Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

What was it like to be a servant in one of Britain's grand, stately homes. How much were domestic staff paid?

Why were chauffeurs seen to possess dangerous glamour?

And why did maids revolt against wearing mop caps?

From daily drudgery to stories of scandal,

in our latest Everything You Want to Know episode,

historian Lucy Lethbridge speaks to Lauren Good about the reality of domestic service in the era of Downton Abbey and beyond.

Hi Lucy, thank you so much for joining me today to talk about everything domestic service.

During which time period was domestic service widely used?

Well there has not been any period in the whole of the history of humankind where domestic

service hasn't been used. I think that what we think of as the kind of servanted Downton Abbey household is a relatively short period.

And in fact, it lasts for about 75 years in that form with which we're familiar with parlor maids and uniforms and butlers.

And it really is a response to 19th century social anxiety. And so you get a much more codified form of

service. Previous households would have had much more sort of tribal feeling, I think, you know,

maids very often slept with their mistresses, for example. There wasn't the sort of separation of

servants and employers within the

house, but the 19th century codifies this in a very sort of managerial sense, so you get the

domestic sphere in the middle, and then you get the outer circles of servants beyond that. But yes,

there's been no time in human history where one person hasn't used another

for help. And we'll delve into the hierarchy of servants in these large country houses,

as you mentioned there in Downton, a little bit later. But first, you spoke there about many people

having used servants. From what financial standing did people

...