Days Off

we had every third Sunday off duty and one half day per week. My treat each month was going into town with the ‘Tweeny’. We would have tea and buns and then go to the pictures. Payday was the first of every month so we usually went into town the first half-day we had off after this. That afternoon would mean most of my wages gone, but I didn’t mind. The rest of my time off I spent exploring the Surrey countryside, so different to the valleys of Wales.

All staff quarters were in the East Wing Kitchen and men staff in the basement. Housemaids and parlour maids were on the ground floor. Even on our half days we had to be in by 9.30 p.m.

After this time the East door was locked. One day, on a day off, we decided to go for a walk, in our posh new shoes of course.

We knew that there were troop movements in the area and we had a nice walk into the village were we met a couple of soldier boys, promising to meet them again on our next day off. The problem was when they left us. We thought we knew a short cut home and we got lost.

We decided that the only way to find our way again was to go back to where we started from, from which point the village was about three miles from our home. It was getting dark and my feet were killing me in my ‘not so lovely now’ new shoes.

It must have been well past 9.30 and I was getting really worried, although my friend really didn’t mind, she was always that much tougher than me. We started to make our way back towards the village and I decided that my shoes just had to come off. Shortly after this, one of the local taxi drivers drove past, luckily he was well known to us and so gave us a lift right back to the East door of our home.

The door was of course locked. It was 11.30 by now. We both knew what dead trouble we would be in and rang the doorbell gingerly. After a short time both the Butler and the Head Housemaid appeared behind the door. The door was flung open and I was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and dragged along the corridor to my room with all kinds of threats being thrown at me. The ‘Tweeny’ appeared to get off lighter than me. The Butler just told her to get to bed and he’d see her in the morning. Upon which she was given a stiff talking to. I was never allowed to forget that little escapade.

The ‘Tweeny’ and I spent a lot of time together, both on and off duty and although her boss was the Butler and mine the Head Housemaid, we often had to work together. Twice a week we both had to collect vases from the main rooms, throw the old flowers away, wash out the vases and fill them three quarters full of water for her Ladyship to arrange the flowers.

We loved those afternoons. Her Ladyship would chat with us and ask questions as to how we spent our spare evenings out.