Clipping your master's toenails, ironing his shoelaces, spending 17-hour days doing back-breaking work with no employment rights were just some of the realities facing servants in late Victorian and early Edwardian Britain, according to a new BBC series.
Moreover, if female servants received unwanted advances from their masters, they had little power to stop them.
As a rule, most servants tended to work not in big stately homes full of fellow workers and camaraderie but as the lone member of staff in a middle class town house - and lives for these people was lonely, dark and damp, according to a new BBC documentary series.
Servants tended to work seven days a week, often from as early as 5am until as late as 10pm, for very little money.
I do like the rest of the job description:
Clipping your master's toenails, ironing his shoelaces, spending 17-hour days doing back-breaking work with no employment rights were just some of the realities facing servants in late Victorian and early Edwardian Britain, according to a new BBC series.
Moreover, if female servants received unwanted advances from their masters, they had little power to stop them.
As a rule, most servants tended to work not in big stately homes full of fellow workers and camaraderie but as the lone member of staff in a middle class town house - and lives for these people was lonely, dark and damp, according to a new BBC documentary series.
Servants tended to work seven days a week, often from as early as 5am until as late as 10pm, for very little money.