#OnePlaceServants: 'Darling, we need an extension...'

The obituary of Charles Patrick in 1895 refers to his 'handsome and commodious residence' which was 'extended at the time of his marriage' in 1855. Indeed it was, the extension if anything being larger than the original house.

Lawn house
(The modern Springhill House is on the right, this is the side of the extension.)

The original Springhill House was a four bedroomed, three reception room dwelling of considerable proportions (boy I sound like an estate agent!). Prior to 1855 it was inhabited by Mary Ann Ashworth, the heiress of its builder John Ashworth, and another Mary Ashworth, female servant b 1811. Mary Ann Ashworth was living off the income from her property and the profits from various coal mines.

Mary Ann Ashworth married Charles Patrick in 1855. She was aged 46 at the time and there was no issue from the marriage. The extension therefore wasn't necessitated by an increasing family.

By the 1861 census the Patricks employed three house servants (duties unspecified), a gardener and a groom. Mary Ashworth was not one of the servants enumerated there.

(There is a further project here: Two of the servants were a married couple, groom and house servant. The wife came from Littleborough in Cheshire (though actually near Rochdale) as did another female house servant. I have yet to explore the relationship, if any, between these two women.)

The trend continued, in 1871 they employed four house servants and a groom as live-in servants and by 1881 this had extended to a cook, two housemaids, a kitchen maid and a nurse. The butler lived next door, the coachman and gardener next to him, as boarders with the laundress.

(Two more questions here. The first is the presence of the nurse. Mary Ann Patrick nee Ashworth died in 1883. I don't have her death certificate and her obituary doesn't mention a cause of death, but does the employment of a nurse imply she had been ill for some time? The second is that one other house in the area had a cook, did they share the gardener and the coachman?)

Mary Ann Patrick died in 1883, by 1891 Charles was managing with a cook, two housemaids, a kitchen maid and a lady's maid. His 44 yr old widowed niece was living with him together with her son, hence the lady's maid. Again the gardener and coachman lived nearby.

Charles Patrick died in 1895 and the house was divided, almost certainly separating the original house and the extension. By 1901 the residents of one half employed a cook, those of the other a general servant.

Of course all these 'servants' are people with their own histories and emotions with stories to be researched in their own right. But that is for another day.

#OnePlaceMaps: wikipedia famous residents

My last contribution to #OnePlaceMaps is this offering from Pudding.cool: a map supposedly showing the most famous person associated with a place based on Wikipedia searches.

I see Cloughfold has a trade unionist and early Labour MP, didn't know that. *Adds to list of people to research*, even though he wasn't from Springhill itself.

wikipedia famous people 2021 600

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