Servants of the Lord Outdoor Staff at the Great Country Houses
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David S. D. Jones has been an archivist and historian for the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation for over a decade. He is descended from a long line of outdoor servants employed on country estates throughout England and Wales and numbers amongst his ancestors and relatives gamekeepers; hunt servants; gardeners; grooms; woodmen; farm workers; land agents and more. He owns the Gamekeeping Photographic Archive and the David S. D. Jones Photographic Collection.<p>...with rich tales and a treasure trove of photographs that obviously took meticulous effort to find and collate, this book is patently the work of a true countryman, and all the better for it.</p>
I, like many here in Britain, and for that matter, around the world, have a great interest (bordering on voyeuristic curiosity) for life in the Great Country Estates of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. Jones has extensively researched every facet of Estate outdoor life in those times and provides his readers with almost encyclopaedic detail of the type of people who filled these jobs, their extraordinarily difficult working conditions and their spartan living situations etched out on meagre wages. To support Jones's in-depth, dare I say almost all-encompassing text, the book is full of fascinating black and white period photos - many never published before.<br />
- Gary Creighton,
In this beautifully illustrated book, historical author and regular <i>Fieldsports</i> contributor David S D Jones looks into the roles, responsibilities and lives of outdoor staff working for prestigious country houses during the Victorian era before the First World War. Included are rare and previously unseen period photographs, estate records, biographies and diaries from the author's personal collection that make for an insightful and fascinating read.
Fieldsports
The unsung heroes of the British countryside are the rural workers. Author David S Jones' new book charts their efforts through the ages. <i>Philip Bowern</i> reports... Using estate records, biographies, private diaries and other sources, David Jones explores a world that has all but disappeared in the years since the end of the First World War. High taxation and demographic changes which saw better jobs created in the towns and cities, creating rural staff shortages, fundamentally changed the face of the rural workforce... As valuable history and fascinating entertainment it nicely fills a gap in the library shelf.
- Philip Bowern, Western Morning News
Through his meticulous research of estate records, biographical works, private diaries and from many other sources a fascinating and comprehensive insight is given into the relatively unexplored subject of the outdoor staff, despite them being the backbone to the sustainability of the great estates. These roles have been neglected both by book and journal over the years as much has been written about indoor servants, but in this well researched and fascinating book untold stories of hermits; gardeners; postillions; gamekeepers and many more are documented.
Beautifully illustrated with many rare and unpublished period photographs together with historic documents from the authors private collection. A must read for anyone interested in family and social history and country house/estate life in a bygone era.