Downton Abbey

Yes, I think that this is right and that married women did have to leave their jobs! Maybe exceptions could be made at the discretion of the household they worked in.

I caught up with this last night, and I enjoyed every minute. I know it was highly improbable, but it's fiction, we're not actually supposed to believe it!
I love that it was so happy ever after, that Mary and Edith seem to be building bridges, that Thomas is becoming nicer (especially now he's got the top job!), that Carson (grudgingly) admitted he would make a good butler, that Anna finally has her little Master Bates, that Mrs Crawley triumphantly stole Lord Merton from his witchy DiL and married him to boot! Oh and all the budding romances - Daisy and Andy, Mrs Patmore and Mr Mason, Baxter and Mr Molesley, Branson and the bouquet catcher (was that the school teacher who came a cropper with Lord Grantham once or twice?)
Watching Downton Abbey is like curling up in a cosy armchair with a mug of hot chocolate. Of course it's loaded with sugary sweetness. So is chocolate, but I'm sure we all enjoy that little guilty pleasure!
It is comfort viewing, not to be confused with historical documentaries.

Even if she had been allowed to work after she married they would not have wanted to see her when she was expecting. She would have been sent off to live in the little cottage. My gran was in service as a housemaid and she was expected to hide away from the family when she was working. She stood in cupboards and behind doors when she was cleaning if she heard the family coming. The children used to try and steal up on her. When she was cleaning the stairs they delighted in kicking her dustpan so all the dirt fell out.

I loved the whole schmaltzy series and even had a tear in my eye at the end - not sure why, it was probably a Christmas thing

DA was just escapism, no resemblance to reality required. My Aunt Edith obviously bought into the fantasy when she decided to go into service in a minor stately home, against the dire warnings of her family. She was back the next day because they dared tell her to change a wet bed

This is an interesting article about the Downton clothes:
www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/the-fashion-secrets-of-downton-abbeys-success/

Married women did leave their positions when they married I think. Housekeepers like Mrs Hughes had the courtesy title of Mrs but were single.
Perhaps they are hanging on to their staff because it is now the 1920s and drudges staff are not quite so easy to come by.

There must have been more staff, they spoke as if it was down to them - but there must have been scullery maids, cleaners, gardeners, washer women etc.
We only met the 'posher' servants .

B

And the Palour maids, game keepers, assistant chauffeur , boot boy,

Just wondering, Anniebach, what sort of "mini disaster" would you have liked? A fire perhaps? Maybe an outbreak of swine fever or foot and mouth on the farms? Possibly Violet having a mild stroke would have helped you enjoy it? Let's hear your suggestions!

I never spoke of a mini disaster

Er Anniebach in your second post you said 'Couldnt there have been a mini disaster'?

Yesterday at 10.50?

I would have liked a much more positive, independent ending for some of the women. Edith for example moving to London and having a successful career. Violet deciding to use her matriculation and becoming a school teacher or civil servant. just someone not getting married and living happily ever after!? This was a time when women were likely not to marry and had worked through WW1 so did manage on their own.

Think you Jane, I do admire your ability to recall a post 24 hours after it was posted and Ceesan , you can even recall the time, I assume you recalled and didn't trawl through all the posts, no one has that sad a life

Anyway apologies for forgetting I had spoken of mini disasters Ceasan

I was just 'sad' enough to be intrigued by the post asking what sort of mini disaster you had in mind.

After WW1 when the men came back they were given their old jobs back, and it was only well off women who could have a job and independence, Trisher, I think. Downton Abbey always seemed to give the impression that it was following the trends, rather than starting them.
It was only after WW2 that women got more independence, and could carry on working.

Perhaps it's best left sooner than get into a fuss about it, after all Downton is over now so not much point speculating about what might have been.

Then Jane, if you trawl through again I think I did say I didn't mean the house should have burned down, but not 100% sure, if I did you will find it

Not over for me. I still haven't seen it. Going to watch it at my son's house as he recorded it and his screen is bigger than mine, so I will be able to see more of the detail at Beamish.

The house is still there (at least it was when I went not long ago )

Do you mean Daisy, trisher? I think Violet is too old to do her matric.
Actually, I think Daisy will be happier marrying Andy and they can take over the farm eventually, a career and spinsterhood was not necessarily something to aspire to in those days, more something that happened to those unlucky enough to have lost fiancés in WW1.
Intrigued by the hairstyles, too, I remember DM telling me how she cycled into the nearest town and got her hair cut short (like Lady Mary's I imagine), her mistress was most annoyed - Nanny should not have had her hair cut without permission! The next week her ladyship went and got hers cut in the same style.

After WW1 there was a large number of women who had no chance of marriage and family due to the sad number of the fallen. It was a time when many women just had to make their own way in life. I read an excellent but rather sad book about these 'surplus' women. Of my great aunts, 2 married but the other 2 worked successfully all their lives.

Blink and you'll miss the scene - it must have been on for all of two minutes!

Indinana , no, the bouquet catcher wasn't the stroppy schoolmistress, was it Gwen who was a housemaid and went off to do shorthand and typing and got a job as secretary somewhere, not sure why she was there in the forefront.

Ana not sure which scene?

I thought it was Lady Edith's assistant - the one Tom's got his eye on!

Don't read the thread djen - spoilers!!