AHRC-Network „Hidden lives: domestic servants in the European country house, c.1700-1850“; Jon Stobart, Manchester Metropolitan Univ. (Web)
Time: 02.-03.06.2025
Venue: Manchester
Proposals by: 02.05.2025
Servants’ lives are an increasingly important part of the visitor experience at country houses across Europe, with visitors often feeling that these are the people with whom they can most closely identify. Many houses engage actors to play the part of servants or encourage a more hands-on experience in the service rooms, such as kitchens. Yet presenting servants to the public is fraught with practical challenges: many servant spaces have been colonised for other uses (stables as tea rooms, bedrooms as office or storage space) and the archival record is often patchy, especially before mid 19th century. There are also questions about the extent to which servants’ lives can be fully grasped and communicated: the pleasures and feeling of community, but also the pain, bullying and occasional sexual exploitation. This workshop seeks to explore and exemplify the ways in which servants’ lives have been presented to the public, focusing in particular on the period before 1850.
The workshop will take place over two days. We will visit country houses in the region (including Erddig Hall – Web) on 2nd June and be back in Manchester on 3rd June for the presentation and discussion of research papers.
We invite papers on any aspect of the presentation of country house servants’ lives to the public, and particularly encourage contributions that focus on:
– the spaces and material culture of servants: what is shown and what is not?
– the roles, duties and hierarchies of servants
– servants’ work and leisure activities
– servants’ relationships with their employers, including conflict
– the use of live actors or multimedia in the presentation of servants
– sensory and immersive experiences linked to service spaces Continue reading