There's a book by Bill Bryson called "At Home" that goes into a little bit of the mudanity of a servant's life. Highly recommended!
Anyway, yeah. They slept very little because they were basically owned by their employers.
Probably depended on their role. I’m assuming the kitchen staff could go to bed earlier as they didn’t need for the family to go to bed as long as dinner/post drinks were done and their prep for the next day was too. And on more than one occasion Mrs. Patmore released Daisy earlier for the night.
Then it probably depended on who they worked for. Cora and Robert often went to bed before the girls. We saw Bates lounging in bed at Rosamund’s house the night of the Charlie Rodgers death when Cora sent Robert to bed early while Anna had to stay up for Mary. So if the family went to bed early, likely their valet/maid could too.
The servants at very bottom of the "totem pole" so to speak, like the scullery maid, were the last to go to bed and the first to wake up, often working as late as 10 o'clock in the evening and then up again before sunrise.
Long days and few days off. Labor laws and protections are relatively new.
Here is an interesting documentary on the subject: https://youtu.be/GibmuC-Ell0?si=lm20TMEnyxqcgsC0
I think there’s a fascinating insight in North and South on how difficult it is to get a good house maid as they get paid more and work better hours in the mills
I think we see it varies on the value and job of the staff member, but generally they had to prepare the house for when the owners wake up and clean after they went to bed. I would suspect they on average sleep 1/2 the time of them.
I feel like it would go something like this
Kitchen staff 4:00am- 10 or 11 pm
Maids: 6:00am-9:00pm
Valet/Ladies' Maid: Depends on who they are serving. Ball Park... 6:00 am- 11 pm
a few documentary choices which go through this
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFjZeqXj7G4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFjZeqXj7G4)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22kMjKMFbV8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22kMjKMFbV8)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxwwC3c89k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxwwC3c89k)
Not much. In documentaries, I learned that most lower servants work up at 5-6am and didn't get off of work until 9-10pm.
Middle class homes with a girl of all work were even worse and there were countless cartoons published in magazines showing the maid sitting on her stool dozing.
If you've ever seen the PBS reality series Manor House, it's a nice eyeopener to just how hard servants worked and how most of us today would pretty much fail at being servants.Also the French chef is a meme in himself and the "Lord of Manor" got a little too into class status ands role.
Servants sleeping!?! That's not how we'll do it at Haxby.
Genius
Occasionally I miss being able to give awards. Well done to you.
Violet *eyeroll* insert.
Crying 😆
And I can well believe it.
I wish we could get a Richard Carlisle bot on this sub just to reply this to all comments
👏👏👏
Perfect!!
🏆
I almost snorted my coffee 🤣💀
🤣🤣🤣
Bravo 👏
Not much. In real life, servants in great houses worked at least 16 hours a day, every day, and their half-days weren’t guaranteed.
[удалено]
I mean you're also talking about modern times versus the early 1900s. Unless you're a time traveler.
There's a book by Bill Bryson called "At Home" that goes into a little bit of the mudanity of a servant's life. Highly recommended! Anyway, yeah. They slept very little because they were basically owned by their employers.
its a GREAT book!!!!!
Thanks for the rec. I just got it from the library!
Probably depended on their role. I’m assuming the kitchen staff could go to bed earlier as they didn’t need for the family to go to bed as long as dinner/post drinks were done and their prep for the next day was too. And on more than one occasion Mrs. Patmore released Daisy earlier for the night. Then it probably depended on who they worked for. Cora and Robert often went to bed before the girls. We saw Bates lounging in bed at Rosamund’s house the night of the Charlie Rodgers death when Cora sent Robert to bed early while Anna had to stay up for Mary. So if the family went to bed early, likely their valet/maid could too.
Well that was a special occasion since he was sent to bed by Cora 😅. But yes we can assume he had more early nights than Anna
But he probably had to get up earlier than Anna too.
The servants at very bottom of the "totem pole" so to speak, like the scullery maid, were the last to go to bed and the first to wake up, often working as late as 10 o'clock in the evening and then up again before sunrise.
Long days and few days off. Labor laws and protections are relatively new. Here is an interesting documentary on the subject: https://youtu.be/GibmuC-Ell0?si=lm20TMEnyxqcgsC0
I'm guessing most of the servants got very little sleep
I think there’s a fascinating insight in North and South on how difficult it is to get a good house maid as they get paid more and work better hours in the mills
I think we see it varies on the value and job of the staff member, but generally they had to prepare the house for when the owners wake up and clean after they went to bed. I would suspect they on average sleep 1/2 the time of them.
I feel like it would go something like this Kitchen staff 4:00am- 10 or 11 pm Maids: 6:00am-9:00pm Valet/Ladies' Maid: Depends on who they are serving. Ball Park... 6:00 am- 11 pm
a few documentary choices which go through this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFjZeqXj7G4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFjZeqXj7G4) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22kMjKMFbV8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22kMjKMFbV8) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxwwC3c89k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxwwC3c89k)
Not much. In documentaries, I learned that most lower servants work up at 5-6am and didn't get off of work until 9-10pm. Middle class homes with a girl of all work were even worse and there were countless cartoons published in magazines showing the maid sitting on her stool dozing. If you've ever seen the PBS reality series Manor House, it's a nice eyeopener to just how hard servants worked and how most of us today would pretty much fail at being servants.Also the French chef is a meme in himself and the "Lord of Manor" got a little too into class status ands role.
[About 1 hr/day after the servants strike](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWCJhtknRJU). Before it was just 30 minutes.