Do the aristocracy have staff?

[Mamarsupial]

Just been watching the original 70s series of Upstairs Downstairs.

Obviously the world has changed, but there are still a few old aristocratic families (and a lot of ultra-rich in new money as well). I imagine they have staff- but what sort of staff? I’m guessing not parlour and scullery maids - but then, surely somebody does their laundry? Who?
What about butlers? Do they live in? How do they address their employers?
So many questions! Does anyone know?

There was a programme 'keeping up with the aristocrats' on ITV a few months back - some of them seemed very skint. Running the house seems to take a hell of a lot of money, before you even get to actually having staff.

The First World War was the beginning of the end of the huge houses like Downton. Reduced population and more opportunities for workers which didn’t require them ‘to live in’.

And they afforded it because wages were cheap, supply was plentiful and there was no benefit system so you either worked or died.

I receive many commissions from aristo clients.

I often will stay at their home during the process of painting their portrait, and I can say most of the landed gentry I work for have a few staff.

Estate manager, PA, housekeeper, nanny, monthly nurse for newborns, cleaner, groundskeeper, groom if they have horses.

Most I notice only bring in a cook for dinner parties, shooting weekends etc, rather than having one in full time employ.

I’ve seen a number that are cash poor asset rich, so will have a beautiful home with priceless paintings and furniture, but the roof is in dire need of repair and there a buckets everywhere.

Mixed bag. I prefer my aristo clients over my new money clients every day, lovely manners, pay on time and host you as a special guest when you stay during the sketching/portrait sessions.

I digressed, but they are my favourites to work for!

Expats often have live in staff. I think it’s rarer ing the uk.

It's not really 'aristocracy' vs 'commoners'. It's more who can afford what. Many old school aristos are cash poor and can't afford any help. Many middle class people working long hours have a nanny, housekeeper and garden co coming regularly. We are comfortably off but not super rich and have a full time live in gardener/handy person (staff cottage) and a full time housekeeper who lives out. Lots of people around us would have a housekeeper and nanny.

@MargotChateau only in the UK is 'new money' considered an insult. Everywhere else, someone who is self made is considered way more significant an individual than someone who merely inherited. Behaviour and attitude is across the board. Some self made people are arses. Some are elegant, educated and well mannered . Some inherited wealth individuals are gracious. Others are cluelessly unaware and seriously lacking intelligence and dreadful ti he around. Manners are not connected to wealth

Well, of course we do. My maid is writing this at my dictation.

My parents are certainly not aristocracy but have cleaners, gardeners and a handyman, though none are live-in. There's a mason that uses stables on their land as his workshop and does a lot of work for them but that's not really the same thing.

When I was young we had live-in nannies as they both worked full-time (they're semi-retired now).

“we have the income, so why not”

🤣

I love reading the staff wanted ads in the Lady magazine online - definitely quite a few live in staff needed for some people.

I'm a gardener and there are plenty of live in positions available. I'm interviewing next week for a full time position in a household that has a property manager, PA and housekeeper all full time too.

OP have a look on grey coat lumley, a job board for such roles. Butlers often come up as vacancies.

I worked as a nanny for a very well off family once (not aristocracy but very very wealthy) - they had a housekeeper, extra cleaners, PA, chef and driver. I don't think any of them lived in though. Possibly the housekeeper. They had gardeners and handymen but I don't think they were full time - I think they just came regularly but also had other clients.

When people had a lot of live-in staff there was a lot of exploitation. Those live-in maids were paid very little in terms of actual money - for the most part theiy were working for a roof over their heads and 3 meals a day, with a wage which was enough to buy a few luxuries and save up a nest-egg maybe. The closest modern equivalent would be the "au pair" but aupairs are supposed to be treated as one of the family and have only light duties and plenty of time off to account for their "pocket money" wage, whereas maidservants back in the old days would have been expected to be working from before dawn to late evening. It wasn't much better than slavery and once opportunities for factory jobs became common with the industrial revolution, better pay and conditions could be readily found. Nowadays except under an au pair arrangement, minimum wage legislation prevents this kind of exploitation. There's only a very small reduction in minimum wage for providing accommodation and food so unless illegally avoiding the law it's a lot less affordable.

(Though modern slavery exists including trafficking someone into the country, taking their passport and preventing them from finding out their rights so they think they have to work all day for nothing but their accommodation and food)

We have no staff except paying for a gardener for a couple of hours a month to keep the hedges tidy. The house is a tip and DH and I spend far too much of our leisure time on household tasks, and it's only a boring ex-council 3 bed semi. I would love to employ a housekeeper/pa to do all the life-admin basic functionality of running the home, among the housekeepers tasks would be sourcing and managing cleaning and laundry services. But I would need to more than double my income to afford that so just have to live in squalor. I wouldn't buy a bigger house without sufficient income to pay staff to keep it clean and tidy though.

The wage gap between rich and poor used to be staggering so dozens of staff were affordable. Unfathomable now.

DH has aristo cousins. They have a nanny, many groundsmen/ gardeners and a housekeeper/ cleaner. Small size Manor house with huge grounds and outbuildings which are used commercially.

Yes they do.

i used to work as a “live in”. I started off working for one family as a live in head groom and then got sent to work for relations of theirs as a housekeeper/nanny. I was also head hunted by other families to work for them (bud didn’t go). I always lived in the main house and always below stairs. In my first house I was strictly not allowed upstairs (apart from nights where the eldest son snuck me up for a shag). 😆🙈

Oh and I worked ten hours a day, six days a week for £70. This was mid 90s. But even then it wasn’t a good wage. But got board and lodging on top.

The local stately home round here seems to get a lot of staff signed on as volunteers. The gardeners are volunteers, the house guides are volunteers, the ticket people are volunteers. They pay the cafe and shop staff. There are also estate staff which are paid.

The super rich, most of whom most people have not heard of have plenty of staff, housekeepers, nannies, grooms, gardeners and security.

One of my friends looks after some very wealthy people’s horses and takes the kids to shows, aided by the nanny.

A lot of people on this thread seem to be associating aristocracy with 'wealth'.
A lot of aristocrats are cash poor. Day to day they drive old bangers, have threadbare furniture, eat like they're on rations and would consider a paperback book a perfectly sufficient Christmas gift for a close friend or family member.
But they can sell a priceless antique if they need to raise emergency funds, and they can put their kids through Eton using a trust fund that was set up solely for that purpose.
They typically have a few hours of cleaning, driving and gardening support a week, but no permanent live in staff anymore.

My mum used to be a live in housekeeper for a very wealthy family (not aristocracy but old money in the countryside)
they had several gardeners, a cleaner, laundry service that the cleaner was in charge of and my mum. Mum managed the house, food shopped, prepared some meals (they did breakfast themselves and some other meals), managed various other things, paid the staff etc
so yes they do :) but they don't wear uniforms and bob curtesys these days.

There was a time when even middle class people had servants, a cook/housekeeper, maid and gardener. As in the Enid Blyton books.

DH's family always had staff. Butler, full time cook, full time gardener, housemaid etc. Certainly until the 80s.

But yes death duties and downsizing mostly changed all that in the fullness of time.

His now sadly deceased aunt had two carers come in for the last years of her life. She had dementia and thought they were her butler and housekeeper. These wonderful wonderful people absolutely took that on board and her male carer would dress up and present her her tea on a tray and call her 'Ma'am'. It was lovely.

@CloseYourEyesAndSee I think that depends who you are working for, all the estates I’ve managed in the past ten years still have butlers in full uniform/livery when the principal is home.