Unearthed news articles have offered a glimpse into life on Merseyside a century ago.
Back in the 1920s, house servants were common. A house servant was tasked with the daily running of households, including washing clothes and preparing food. By the mid 20th century, the profession had began to die out.
Local historian Stephen Wainwright has shed some light on what life was like as a house servant in St Helens.
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He said: "During the 1920s a quarter of all female employment in St Helens involved domestic service. In November 1972, inspired by the ITV television series Upstairs, Downstairs, the ECHO spent a week comparing life as a domestic servant in the 1970s with that of 50 years before.
The ECHO at the time wrote: "There was always something happening “below stairs” 50 years ago when the great houses had many servants. To-day's instalment of the Echo's new series tells some of the stories of what life was like in domestic service then – and what it is now.
"Lady Pilkington, wife of the head of Britain's biggest glass manufacturing firm, has a story she likes to tell about servants. “One day when our gardens were opened to the public,” she begins, “A lady came up to me and said she used to work at Rainford Hall [at Crank], one of the Pilkington family homes.
“She said that when her husband courted her, he had to be presented to the housekeeper for approval before he was allowed to take her out.
“She had to be back again at 9pm. on her day off. And then she had to change into her uniform in time to attend family prayers at 9.15pm. These were held at the same time every night in the hall. And she must never miss them.”
Lady Pilkington stressed that the woman said she enjoyed working for the family. She said: “She described them as lovely people,”
In Charles Forman's book 'Industrial Town - Self Portrait of St Helens in the 1920s', a woman from St Helens – who had been born c. 1906 – told of life as a servant which had involved six months of training:
"Girls either went into service or on to the pit brow where I come from. In the first place, I went to school in Liverpool to be properly trained. That was when I was 13. They taught you how to answer the door and announce people – the way you stand on one side, how to lay the table, how to pass everything round, how you passed things on the left-hand side, how you moved round the back of people, how to pour out the wine – you just had to have a steady hand for that.
"Then there was the afternoon tea, you used to have to take in on a tray. If there was a lot there, you had to mind how you walked. You learnt how to fashion the serviettes – there are two or three different ways of making them – lilies and bishops hats are two – instead of just putting them out plain on the table.
"The course lasted six months and afterwards they picked out what you were best suited at. I was best at being house parlour maid, not in the kitchen.
"I don't know why, maybe it was being small. In those days, you needed proper training – you couldn't just walk into a house parlour maid's job without it.
"The first house where I was in service was in Canning Street, Liverpool, which was a very different Canning Street to what it is now. There was a nursemaid and a cook as well as me. They were just four people – husband, wife and two boys.
"As house parlour maid you had to look after the dining table, dining room and all kinds of cleaning work – it was like a butler's job."
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