Page 6 - Oundle Life February 2024

OUNDLE MUSEUM
This electrical bell indicator board we have in our collection would have been used to summon servants to a particular room.
In the early
Victorian period
children aged
12 could (and
did) become servants, but by the 1890’s it was more normal for them to be between 14 and
16 years old. In 1880 the Education Act made going to school compulsory as a way to stop child labour, and when it became free many children went to school instead of going into service so young. In large homes there were lots of jobs available because the well-off needed help to run their homes. Housework
was harder in the days before vacuum
cleaners and modern cleaning
materials! Young people going into
service often came from large families
who lived in cramped conditions
without much money, and as a servant
they had a place to live, food and
sometimes clothes, training and wages.
They did have to work very long hours
with perhaps only a half day off a week and sometimes had to wear a uniform.
This servant’s bell indicator box came from a Grade 11 listed 17th Century house in Oundle, known as Queen Anne’s in West Street. Queen Anne’s is a five-bay two storey building which was re-fronted in 1824 with Weldon ashlar limestone and local Blisworth stone, and it has
a Collyweston slate roof. David Parker in his excellent book ‘Oundle’s Historic Buildings’ suggests the house was owned by a Thomas Burton, an attorney, and his family which was up for sale in February 1790. By the early 1820’s the house was owned by John Smith, the brewer,
who re-fronted it in 1824. At the time of the 1841 Census it was occupied by members of the Turner family: Robert Turner (aged 20) was an apprentice chemist and Eliza Turner (aged 30) was a schoolmistress. There were 12 pupils boarding at the house during
this Census. Various members of the medical profession have resided there and some Oundle residents may recall part of the ground floor was at one time used as the local surgery.
The Museum remains closed until March but we are working behind the scenes to update and re-fresh the exhibition. We are looking to recruit a new treasurer for Oundle Museum Trust – if you feel you would be interested please contact us on info@oundlemuseum.org.uk.
Ringing a bell?
Housework was harder in the days before vacuum cleaners
6
Carole Bancroft-Turner
www.oundlemuseum.org.uk