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?

I've a young family friend who is at a loose end between her university courses. She is working as a 'Girl Friday 'in the interim and seems to do everything from pa type roles to making light meals, cleaning, driving and collection duties.
She's worked for a couple of aristocratic families and it's been fascinating for her. She also gets free accommodation and meals and meets a whole range if different people.

Depending on the family but I’ve worked alongside:

housekeepers
chef/cook
nannies (day/night/weekend)
maternity nurse
gardeners
grooms
chauffer

Some farms would have employed a maid.

@5foot5 I’m also watching on ITV hub! We had the whole aeries on VHS too and I used to live watching it with my parents growing up.

I started the re-watch at the beginning of Series 3 as I was looking up the Titanic storyline. If you’re nearing the end of series 2 you've got it coming up soon! I continued to watch and am now halfway through series 3.

Although now I think I might go back to series 2 to watch the suffragette episode as I can’t remember that v.well!

They tend to have staff who work on the estate which operates as a business, so gardeners etc. Privately they may have a cleaner and possibly a nanny/housekeeper, but nothing like the old days where they had a butler, kitchen staff etc.

The few I know are busy trying to keep the estate going without selling off property and land and are just keeping their heads above water.

And the one where the King comes to dinner, that's a classic! About half way through series 2.

Here

I love looking through these!

https://www.greycoatlumleys.co.uk/jobs/private-households-and-estates?source=google.co.uk

@fyn I am fascinated!

I come from a C19th family of professional servants, and estate managers feature heavily along some lines – as do gamekeepers. Clearly they were bred to their professions, and I assume found jobs through connections (upstairs and down) as they take positions at landed estates up and down the UK.

You say estates, plural, for your own work.

May I ask, Is this just moving jobs over the course of your career, or do you work for more than one estate at once (modern tech making this easier)?

Lots of the very rich have 'staffed households' - usually around Kensingston, Chelsea, Notting Hill in London and then they'll often have a weekend home in the Cotswolds.
Not necessarily big estates, but space for a nanny or housekeeper flat in London and a separate annex or cottage in the country to house staff.
Lots of jobs in country homes for 'domestic couples' where one partner is a housekeeper/nanny/cook and the other is a driver/handyman/gardener.
Plus lots of 'daily' nannies, butlers, house managers, PAs.

Check out the positions being advertised just through this agency. And there are loads of domestic employment agencies about:
staffofdistinction.com/positions-list/

@Intru out if interest, what is the difference between housekeeper and cleaner?

@Meadowbreeze a housekeeper tidies up as well? And coordinates/manages other household domestic duties and staff.

What I'd really like is a cleaner who tidies up.

@LeMoo So like a PA and organiser? Why would you need both a housekeeper and a cleaner if a housekeeper cleans and organises? Or have I misunderstood. Clearly not made for that world.
I think you'd have to grow up in it anyway, even if I had the money if feel incredibly bad about someone going around cleaning up after me.

@TressiliansStone I started working on estates at 18 (just over 10 years ago) in the ‘estate yard’ as an apprentice on a very large estate with 600 residential properties plus 10,000+ acres and commercial buildings. There were people working there that were born on the estate to generations of estate workers. Their children often went on to work on the estate too. They had houses for life and could stay in the house after they retired too. I left to qualify and have managed other estates since then all as an in house Estate Manager on smaller estates with just 100/200 properties and 5,000 acres.

Smaller estates that might have smaller farms and less residential properties are often managed by Estate Managers who work for Savills or Strutt & Parker and manage a lot of small estates. You can also work for firms like the National Trust where you manage estates that are resided in by the donor family but managed by the National Trust.

@fyn that's fascinating. Out of interest, what does your job entail?

Friend of the family is a butler and yep staff are quiet normal especially for those with several homes. He spends most of the year in Switzerland

Housekeeper - usually works full time, does all 'housework', tidying, cleaning, laundry, ironing, shopping/Ocado order, dealing with tradesmen, maybe cooking as well, baking, looking after the kitchen garden and collecting veg, herbs, making jams, and might do pet care and some childcare.
Some housekeepers might do PA duties as well but some employers prefer to hire separate PAs or have Nanny-PAs if they have children at school or who board.
Cleaners - only do cleaning, often self-employed and might just work a few hours a week for multiple clients.

In some bigger houses you might have a separate housekeeper or house manager and then employ different staff as cleaners, cooks, laundresses, but it depends how much work there is.

Lots of houses might have a housekeeper or a nanny-housekeeper full time, and then a cleaner who comes to clean the kitchens and bathrooms and do the floors once or twice a week - just like a SAHM might use a cleaner.

Or in a bigger country house, the housekeeper might live in a cottage on the grounds and have a local live-out cleaner come in to help.

@fyn thank you, very interesting.

We have a housekeeper, two gardeners, a handy man and a part time nanny.
It makes no difference if you live in a big house, you need to have staff to help as it is not possible to do everything yourself. Not a luxury as such.

My friend has a lady to make her G&Ts - I always thought that was quite lavish.

And a groom

The people who say we have a cleaner and a gardener who comes every week etc

That's not having staff. That's using a service unless you directly and exclusively employ them

I have a window cleaner and a milkman. I don't feel the need to start that sentence with "I am not landed gentry but...". Nor should you for your cleaner, gardener etc.

We do have an exclusive housekeeper and one of the gardeners - the other one is more or less retired and only comes to us for a break from his wife. The groom is more or less employed with us, but does the odd riding lesson at the weekend.
The services we use in addition to this are too numerous to mention, I am sure they are same as everyone else.

No that’s different @Kissingfrogs25

i was referring to previous posters who seem to have a cleaner or gardener come for a few hours a week (as one of their many clients) and are equating that to having staff.

Are there still Bertie Wooster types who have a “gentleman’s gentleman” ?