Free Life Below Stairs by Alison Maloney

Electric washing machines became available for homes in 1917 and fridges a year later but, again, only the
wealthiest families could afford them. Similarly, gas cookers hadbeen commercially available since the 1850s, but few mistresses bothered to have them installed and there was
little or no access to mains gas outside of major towns or cities.
    As a consequence, everything had to be done by hand using traditional methods passed down through the generations and a lot of elbow grease. Stone floors were scrubbed with soap and water and to
clean the carpets the parlourmaid would scatter damp tea leaves and then sweep them up, usually on her hands and knees.
    One of the hardest tasks was cleaning and blacking the large kitchen range first thing in the morning before setting the fire. This was done with a block of black lead that could be bought for
around 4 d . (1.7p). The maid broke a little off each day and mixed it with water before applying with a brush.
    An advertisement for Chivers’ Carpet Soap in 1910, a cleaning product designed to ease labour
    Mrs Beeton sets out specific instructions for this arduous task, recommending the housemaid or kitchen maid should, ‘lay a cloth (generally made of coarse wrapping)
over the carpet in front of the stove, and on this should place her housemaid’s box, containing black-lead brushes, leathers, emery-paper, cloth, black lead, and all utensils necessary for
cleaning a grate, with the cinder-pail on the other side.
    ‘She now sweeps up the ashes, and deposits them in her cinder-pail, which is a japanned tin pail, with a wire-sifter inside, and a closely fitting top. In this pail the cinders are sifted,
and reserved for use in the kitchen or under the copper, the ashesonly being thrown away. The cinders disposed of, she proceeds to black-lead the grate, producing the black
lead, the soft brush for laying it on, her blacking and polishing brushes, from the box which contains her tools.’
    Brunswick Black
    The householders’ bible also includes a recipe for ‘Brunswick black’, which provided an ‘excellent varnish’ and
     would prove easier to clean:
    INGREDIENTS – 1 lb of common asphaltum, ½ pint of linseed oil, 1 quart of oil of turpentine.
    Mode – Melt the asphaltum, and add gradually to it the other two ingredients. Apply this with a small painter’s brush, and leave it to become perfectly
     dry. The grate will need no other cleaning, but will merely require dusting every day, and occasionally brushing with a dry black-lead brush. This is, of course, when no fires are used.
     When they are required, the bars, cheeks, and back of the grate will need black-leading in the usual manner.
    With so many mouths to feed, on such a frequent basis, cook used an array of huge metal pots that were constantly being washed up by the kitchen maid or scullery maid and the cleaning products
had to be mixed together from various household substances. Margaret Thomas recalled a sideboarddisplay of huge copper pans that had to be cleaned until they sparkled, for
the mistress’s morning inspection, using a mixture of sand, salt, flour and vinegar, rubbed onto the metal by hand.
    An advertisement for Jackson’s Household Necessities from Mrs Beeton’s Family Cookery
    Beeswax and turpentine were used for polishing the floor and furniture polish could be made with equal proportions of linseed oil, turpentine, vinegar and wine.
    THE SERVANT PROBLEM
    The reluctance to provide labour-saving devices was typical of many employers’ attitude towards their servants’ toil and became a source of resentment in the
early twentieth century when other job opportunities were opening up for young women and servants were becoming increasingly hard to find. A 1944 report by the National Conference of Labour Women
pointed out that this lack of consideration continued well after the First World War, when fewer and fewer women were going into service: ‘Labour-saving equipment, which could