大象传媒

Upstairs Downstairs life

I left school at 14 the next day I was in service at Mompesson House for 2陆 years then I went to the lower end of St Anne Street and did the same job there for 2 years. Working in the Close (Salisbury Cathedral Close) and living so near, I was able to have my days out. It was quite nice really.

During the war I was a scullery maid and it was all stone flags, the passages and everything I used to have to scrub them. In October we used to get the men come for the pheasant shoots. They used to have a room right opposite my toilet and I used to creep up there. Miss Gertrude and Miss Beatrice Teddington run the house then. It鈥檚 a National Trust house now. I was so disappointed when I went there as all the best rooms were closed off. It was a shame really. The bedrooms and the pantry and the kitchen 鈥� all that was closed off. All there really was, was the staircase. Having to do all the steps and stones, all that; I was only a kid.

Every May the judge used to come to do the assizes in the Guildhall. All the men were there in their busby hats waiting outside to take the judge to the Guildhall. He used to bring his cooks, his butler, his valets, everything with him. The whole house was let to them but we carried on working there.

When I left Salisbury, I went to Charlton All Saints to a chicken farm. I was in service there.
My husband was called up on the 2nd September 鈥� he volunteered. He said 鈥淚 won鈥檛 be long dear鈥� because we hadn鈥檛 been married for very long. 鈥淚鈥檒l be home鈥� 鈥� a fortnights time he was over in France and I didn鈥檛 see him for 6 years! We managed all right. I鈥檇 had a child in 1938 and another in 1939 when he was away.

When my husband was in France 鈥� he was at Lille. He went into a restaurant to have a cup of tea, or a caf茅 or whatever and he saw a newspaper there. So he picked it up and what did he see? The death of his brother. That鈥檚 how he come to know that his brother had died. The sloop went down at the Norfolk Broads. Very sad.

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