Mr Pearce passed me over to the footman, Edward Nicholson from County Durham. He spoke with a Geordie accent and ended most sentences with the word ‘champion’. He explained to me that he ought to have gone into the local mine but since it was only on part time work, somebody had suggested going into domestic service. I gather he originally went to Woolton Hall, as the hall boy, under Mr Henry-Dent-Brocklehurst, the Major’s father. The Major gave him the job as footman at Sudeley Castle to start before Christmas 1930. I believe that it was Mr Henry Dent-Brocklehurst who first put in electricity and heating throughout the castle and who also put in two under passages. He seemed to spend a lot of his time switching off lights that were not, in his view, necessary. He kept a few race horses at Burley, Woolton Hill but I was told that he did not win much money from them.

Just as Mr Pearce always talked about the war, Edward seemed to pine for Durham and would talk about the struggle of their villages, the strikes and the poverty as a result of the strikes. I used to ask him if the miners actually did any work! Once outside the castle, Edward and I were caught playing football by the lady of the house. She gave us the job of cleaning all the outside windows and we learnt not to play football near the castle again.


Edward showed me to my bedroom which was over the boiler on the first floor. There were two beds; the second one was for visiting chauffeurs. My bed was nearest the window and I could always see Cleave Hill from there. My bedroom made me feel, at least for one night, like a prince. It had a chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a mat, two chairs, and a white chamber pot. It had brown linoleum and nice curtains and the bed itself had two blankets, white sheets and pillowslips and an overleaf. For the first time in my life I was able to go to bed on my own and most of the time the bedroom was mine alone. The 3rd or 4th housemaid made my bed and cleaned my bedroom and every evening at 8:00pm she would lay out my pyjamas.

When a chauffeur did come for a few days, I generally enjoyed his chat. A Mr George told me that before 1914 he was a hall boy in North Wales for a titled lady and every Friday afternoon, the lady delivered soup for the poor. George carried the soup in two pails on a yoke. The first time he did this, he walked alongside the lady but she stopped and told him that he must walk five yards behind her and keep quiet. He laughed when he remembered the event and said that the old people used to bow and scrape to her while she gave out the soup. As soon as the war started she called him into the lounge to be told ‘do his duty’. He replied that he would join that day, if possible. He joined the guards and later in the front line he prayed that he would get a ‘Blightie’ injury. He was injured but survived.

At 12 noon on Monday, 1st December 1930 I had my first meal in the servant’s hall. Initially the only ones there were Janet the head housemaid; Edward the footman; the cook; and myself. Within two weeks there was a full staff consisting of the butler, footman, hall boy, odd job man who was married and lived in the North Lodge, cook, kitchen maid, scullery maid, lady’s maid, Janet the head housemaid, 2nd, 3rd and 4th housemaids and chauffeur. There was also Maud, an old Scottish lady, who was 1st laundry maid and there were the 2nd and 3rd maids. They worked at the laundry, a building situated between the North Lodge and the vegetable gardens and spent all their time doing the laundry. You left your dirty laundry in a bag on Monday morning and you received it clean by Friday afternoon for free.

Miss Unwin, the nanny and the assistant nanny lived with the children and I believe that there was also a governess, but the governess did not generally mix with other servants. The assistant nanny was a young girl who came from Ludlow and she used to come to collect their food. I used to meet her in the boot hall, where I cleaned the knives, boots and shoes with the odd job man, but when I told her that I liked her, she blew me a ‘raspberry’. The remaining staff consisted of the head gardener, another Mr Pearce, and about six assistant gardeners. There was also an estate manager and a few others working on the estate. We had our pecking order and the youngest ones of us were expected to be seen but not heard.

Early in 1931 Mr Buckingham gave notice to Mr H Dent-Brocklehurst to leave his service at Burley, Woolton Hill, Newbury. The Major had offered him his old job back at Sudeley and Mr Buckingham agreed. The Major then sacked the previous butler who was married. Mr Buckingham received £100 per annum plus board and time off and clothes, he also valeted the Major. Edward received £35 per annum plus full board and one uniform and one suit. I believe the cook received £60 per annum and Janet £45 per annum.

On Tuesday, 2nd December 1930 at about 2.15 p.m., I was standing by the stairs when a young attractive lady aged about 24 or 25 years came by the pantry followed by Janet. The lady stopped, looked at me and said to Janet “Is this the boy?” to which Janet said “Yes, madam”. They went into ‘Janet’s room’ near the base of the stairs. The lady seemed to explode with anger when she saw the furniture. She said “That is too good for servants, I want it out!” Janet told me in a low voice that the lady was Mrs Dent-Brocklehurst, and then hurried to the boiler room and got the odd job man and myself to take the furniture out. It was placed in a spare bedroom opposite to the men servants’ bathroom and the odd job man and myself followed Janet around picking up plain chairs to replace the ones with reddish padding on the seats and backs which had been removed. I felt deeply ashamed of Mrs. Dent-Brocklehurst that day when she humbled poor old Janet. I think it is dreadful to put people down! The odd job man found it difficult to do the job easily because of his war injuries. He tried to get the major to help in his efforts to get a part war disability pension. He later left and was replaced by Mr W Hughes from South Wales who had been out of work in the mines for some time. He and Mrs Hughes lived in the north lodge from 1931 until after the Second World War. Since Mr Hughes could not afford to pay for the cost of moving his chattels from South Wales to Sudeley Castle, the ministry of labour paid for it. Mr Hughes received 31s 6d plus accommodation in the north lodge. He was strong, Labour minded and always very poor. He did not eat food in the servant’s hall. We used to talk a lot in the boot hall and after the war he wrote to me and asked if I was a butler or a footman. I told him that I was a student.

Janet came from Inverness and started at Sudeley Castle in 1898 when she was 18 years old as a housemaid for Mrs Emma Dent. Janet continued to work at Sudeley until the major pensioned her off towards the end of WWII after about 50 years of service. Janet told me that, until the beginning of WWI, when the gentry returned to Sudeley from holiday, the inside staff had to parade inside the North Gate near the North House, on both sides of the path, as if they were in the army. Until 1914 most of the servants went to Sudeley church on a Sunday in their uniforms and they sat in the back of the church. Janet also told me that the male servants had to spend the afternoons topping up the paraffin in the lamps and cleaning the wicks. I believe that some of the lamps were big enough to require two men to clean and replace them.

Janet spoke well of the daughter of the family who had died in 1916 in Egypt and said she felt sorry for Mrs Marion Dent-Brocklehurst in her bereavement. I think Janet got on well with this lady and I understand that she used to allow Janet to keep her two weeks annual leave until the second year and then take four weeks in Scotland. Janet, however, seemed to be frightened of the current Mrs Dent-Brocklehurst.

Janet and Maud, the 1st laundry maid, both had the right to have a doctored black cat. Often they used to visit each other with their cat and they would speak to their cats like we speak to our young children. Janet used to tell ‘her girls’ never end up like me as an ‘old maid’, marry any man even a dustman or a road sweeper and try to make your life together successful rather than end up like her, a spinster with only a cat! I can once remember Janet telling her girls that “men are mad for sex”; the maids asked Janet if she had ever ‘had a man’. She said no but during the Great War she saw some Scottish soldiers lifting their kilts to see no pants. When I was laying the table for supper, I would listen to their never ending discussion on young men and how to get one. Often they would argue with Janet and declare that they did not want any man but a handsome one, young with good prospects. Janet told us how she, with her sister who lived in Scotland, were saving to buy a house so that they would not end up in the workhouse. The head of the servant’s hall mentioned how difficult it was to save the first £100. Domestic servants could never get the dole before WWII.