[Shona]

Dr Pamela Cox from the University of Essex is a fairly well-known social historian. She wrote a book called Bad Girls which looked into the young girls in reform schools in the Victorian era. Some of them were 'reformed' and 'trained' for domestic service. She wanted to show that the Downtown version of service is a myth as none of the servants seem to do that much work.

My family is full of agricultural labourers and the accounts I've studied relating to the areas where they lived reveal a pretty tough life. The lucky ones were taken on at annual 'hirings'. The less lucky were taken on as day labourers on very low wages. As with so many families, many left the countryside to seek work in industrial towns and cities. One great-great grandmother worked in the coal mines, carrying coal on her back to the surface. Afterwards, she worked on the surface 'sorting coal'. I've read a book on the working life of women in the Fife coalfields and I can see the attraction of domestic service. Particularly when I compare those experiences to the working life of one of my great-grandmothers.

She was born to illiterate farm labourers in Devon. She started her working life in service at about the age of 12. In 1871, at the age of 12, she was a 'nurse girl' to a butcher's family in Devon. Ten years later, she was a housemaid in Russell Square in London (her bedroom was later the room TS Elliot worked in!). I would love to know what she did in the intervening 10 years. What drew her to London and how old was she when she went to London?

The family she worked for was headed by a wealthy French hat and feather merchant, who at the time of the 1881 census, was at his country house. As a Frenchman, he liked his wine and French cuisine. Whether the servants were served French food, I don't know. What I do know is that my gran, my father, one of his brothers and a cousin all worked as cooks or chefs.

By the time of the 1891 census, great-granny was still single and working as a housemaid in Sussex. She was employed by the Christy family - famous for bringing the 'Turkish towel' to Britain. I hope the housemaids got to use the lovely, fluffy towels.

Moving 10 years on, she was married to a Gaelic-speaking crofter in the west of Scotland. She must have continued to work in service. though. One of my uncle's said she was a ladies maid at 'the big hoose'. However, in 1911, she was recorded as a 'crofter's wife'. Still haven't managed to figure out how she met my great-grandfather. Did she move to Scotland and work there? Or did she meet him when a family she worked for took their servants to Scotland for the shooting season?

I have a copy of a letter great-granny wrote when one of her daughters died. In it she described how Mrs Hall wanted to send 'cousin Donald' with the 'Rolls Royce' to drive the family to the burial ground. The whole tone of the letter shows that there was a close relationship between my great-grandmother and Mrs Hall.

The country estate where Mrs Hall lived was built by one of the men who founded what became P&O.

Great-granny in service seemed to have a better time than great-great-grandmother who worked in the mining industry.

I enjoyed the programme. Some of the original sources were exquisite.