“And who is to look after the horses, eh?”; exploring the duties, accommodation and wages of country house stable servants

York Georgian Society Lecture

The outdoor servants in country houses are very often overlooked by historians in terms of their role within the elite households they served and the specific work that they performed. Using images, accounts and documentary evidence drawn from the long eighteenth century, this lecture will examine the roles of the coachman, groom, postilion and stable boy and then look at how differences in their accommodation, clothing and wages defined their position within the domestic servant hierarchy.

Biography:
Elizabeth Jamieson is an independent researcher, lecturer and art historian with a specialist interest in the material culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She has worked for the Attingham Trust for the study of the British Country House for over twelve years, first as director of the Attingham Summer School and now as director of the Attingham Study Programmes and Short Courses. In addition, she is the curatorial advisor to the National Trust on horse-drawn carriages and historic stables and part-time tutor at the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education.

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