekeeper presided over the table much as the master and lady of the house did 'above stairs' (i.e., in the rooms occupied by the employer).
The higher level positions – in particular those attending on the lord – were often filled by men of rank: sons of the lord's relatives, or his retainers. [ 8 ] The presence of servants of noble birth imposed a social hierarchy on the household that went parallel to the hierarchy dictated by function. [ 9 ]
The butler, as the senior male servant, has the highest servant status. He can also sometimes function as a chauffeur . In older houses where the butler is the most senior worker, titles such as majordomo , butler administrator , house manager , manservant , staff manager , chief of staff , staff captain , estate manager , and head of household ...
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.