thank you for your first hand reply. Ken ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Clarke" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 1:00 PM Subject: Re: [B'ham] Servants > > Ken Poole wrote > Sunday, June 22, 2008 1:49 PM > Subject: [B'ham] Servants > > > " I am always amazed at the youth of servants and sometimes their great >> distance from >> home. How were these people "hired" > it just seems odd to me that 13 year old children were >> let out to service.What were they paid? Etc." > > Hi Ken, > > My mother was in service from age about 14 years. Initially locally where > she was a general maid and was paid fourteen shillings per calendar month. > This would have been in around 1922/1923 in Berkshire. > Her Dad's next door neighbour's daughter had a post in London and when > another became vacant in the "big house" my mother wenr for interview and > got the job as a parlour maid. She was paid £3.00 per calendar month, she > was thrilled about this enormous raise. This was in central London and > around 1924. I imagine most of those employed got the jobs by knowing > someone already in the house. However it would be interesting to know if > there was some other way. > I also imagine that late eighteenth century pay would have been a lot less > than my mother got. > For country girls there was little other employment available and the > families often could not afford to keep them at home. My paternal great > grandmother was born in Cornwall in 1843 but was "in service" in London > when she married in 1867. > Barbara > > > >