One of my history books describes the strike as ‘one of the most controversial and significant events of the inter-war years’, but at the time it made little or no impression or difference to us in domestic service. We had so few free hours outside the basement that our need of transport was minimal and, as for the news, they had a radio above stairs and scraps of information from this were retailed to us. Not that the aged housemaid and parlourmaid would have been at all interested in the strike even if we’d had a radio below stairs. Mrs. Hunter-Jones was one of the worst kind of employers; haughty and overbearing in manner, she provided the absolute minimum for the comfort of the servants. We had no servants’ hall, so in what was very limited leisure time we had to sit in the kitchen. Madam had provided just three chairs; if Mary or Gladys came to see me one of us had to stand up. Perhaps that was Madam’s way of discouraging visitors. She’d also provided us with three books; the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress and Little Women.
