The Housekeeper's Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House

by Tessa Boase

Overview

Working as a housekeeper was one of the most prestigious jobs a nineteenth and early twentieth century woman could want - and also one of the toughest. A far cry from the Downton Abbey fiction, the real life Mrs. Hughes was up against capricious mistresses, low pay, no job security and grueling physical labor. Until now, her story has never been told. The Housekeeper's Tale reveals the personal sacrifices, bitter disputes and driving ambition that shaped these women's careers. Delving into secret diaries, unpublished letters and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's most prominent households.

There is Dorothy Doar, Regency housekeeper for the obscenely wealthy 1st Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Trentham Hall, Staffordshire. There is Sarah Wells, a deaf and elderly Victorian in charge of Uppark, West Sussex. Ellen Penketh is Edwardian cook-housekeeper at the sociable but impecunious Erddig Hall in the Welsh borders. Hannah Mackenzie runs Wrest Park in Bedfordshire - Britain's first country-house war hospital, bankrolled by playwright J. M. Barrie. And there is Grace Higgens, cook-housekeeper to the Bloomsbury set at Charleston farmhouse in East Sussex for half a century - an era defined by the Second World War.

Revelatory, gripping and unexpectedly poignant, The Housekeeper's Tale champions the invisible women who ran the English country house.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781314104
Publisher:	Aurum
Publication date:	06/01/2015
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	218,050
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tessa Boase has written three books of social history: The Housekeeper’s Tale (2014); Etta Lemon (first published as Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather in 2018), both by Aurum, and London’s Lost Department Stores (2022). She is a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster, appearing on ‘Secrets of the National Trust’ with Alan Titchmarsh, ‘Tony Robinson’s History of Britain’, and ‘Jay Blades’ Country House Through Time’.

She lives with her family on the Sussex coast.

www.tessaboase.com

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Part 1 Dorothy Doar of Trentham Hall 1

Part 2 Sarah Wells of Uppark 49

Part 3 Ellen Penketh of Erddig 97

Part 4 Hannah Mackenzie of Wrest Park 159

Part 5 Grace Higgens of Charleston 213

Epilogue 279

Notes 290

Acknowledgements 298

Bibliography 301

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

'A fluent study…Boase builds a deep, rich account of their individual lives, returning from the archive with some telling tales.'—Kathryn Hughes, Times Literary Supplement

‘A gripping popular history.’ —Bee Wilson, Sunday Telegraph

 'The truth is more scandalous than film or fiction – this is one of those social history studies that makes the reader howl with rage.'—Roger Lewis, Daily Mail

'It’s fascinating stuff, moving too, written with great brio and such a light but confident touch, which makes it all the more enjoyable.'—Virginia Nicholson

‘It is no easy task to find the voice of the professional domestic servant before the 20th century, but the author has done an excellent job piecing together the stories of these five lives through her painstaking research into letters, memoirs and accounts.’—Country Life

‘Wiped clean of romantic sheen, this is a fascinating perspective into our upstairs/downstairs history.’

—Sainsbury's Magazine

‘A brave book.’—Saga Magazine

‘Serves not only as an account of those who worked below stairs but also the lords and ladies who were their employers, thus providing an admirable social history.’—Scottish Home and Country

‘One of the great strengths of this book is how Boase gets under the skin of the real side of country house life.’—Eastern Daily Press

 'Boase makes history sing, packing her stories with details of family life and class distinctions and the minutiae of everyday living in a house with 10 or 30 or even 100 servants. A great read.'—Toronto Sun

‘Forget Downton Abbey; this exceptionally well-written book is the real deal.’—Spirit FM

From the Publisher