Mrs Mill’s memories of being in service early C20th

Once started, Mrs Mills of Hurrell’s Row, plunged happily into the past.

Started work at 13 years of age

She had started work at 13 years of age with two maiden ladies, the Misses Chamberlain, who lived opposite The Green, sisters of the first resident Doctor in Harston. The Chamberlains were remembered for charitable deeds and work for the Baptist Chapel. These ladies undertook her sole care and all her labours for the sum of 1/- per week (circa turn of the century). Mrs Mills stressed they were not unkind, but they had many ornaments, and every night it was her job to dust each one, remove it from the mantelpiece and place it on the dining table, there to lie covered by a dust sheet until morning, when the cherished objects were returned to their places on the mantelpiece.

After the ornaments, the chairs. These too were dusted and placed in the hall, until with morning light they were replaced in the dining room.

When Sunday afternoon came, recreation was provided between three and four (no stepping out to see Mother – Father had died when she was nine), but a book was offered for the little girl’s entertainment during the hour of that leisure. At four o’clock, the book was removed until the following Sunday afternoon. The reason why Mrs Mills wasn’t allowed to go home to see her mother who lived near, was because it made her cry so much when she came back. She left.

A better job

The next place was with a wealthy auctioneer in Cambridge. “Everything was very good. The silver was beautiful. Of course they had the pick of the sales and if they saw anything better than what they’d got, what they got went into the next sale and the best found its way to their table”.

“There are two things I am very particular about”, Madam told her new maid. “I want that chest of tea to last three months, and I don’t like cut bread at the table.” These seemed two very easy conditions to comply with, and when, at the end of the five months, plenty of tea remained in the tea chest, Madam was very pleased.

“We had everything the same. When they had asparagus for tea, we had it too.” ….” And they let my mother come to see me once a month and I could go home and stay two nights every so often. It was too dear to go both ways by train, so I walked home to Harston and went back on the train.”

Mrs Mills, dear friend of Mrs Sellen died in 1968?