Below Stairs

The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey

By Margaret Powell

First published in Great Britain in 1968. 

 

Recently, I borrowed the first season of Downton Abbey from my public library.  The contrast of the lives of the upper class gentry with their servants’ lives is fascinating, as are the attitudes each class holds for the other.  When I saw this memoir, written by a woman who entered service as a lowly kitchen maid in the 1920’s, I knew wanted to read a first-hand account of this period in history.  

Margaret was born second out of seven children to a poor family, and while she enjoyed school and had the skill and desire to become a teacher, she knew her family needed her help.  A couple extra years of school, even on scholarship, would be impossible.  While her family loved her, they were unable to keep feeding her.  At the age of 14, she went to work in a laundry, and a year later entered domestic service.  

She accepted this fate as her lot in life, yet was troubled by injustice.  Seeing the amount of food wasted every day in the upper class households brought to mind her hungry parents and siblings.  Her employers seemed to think their help were a different breed.  It would always surprise them to find out that Margaret knew how to read, much less that she enjoyed learning.  That is, if they ever found out.  Margaret notes that to many of the upper class, the servants were “invisible”. 

Mr. Kite, an older butler who had been in service since the age of thirteen, comments on his days in a large country manor.

“Well, they were so far above the servants that they literally didn’t see them.  I remember one evening when I’d risen to be a footman, I was waiting at the dinner table after the ladies had retired and the port was being circulated, and the gentlemen were talking about a very scandalous rumour that involved royalty, and they were all adding their quota to the rumour.  One of the guests remarked, ‘We must be careful that nobody overhears us,’ to which the host replied, ‘How could they overhear us?  We’re alone here,’ and at that time there were three footmen in the room.”

The mere fact that one was born to a particular social class clearly determined what they could become and how they should be treated.  As time went on, it was obvious to Margaret that this social climate was beginning to change.  War time changed things.  The upper class had fewer possessions and money and some employers began to see their servants as fellow human beings.  

Yes, the social climate has changed since those days, but I don’t think it’s changed enough.  How often is a person looked down upon because of their apparent income level?  How many more opportunities are there for the children of the wealthy to get a better education and a better job?  What about attitudes towards the jobless and homeless?  Have things genuinely changed that much?