It has been a while since we have had a little history post. This is a short snippet about a maid probably sometime between the world wars.
As you probably know, in England until the Second World War and even up until the late 1950s the middle classes and even some well-paid workers had ‘a woman’ who would come in to help the lady of the house clean-up and do the laundry.
These were often middle-aged women or poorer neighbours looking to earn some extra cash and who would work for several different employers much like char-ladies or cleaning companies operate for some households now.
Sometimes younger women or especially immediately following both world wars, refugees from Europe, would be more formally engaged as maids and often work for just one family. They rarely lived-in, although this could happen, but as one might imagine in lower class households, where they were perhaps much less likely to stand on ceremony, these girls were often considered a friend or part of the family.
This was all above board and for the most part we can assume not the least spanking-related. However, it seems there was at least one exception as this shows. The exact source of this anecdote is unknown and must be rather dated by now but it was republished on a vanilla blog about social history back in 2006.
It begins with a rant about ‘kids today’ and the usual assertion that ‘a good hiding never did me any harm’ etc.
“Even in our 20s, we could still expect Dad’s belt if we stepped out of line and we never resented it. One time even Agathe our maid got a good hiding.
She was from Belgium and used to teach me French sometimes. She was only a couple of years older than us and I remember that she used to speak funny. I got the belt once for making fun of her when she first came, but she didn’t mind and was really nice about it.
One day some money went missing from Mum’s housekeeping. It was only a few shillings and most of the money was left alone, which pointed to me or one of my sisters taking it. To be honest we had taken money before, but usually put it back before Mum noticed.
On this occasion as no one owned up the three of us, Kath, Jane and I were all for it despite our protests. Kath and I got walloped arse up over the back of the old settee in the front room one after the over and Jane, who was at work, was to get it when she got home.
I don’t know how Agathe found out, but I remember being surprised to see her on her day off. One look at her face and it was obvious what she had done. Mum was furious, but as she had the money to give back Dad took her to one side and found out she had some problems.
The only thing that bothered me about it was that Jane wasn’t going to get the same as us.
Then as Agathe was about to leave she suddenly stopped and spoke to my Mum. I didn’t hear but the next thing I know she is taken into the front room and after a couple of minutes we hear the sound of a belting.
That was the only time as far as I know and we were all pretty impressed that she took it without fuss. The only time it ever got mentioned after that was when Jane teased Kath, who was the eldest, that she wasn’t too old either and that she herself had got off one.”
One can only speculate as to Agathe true motives that day, but maybe she was even less innocent than she made out. It’s a great story nevertheless and pity that it is only a glimpse into the incident.
