Meta-narrative or micro-history: a census-based study of domestic service in Edwardian rural Berkshire

Jolly, P. (2023) Meta-narrative or micro-history: a census-based study of domestic service in Edwardian rural Berkshire. PhD thesis, University of Reading. doi: 10.48683/1926.00118939

Abstract/Summary

This thesis uses a largely quantitative approach to position female domestic servants within Berkshire village and market town life at the beginning of the twentieth century. Previous demographically based studies, using the only available census material and often focussing on larger Victorian urban communities, addressed neither rural domestic servants nor concentrated on the years immediately before the outbreak of war when service remained the commonest female occupation. My work aimed to populate this void, concentrating scrutiny on 1911 census returns for rural areas and smaller towns. Analyses of census schedules for nearly 1,200 servants addressed five distinct but interlocking threads, collectively illuminating the essential characteristics of contemporary Berkshire domestic service. These covered the home backgrounds of Berkshire servants, migratory trends within the servant community, the internal structure of the servant economy, the composition of households employing residential servants, and employment opportunities for young women outside service. Subsidiary aspects included comparing sample communities from a generation previously, using censuses to track employment patterns amongst younger servants, and assessing the extent of alleged servant shortages. The thesis found little statistical evidence to support claims of a widespread servant problem. Service was an integral feature of community life with limited alternative employment opportunities for rural girls. Young domestics tended initially to remain local before moving away. Distinct variations in patterns of service county-wide, such as the many single-servant homes in the west of the county, reflected wider socio-economic community structures. The dynamics of specific master-servant relationships were, despite domestic servants being almost exclusively female, governed more by class than gender. Notwithstanding limitations in using raw data from decennial censuses, this study shows the importance of local studies in social history. Many findings supported known trends and endorsed existing research, bolstering their value, whilst others challenged generalities derived from research on conceptually different communities.

Item Type	Thesis (PhD)
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/118939
Identification Number/DOI	10.48683/1926.00118939
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Humanities > History
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