Memories of my Mother

I was listening to the Jeremy Vine Show on radio two today and the main subject was did listeners have any memories of their parents or grand-parents who were in domestic service in the early twentieth Century.This brought to mind the many stories I heard from my mother who was put into Service at the age of thirteen and worked for a rich household in Hove East Sussex. 

She started work as an under house maid and had to get up at 4.00.am every morning to clean out the fire grates on all floors and lay them ready for kindling. She also had to clean the breakfast room before the family came down for their meal. It was only when these tasks were done that she was allowed some bread and dripping for her own breakfast and tea if there was any tea leaf dust available as tea was a very expensive commodity in those days. After serving her apprenticeship as under house maid she was promoted to house maid and was then in charge of looking after the bed rooms amongst other duties.

She used to tell me how difficult it was to iron out all the creases in the pure linen sheets as all she had to do this with was a black hand iron that had to be heated on the kitchen range. The house keeper used to inspect the beds after they had been changed and remade and if a crease was found Mother had to re-iron the sheet.

Another bedroom duty was to empty the china wash bowl which stood on a stand and refill the matching china jug with water ready for the next usage. There were no en-suite rooms and often the toilet was some way from the bedrooms therefore there was a chamber pot available either under the bed or in a closet. Every time the bedroom was cleaned then the pots had to be emptied into a “slop bucket” and then taken down the back stairs to be emptied into an outside toilet.

On Sunday afternoons the maids were expected to attend Church but sometimes my mother and a couple of her friends would enter by the main door and then come out by a side door so that they could go for a walk along the Hove to Brighton promenade.
The idea was to see what handsome gentlemen were out strolling in the afternoon sun and then drop a handkerchief hoping it would be picked up to instigate an introduction.  I think the ploy of skipping the church service was scuppered one Sunday when the house keeper followed them!.