The Life & Times of Victorian Servants

What was it like to be a servant at Audley End?

Life as a servant was hard and regimented. Typically servants were early to rise and late getting to bed, and time off from work was a rare luxury. Much of the work was demanding, particularly for the women. Scrubbing linen and scouring pans left hands sore and chapped, whilst churning butter could take half an hour of backbreaking work.

The rewards of service in a great house were, however, considerable. Wages paid to servants at Audley End were generous – more than could be earned in agriculture or most craft occupations. Moreover, servants received board and lodgings and could expect occasional treats such as a Christmas feast, as well as tips (known as ‘vails’) from departing guests. Notably their diet was far better than that of the average labourer, containing more meat and dairy produce.

Christmas week was, as could be expected, an extremely lavish affair. 541 lbs of meat, 260 eggs, 48 lbs of butter, 34 rabbits, 7 hares, 2 ducks, 4 chickens, 19 pheasants and 18 partridges were consumed by the family and servants over one Christmas holiday alone!

 Working Distinctions

There was a clear pecking order below stairs. Within the house the steward or butler and housekeeper were the highest ranking staff, supervising the rest of the servant body. At the bottom of the pile were the scullery maid and steward’s room boy, often only teenagers. The distinction between upper and lower servants was expressed in every conceivable way - in dress, food and accommodation, but also in the deference lower servants were expected to accord their superiors. Upper and lower servants dined separately at Audley End, and those of higher rank had more freedom of movement within the house and grounds. Do pop into the Servants’ Hall (now the Audley End Tearoom) to see where the upper servants would have eaten.

The Life & Times…Servants at Audley End House & Gardens

Elizabeth Warwick – housekeeper
As housekeeper Elizabeth (or Margaret Elizabeth) Warwick was responsible for managing the female servants and keeping the domestic accounts. In 1881, Elizabeth was widowed and working at Audley End House; born in Worcester, she was already an experienced housekeeper when she first came to Audley End. In 1861, as a widow she was managing the household of Colonel James Caulfield and his wife, Elizabeth at 23 Burton Street, St George’s Hanover Square.

Other servants in the household included a cook, butler, footman and two housemaids. By 1871, aged 44, she was housekeeper to Baroness Clementia Aveland at Grimsthorpe Castle, Edenham, Lincolnshire. There were a large number of other servants in the household including a house steward, groom of the chamber, underbutler, two footmen, and an usher of the hall. After leaving the Braybrooke’s service Elizabeth remained in Audley End, living by 1891 ‘on her own means’ in a house in the village, with her own servant, 15 year old Sarah Ann Day. She died in Audley End in 1900 aged approximately 81 years of age.  
 
 Emily Justice – lady’s maid
Emily Justice was lady’s maid at Audley End in 1881. Aged 27, it was her job to attend to Lady Braybrooke. Emily was a Londoner, born in St. James’s, Westminster. In 1861, aged 8, she was living in 9 Crown Court, St. James’s, Westminster with her parents John and Sarah, plus four siblings. John was a master butcher employing 4 men and a boy. We have been unable to find Emily in the 1871 census, though her sister, Mary Ann Justice, aged 13, was by this time working as a servant for Mary Ann Kenning – a 57 year old annuitant in Cambridge St, St George’s Hanover Square. It is likely that Emily went into service in her early teens, probably somewhere in Westminster, and was already an experienced servant by the time she moved to Audley End in the late 1870s. 
 
 Avis Crocombe – cook
Avis Crocombe, the cook in 1881, was 43 and unmarried. She came originally from Martinhoe in Devon. Avis was fairly unusual in being a woman cook as most of her predecessors had been men, often French chefs. For instance between 1871-2, the cook had been a Mr. John Merer, a Frenchman. We know that he was paid £120 per year – far more than the woman cook he succeeded, 25 year old Priscilla Conway, who received only £40.
 
In 1841 Avis was 4 years old and living with her parents Richard and Agnes in Martinhoe. Richard was a farmer, aged 50, and Agnes, aged 35, was his second wife. They had seven children living at home, of whom Avis was the second youngest. Avis had a long career in service behind her by the time she entered the Braybrooke household. In 1851, aged 13, she was working as a servant in the house of her brother, John Crocombe (31), who was by now farming 130 acres in Challacombe, Devon, at the southern edge of Exmoor.

By 1861 she had moved away from Devon, and was at 23 years old, a kitchen maid living at 3 Clevelend Square, St James, Westminster. Though the owner/tenant of the property was not present on census day, he/she was clearly a person of substance as there were at least ten other servants present including a housekeeper, housemaid, still room maid, lord’s housemaid, scullery maid, cook (Alfred Fraden), groom of the chamber, underbutler and two footmen. 

In 1871 Avis, by now 33, was cook and housekeeper to Thomas W.B. Proctor Beauchamp and his family of Langley Hall in Norfolk. Also in the household were a governess, two lady’s maids, a nurse, three housemaids, two laundry maids, three kitchen maids, two footmen and a groom amongst others.
 
After leaving Audley End, Avis married Benjamin Stride, a private lodging housekeeper in Paddington. In 1891 Benjamin and Avis were living at 40 Cambridge Terrace, with Benjamin’s daughter, Anna Jane (19), a dressmaker, and Jane Price, a domestic servant. On census night they also had a visitor, George W. Crocombe, a retired farmer and one of Avis’s Devon relatives. Avis was still living in Paddington and working as a lodging house keeper in 1901 at the age of 63.

 Eliza Durnford – housemaid
Born in Marden, Wiltshire, Eliza Durnford was aged 38 in 1881. She first appears in the 1851 census, aged 8 and living with her parents, William and Ann, and her sister, Mary (17) in Marden. Her father, William, was a farm bailiff. By 1861, aged 18, she was working as a house servant for solicitor Charles Henry Radcliffe, his wife Ellen and 2 children at 86 Endless St, St Edmunds, Salisbury. There were two other servants in the house – a nurse and house servant. By 1871, now aged 28, Eliza was working as a housemaid for Vincent Stuckey, a magistrate, banker and landowner of Hill House, Langport, Dorset and his wife Mary and one daughter. Other servants in the household included a lady’s maid, nurse, kitchen maid, footman, groom and another housemaid. Stuckey ran the Parrett Navigation Company with a partner, Walter Bagehot, who had a warehouse on the River Parrett. He had also worked at the Treasury and been a private secretary to William Pitt.

The Interesting & Unusual at Audley End

Research on the Service Wing at Audley End has turned up numerous interesting insights into life at the house during the early 1880s. It seems that Lord Braybrooke took a keen interest in the running of the estate. He was particularly proud of his pedigree Jersey herd, one of the first in the country. Amongst the archives at Essex Record Office are several sets of dairy books which record the output of each named cow in considerable detail.

It wasn’t just the productive output of Lord Braybrooke’s prestige herd that sets them apart; a quick glance at the fanciful names bestowed upon them reveals a ‘lighter’ side to life on the Audley End Estate:

Spermlight  
Blaze
Cloud
Shrew    
Phiz
Budelight
Gossamer
Midnight
Glowworm
Lemon Plant
Squib
Primula
Breeze
Light

Another of Lord Braybrooke’s passions was shooting, and we have several books listing game shot on the estate each year, including, in 1881, 2578 pheasants, 1934 partridges and 2271 rabbits.  

Some of the discoveries have been rather surprising. For instance, it appears that the Braybrookes were in the habit of weighing themselves and their dinner guests. The resulting ‘Weight register’ suggests the family were all fairly slim, though some of their visitors could have done with losing a few pounds. Lord Braybrooke also comes across as rather set in his ways. Much of the equipment in the service wing was far from modern in 1881 and the house was still lit by oil lamps. Documents reveal that he looked into the introduction of gas lighting in the late 1860s. Detailed plans were drawn up and a contractor appointed, but Lord Braybrooke changed his mind at the last moment.