What was life like on a English estate in the early 20th century?
Posted by McWhopper98@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 31 comments
I have been reading alot of Agatha Christie novels and more often than not the detective will visit an old english estate. The way they are described sounds so charming and nice, especially on a spring/summer day. Obviously the staff have a different view of living in such a place but I am wondering what it was like for the rich folk who lived there
Extra-Sound-1714@reddit
The servants often worked from six in the morning until eleven at night. It wasn't until 190 that a half day off in the week becomes common. It's why after the first world war when more occupations opened up, especially to women, that many chose other work rather than being a servant.
EyeAware3519@reddit
Most of these estates are open to the public now, come over and have a look around. Unfortunately I was neither rich nor alive in the early 20th century.
Timely_Egg_6827@reddit
Or have a look on rightmove - there are usually a few up for sale. Search by county level and then sort by most expensive. Some very nice videos
McWhopper98@reddit (OP)
Neither was I haha
Not exactly looking for first hand knowledge of it just the history. I would love to journey across the pond one day! Maybe when I win the lottery
Bilb-@reddit
But you can see the places in the UK fine. Some are still live at the as well
mdmnl@reddit
I wonder how many monied centenarians use Reddit...
Timely_Egg_6827@reddit
I mean there are still estates where all the housing is tied and staff employed. Helped at a country show at one - warned on way in that if anyone mentioned fox hunting just to nod ethusastically. The gentleman who owned it was a decent sort but if somone has full control over your job and house, you play nice. And that is one of the nice sides of being gentry - people doffed their cap to you, lots of greenery, horses and people dropping in. Relative who worked at another got the offer of being a wifelet - eccentricty and being a cad tolerated to an extent as money insulates but you better dress and speak the part and keep the right contacts.
Downside then and now was huge revenue issues. Those estates cost a bomb to run and death duties caused by the loss of one or two heirs in WW1 (officer class was worst hit in terms of casualities) sunk many of the great estates. Most are diversified with tied farms, shoots, farm shops, small business centres. I know one hedge fund manager who says he only does it to keep the milestone of the inherited stately home and estate afloat - I mean nice problem to have but even a higher level hedge funder manager finds it almost too expensive. There is a reason a lot were sold/given to the National Trust.
Staff were being tempted away to better employment in the cities. There was a reason for an influx of rich American heiresses from the railway baron families - money on one side, class and entry into polite English society on the other. And polite is a loaded term here - have a look at Debrett's ettiquette guides for what is expected of you.
Extra-Sound-1714@reddit
I know a village still owned by gentry. You can't buy houses there, only rent. You get interviewed to see if you will fit in.
Timely_Egg_6827@reddit
Suspect similar to one I know - off the A1.
stevebucky_1234@reddit
Downton abbey is a reasonable depiction, if very rose-tinted about how kind aristocratic employers are.
Old_Introduction_395@reddit
Yes. Far too nice to the servants.
I think Upstairs Downstairs was better.
Extra-Sound-1714@reddit
Upstairs downstairs was based on people who had been servants talking about what it was like
Timely_Egg_6827@reddit
Monica Dickens wrote a good book on it - "One Pair of Hands" - Charles Dicken's grand-daughter, she worked as a general cook/maid and then cook in a stately home in the period and then a nurse in the war. She has a very easy writing style with a lot of humour.
VxDeva80@reddit
Totally agree, its my favourite TV show ever, but my god its rose tinted.
My great grandmother was in service, when a member of the house came into a room, they had to face the wall and stand in silence until dismissed.
And thats the tamer story about those times.
Timely_Egg_6827@reddit
My Gran worked as a house-keeper into her 70s and her husband ran the gardens of the home of an elderly lady of the upper classes. She was very kind to us when we visited and we loved having access to 3 acres of playspace in Central Edinburgh. But it was a 24/7 job for my grandparents. House was huge with grqandparents staying in the servants' wing. Sadly now converted into about 30 flats with 40 houses on the grounds,
notouttolunch@reddit
I think many of the staff enjoyed their time working in houses. They were certainly better looked after when they reached old age after giving a lifetime service. Well, until that part of society fell apart in the 20s and 30s.
DameKumquat@reddit
It depended a lot on the family. My granny was a maid and rose up to cook, my granddad was a gardener - not at the same place, they met at the seaside, which was considered quite scandalous in itself in the late 1920s!
They did OK, but the 'young man of the house gets scullery maid pregnant and she's turned out without a reference' was quite a cliché - see at least 100 Catherine Cookson novels...
notouttolunch@reddit
I think that situation is a little bit like the Jimmy savile situation. When faced with a local celebrity, it's quite a thrill when someone expresses an interest in you. I read only yesterday about that woman from American pie who said that she slept with 200 people after being in the film.
However, I would say that they are only novels and they are designed to thrill. Nothing like this happened in upstairs downstairs!
DameKumquat@reddit
You're assuming the maid/stable boy got a choice in the matter. (Savile's victims sure didn't - he wasn't a celeb anyone lusted after!) It happened a fair bit in real life too, similar to any situation with a powerful boss, only with even less likelihood of the victim being believed.
Lunaspoona@reddit
As a wealthy man i imagine it was great. As a woman or non wealthy person it was probably awful.
TwoValuable@reddit
Honestly the decline of the English Estate had started in the late 19th century. The industrial revolution had people moving out of villages and into cities, Estate owners suddenly had to pay quite heavy tax bills, and world war one changed the way Britain functioned and domestic staff really became a thing you only saw in the true upper echelons of society. The second world war saw even more changes and suddenly lots of stately homes were being utilized for the war effort in some way.
Lots of land went from belonging to one family for hundreds of years to slowly being chipped away and sold to keep the main houses running.
The houses are still there and most are open to the public and that's how they generate an income to keep going. I recommend watching clips about Longleat House from Animal Park as it has some real comprehensive history all filmed for the show.
evenifihateit@reddit
For the rich people swanning about on them, or for the people working to keep them going?
WaltzFirm6336@reddit
Just make sure you realise they aren’t the same as council estates. My American friend took a job at a school on a UK ‘estate’ and it was not the Jane Austin dream she was hoping for.
Own_Organization_155@reddit
I am fully rolling on the floor laughing at this 😂
WaltzFirm6336@reddit
It’s even funnier if you know the London council estate the school was on, but I don’t want to dox myself.
PipBin@reddit
I grew up somewhere that was the tail end of that kind of thing.
At one end of our village was the big house, not a huge Downton type affair but the kind of place that these days would be a nice country house hotel. Everyone who lived in the village worked for the family in some capacity and they would rent you a house in the village for a peppercorn rent.
The family were lovely. They would let the children in the village use their swimming pool in the summer. They would have Christmas parties and summer fairs for the whole village. They would give money to any child of the village who went to university. Sadly they couldn’t afford to keep the house and the staff so the houses have been sold off and the family have moved out to one of the cottages. .
HoundParty3218@reddit
I think it would have been nice for a few days but it would get incredibly tedious quite quickly. The etiquette, constant changes of clothing and lack of purpose would definitely get to me.
Plus, those country piles are not at all comfortable by modern standards. They are very cold and the American heiress's who married into the English aristocracy, were always complaining about the lack of plumbing.
Petrichor_ness@reddit
My sister went to private school and had a few friends with large country homes, staff, land, titles etc assuming this is what you mean by estate?
One of her friends family bought their home from a bankrupt aristocrat. From snippets of overheard conversations and talking to the older teens of the house and a few staff, they always felt very much looked down upon as they'd earned their money rather than inherited it. One I'm still social media friends with always seems the feel the need to boast about their lifestyle like they're still trying to prove their worth 25yrs later.
Another of her friends were very land rich, cash poor but really nice people. They were looking into glamping pods and EU grants for environmental projects before all these large houses were. They also used to hire parts of their home out for TV and movie sets. Again, eavesdropping and chatting to older kids when we were driving our younger siblings around, I got the impression it was quite a burden and a lot of work. One of them once told me they're glad they're not the oldest as they'd hate to have this headache to be responsible for and told me I'm so lucky I'm poor!
L-0-T-H-0-S@reddit
For the wealthy it was a highly structured performance of privilege and leisure. Far from the charming and nice simplicity suggested by fiction, life was governed by an exhaustingly long list of social rules and specific etiquette that dictated everything, from who you could talk to at dinner to how many times a day you had to change your clothes.
On top of which the financial worries concerning how exactly one was to maintain these impossibly high standards polite society dictated drew many to commit suicide, the pressure to conform to the ridiculous pressures of social standing and keep up could be that high and exhausting.
It wasn't as depicted in Agatha christie books unless filthy rich and comfortably well established.
DameKumquat@reddit
Read PG Wodehouse - any of the Bertie Wooster or Blandings ones.
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