Up and Down Stairs by Jeremy Musson Read Free Book Online Page B

parents lived in from 1957 and retired in the early 1970s, by which time my father had been working at Boughton for forty-five years. 58
     
    The Bagshaws were placed in sole charge of Boughton while the duke, his family and other staff travelled between London and their other estates, Bowhill in the Borders and Drumlanrig: ‘My motherand father enjoyed their work, and always took their annual holidays when the duke and duchess moved to Scotland. The butler and cook would go with them to their other estates and each house had its own housekeeper.’
     
    Most of the housework was done by daily cleaners, while Mr Bagshaw, although officially the carpenter, effectively became the man of all works and custodian:
     
My father also did things like picking up the duke from the station. A lot of the staff at Boughton then would travel down from Scotland to live in while the family were there and then go back again when they left.
     
They were wonderful employers. When someone wrote a book saying how horrible working as a servant was, my mother was really indignant and said she had been wonderfully treated. Although she couldn’t deny the author’s own experience, hers was quite different. She had a pleasant time working at Boughton; the work was quite specialised and knowledge came with the years.
     
It was a proper little community and you had to get on with people. Things changed when the new duke [Walter], the present duke’s father, inherited the estate in 1973. They still had big house parties between Easter and August. The new duke’s wife, Duchess Jane, used to send notes to my mother detailing what rooms were required for which guest, who was staying and what they needed. The same routine was followed every year. Fruit and vegetables came from the kitchen gardens, and flowers were cut for the rooms. Duke Walter would come for the odd weekend on his own and my mother would cook for him then. The duke, a big forestry man, would come just to look at the tree planting. 59
     
    Mr Bagshaw became an authority on one aspect of the collection:
     
My father created the armoury, for the guns and pistols, when the house opened to the public, and became very knowledgeable. He was even consulted by the Tower of London. He also restored furniture. He was the house carpenter but in a way he was more like a curator, and he used to help hang pictures and tapestries. He helped clean the silver too – it was usually done by him or the butler. After my parents retired they both acted as guides at Boughton.
     
They really loved that house and I used to tease them that it meant more to them than I did. In truth, we all enjoyed Boughton. Our family could use the pool and tennis courts when the duke’s family were away. 60
     
    In modern times the country house is usually maintained by the daily cleaner, sometimes working in teams of two or three. In many cases they may have long associations with the family or the estate and may even have worked for the same house for twenty or thirty years. One such is Della Robins, the daily at Chavenage in Gloucestershire. When asked about her forty-eight years with the family and the house, she revealed a familiar nexus of relationships.
     
I came to Chavenage when I was fifteen and a half, and went to the local school. The Lowsley-Williamses were looking for someone to help look after the children, so I was taken on as a nanny’s help. When my parents were divorced, my mother became housekeeper to Frank Baker, a widower and the cowman at Chavenage to Major Lowsley-Williams. Frank retired in 1966 and later he and my mother got married. My husband’s father was the maintenance man at Chavenage. My father-in-law, Fred Robins, also worked at Chavenage for over fifty years. 61
     
    When Della arrived in 1961, there had been some post-war scaling down but there was still a traditional household of staff:
     
When I came there was a cook, Mrs Bianek (who was a Polish refugee), and her husband, and a