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 was chauffeurs seen to possess dangerous clamor?

And why did Maid's revolt against wearing mock 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 Downtown 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 downtown Abbey household is a relatively short period.

I mean in fact it lasts for about 75 years in that form with which we're familiar with parliaments 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 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

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 downtown, a little bit later.

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