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So today I have some rooms to look at. From the sumptuous dining room and huge kitchen of a great country house like Charlecote Park, Warwickshire to the small but very pretty parlor of a Welsh cottage, it is amazing to see how much work would have gone in days gone by to make the tea (dinner) for the Welsh cottage let alone the huge evening dinner at the country house. Of course such large and elaborate meals would not have been possible without servants. Here is a list of positions within a typical country house, perhaps like Downton Abbey. There was a hierarchy within the house so we begin with:
The Upper Staff Hierarchy
The Butler
The Housekeeper
The Cook or Chef
The Ladies Maid or Valet
Followed by the Lower Staff:
First Footman
Second Footman
Head Nurse
Footman
Chambermaid
Parlor Maid
Housemaid
Between Maid
Nurse
Undercook
Scullery Maid
Laundry Maid
Pages or Tea Boy
And that is only the inside staff, there was another hierarchy for the lands and stables…
Which would you rather have, all those servants or just you and your fire and kettle?
Brit Tip: Many of the country houses we can now visit have kitchens that can be viewed, however if you visit the National Museum of Wales, St Fagans, near Cardiff you can see a whole range of cottages as they would have been from the 16th century to the 1960’s. It is a fascinating look at how modernization took place…
For more info see St Fagans here or National Trust info here.
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