Lydia Batchelor

How to avoid the workhouse through housework

Lydia Simmonds, daughter of a farm labourer from Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, at age 14, started her working life as a domestic servant in Brighton. Her first job was likely to have been kitchen or scullery maid, involving hard work and long hours. Seven years later, she was still a servant, working at 7 Pavilion Parade, a well-appointed town house opposite the Royal Pavilion. It is likely that this was a lodging house accommodating wealthy visitors to Brighton during the season. For domestic servants, the usual means of escape from the job was through marriage. When in 1837, Lydia married George Batchelor, an exciseman, her life was about to change dramatically, although not perhaps in quite the way she had expected.

An exciseman was charged with levying taxes on goods at a local level, and owing to the great unpopularity of the officers, the Board of Excise moved them around the country to avoid intimidation and corruption. George and Lydia started their married life in Totnes, Devon, then moved to Ashburton, and subsequently to Sandhay, Dartmouth. Their final home together was in Chitterne, Wiltshire, where George died aged 43 in 1856. His cause of death is recorded as ‘delerium tremens’ indicating that he had succumbed to the temptation of the alcohol that he was charged with taxing. Brewers and distillers would often attempt to ply the exciseman with strong drink hoping to avoid the tax, and for George, this would appear to have been ultimately fatal.

George left Lydia with four surviving children: George, aged 17; James, aged 13; Susannah, aged 7; and an infant, William Henry. Lydia returned to Sussex, and secured accommodation in the New Model Lodging Houses in Clarence Yard, North Street, Brighton. It was here, aged 46, in 1861, that she gave her occupation as ‘charwoman’. The charwoman was at the lowest level of Victorian domestic servants. This job was often taken by widows with children, who were unable to ‘live in’ and therefore to apply for full time posts in domestic service.

However, the next time Lydia appeared in the census, in 1871, her circumstances had improved. By then, all four of her children had left home, so Lydia was able to accept the live-in post of housekeeper, a job that was one of the highest in the servants’ hierarchy and involved keeping the household accounts, dealing with tradesmen and supervising the other servants. Lydia secured the post of housekeeper for Sophie Adele Guillon Le Thière and her daughter, Rosina. Lydia’s daughter in law, Harriet Batchelor was also working for the Le Thière household as a servant, no doubt having been ‘spoken for’ by Lydia. Sophie Le Thière was successor to the prestigious dance academy of her parents, Louis and Sophia Michau, at 11,Cannon Place, Brighton, which was also the family’s Brighton residence. Lydia divided her time between Brighton and the London establishment of the Le Thière dance school at 109, New Bond Street, Mayfair.

Sophie’s daughter, Rosina Le Thière, also known as Roma Guillon Le Thière was a successful actress and performed at theatres in London’s West End. So Lydia ran this lively and demanding household for at least 12 years, and probably longer. Sophie Le Thière died in 1883, and by 1891, Lydia had retired on her carefully accumulated savings . She died in Brighton in 1896 at the age of 80.

It is possible only to guess Lydia Batchelor’s thoughts on her life in service and those who employed her. It is not until the 20^th century that we are able to read first hand accounts of domestic servants in Brighton, such as Margaret Powell^[i]Margaret Powell. Below Stairs. Peter Davies Ltd, 1968, or Daisy Noakes^[ii]Daisy Noakes. The Town Beehive; A young girl’s lot Brighton, 1910-1934. Queenspark Books 1975https://archive.queensparkbooks.org.uk/the-town-beehive/. Both writers described a culture of deference and limited social opportunity, even though before the days of modern welfare it did provide some security, for which they were expected to be grateful. Lydia Batchelor, not only escaped the workhouse by means of domestic labour, but also made the best of the system by rising from charwoman to housekeeper. Hopefully, she also managed to enjoy life!