A Comparison of Charlecote Servants Wages with a Semi-Skilled Worker in 1841 Below is a list of what the various Charlecote servants earned per year. This is from Charlecote information and is displayed in the kitchen. Mary Horton Cook £42 Elizabeth Hunt Cook £21 Elizabeth Thirza Housekeeper £35 Agnes Cooper Kitchen Maid £16 Mary Lee Kitchen Maid £13 Harriet Scullery Maid £11 Emma Cornish Scullery Maid £10 Susan Taylor Scullery Maid £9 Sara Dunn House Maid £18 Hassif House Maid £18 William Parsons Butler £30 John Edwards Footman £18 Especially in the kitchen we have a lot of interest from visitors about the servants wages and how small they seem to be. It is very difficult to make meaningful comparisons with present day earnings because everything was so different. I think the following is a helpful way of addressing this problem. The information below shows a typical household budget of a semi-skilled worker in 1841; this admittedly is 25 years earlier than our 1866 wages list, nevertheless I feel it is helpful. The family below spent all their earnings; the bulk of it on food. The servants at Charlecote were fed, housed and provided with uniforms for their working periods so neither the food or the rent headings compare. In comparison with the worker with virtually no disposable income, the wages of the servants were almost entirely available to spend, to save or to give in support of their families. Therefore whilst the wages look small, in contrast with our semi-skilled worker they were huge. To look at it in another way, to cover similar costs of food and rent the servants wages would have to be considerably higher. I don't for a moment suppose that the servants had to work any harder than our semi-skilled worker! I came across this information in 'Food in History' by Reay Tannahill. It is from an 1841 Report by S R Bosanquet called 'The Rights of the Poor and Christian Alms Giving'. It shows the household budget of a semi-skilled worker earning 15 shillings a week which is about £ 39 per year. Item shillings pence 5 @ 4lb Loaves 3s 6½d 5lb Meat 2s 1d 7 pints Porter 1s 6d Coal 9½d 40lb Potatoes 1s 4d 3oz Tea 1lb Sugar 1s 6d 1lb Butter 9d ½lb Soap ½ lb Candl 6½d Rent 2s 6d Schooling 4d Miscellaneous 5½d Stewart Scott
|
Len Mullenger is a Sunday volunteer guide. Any comments are welcome and can be sent to len@musicweb-international.com
Return to Index page