History of 19-23 Abercromby Square
Panel 11: Service in the Square
The sheer size of the houses of Abercromby Square required an army of servants. Servants in the area tended to be female and between the ages of 15 and 49. The number of women employed in this area was above average for England and Wales. By the mid-19th century, female domestic servants were an essential element in Liverpool accounting for 16.2% of the total female population. There had been an increase in the number of domestic servants from the early-19th century onward, in part as a reflection of the growth of the middle classes.
Service offered the opportunity for varied positions in employment for cooks, ladies’ maids, housekeepers, housemaids, chambermaids, sewing maids, tea maids, pantry maids, waitresses and nurses, in addition to laundresses and washerwomen. In Liverpool, almost half of all women in formal employment in 1881 were in service, but by 1911, the proportion had fallen quite markedly to less than 35%. This can be explained by the access to factory, mill or shop jobs with less hours and more pay especially after WWI. Factory jobs meant less than 50 hours a week while servants regularly worked 70.
Jean Mitchel’s experiences offered a good example of what service entailed. Although positive about her experiences with the Chavasse family, descriptions of her work illustrated the commitment required from often very young maids. Jean’s recollections showed that Mrs Chavasse oversaw the servants with the assistance of a housekeeper. Bells were used to summon staff though there was also speaking tubes between the dining room and the kitchen. Maids were expected to scrub floors by hand and, in the Bishop’s house had to attend prayers and bible reading. Food and accommodation were provided but not the dress uniform that servants were expected to wear. It was standard for maids, as Jean was, to be allowed a half day off once a week.
Fig 11.1 This young maid worked a few streets away from AS on Rodney Street around 1900 (Museum of Liverpool).
Link: The History Press. Women and Domestic Service in Victorian England https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/women-and-domestic-service-in-victorian-society/
References
Allan, A.R. (1986) The Building of Abercromby Square, University of Liverpool, 27.
Lawton, R. (1955) The Population of Liverpool in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 107, 96,111.
Lee, R. (2005) Domestic service and female domestic servants: A port-city comparison of Bremen and Liverpool, 1850–1914, The History of the Family, 10(4) 435-460.
Todd, S. (2009) Domestic Service and Class Relations in Britain 1900-1950. Past & Present, 203, 181–204.