{"id":13528,"date":"2022-04-28T12:10:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T10:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=184802"},"modified":"2022-04-28T12:57:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T10:57:15","slug":"the-upstairs-downstairs-world-of-downton-abbey-how-true-to-life-is-it","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-upstairs-downstairs-world-of-downton-abbey-how-true-to-life-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The upstairs\/downstairs world of Downton Abbey: how true to life is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 28 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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How much of Downton Abbey<\/em> is inspired by real history? The hit TV series \u2013 which first aired between 2010 and 2015, followed by feature films in 2019 and 2022 \u2013 explores the fates of the aristocratic Crawley family and their staff in the early 20th century. Set in the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey, the drama explores the lives and loves of the main characters through tragedy, world war and social upheavals. Dr Carolyn Harris takes a closer look at the relationships and history portrayed on screen\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Downton Abbey<\/em> emphasises the interdependent relationship between the Crawley family and their servants, and the close bonds that bridge the social class divide. The series implies that the close proximity between people of different social backgrounds in a traditional country estate created opportunities to exchange confidences, develop friendships and perhaps even pursue romances that transcended the social hierarchy of the times.<\/p>\n

But the recollections of people who worked in domestic service from the Edwardian era to the Second World War<\/a> suggest that employers of the time rarely took such a close interest in the daily lives and opinions of their servants. While friendships were possible and marriages across the social class divide occasionally took place, former domestic servants often recalled being treated as though they were household furnishings, expected to remain unobtrusive and keep their opinions to themselves.<\/p>\n

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Are the Crawleys of Downton Abbey<\/em> a real family?<\/h2>\n

The fictional Crawleys are based on the Earls and Countesses of Carnarvon, who still reside at Highclere Castle<\/a>, where the series is filmed (though the fictional Downton Abbey is in Yorkshire, rather than Hampshire, where Highclere is).The current Countess of Carnarvon\u2019s books, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey<\/em> and Lady Catherine and the Real Downton Abbey<\/em>, describes how Almina Herbert, the illegitimate daughter of the banker Baron de Rothschild, then Catherine Wendell, an American, married two successive Earls of Carnarvon, bringing new wealth and perspectives to the estate.<\/p>\n

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Highclere Castle was a filming location for the British period drama Downton Abbey<\/em>. (Image by Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Lady Almina transformed Highclere into a convalescent home during the First World War<\/a>, and Lady Catherine hosted 20th-century royal visitors (Prince George, Duke of Kent was a family friend), themes that emerged in the Downton Abbey<\/em> series and film. Although both women were born outside the titled British aristocracy, their relations with their servants remained hierarchical. The Countess of Carnarvon states, in Lady Catherine and the Real Downton Abbey<\/em>, that Catherine had the same lady\u2019s maid, Marcelle, from the age of 14, and that she was \u201cas much a confidante as she was a lady\u2019s maid\u201d. But the book does not mention whether Marcelle, nicknamed \u2018Doll\u2019 by the Wendell family, viewed Catherine as a friend and confidant in addition to an employer.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the personal lives of the Crawleys and their servants are intertwined from the beginning of the series. Robert Crawley, Lord Grantham employs John Bates \u2013 his injured former batman [soldier-servant] from the Boer Wars \u2013 as his valet, although other members of the Crawley family (and other servants) question whether Bates will be able to perform his duties adequately while walking with a cane.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Cora Crawley, Lady Grantham and her daughters \u2013 Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Lady Sybil \u2013\u00a0all form close bonds with servants or tenants on the estate. Mary and the housemaid Anna Smith become close friends and confide in one another. Lady Edith kisses farmer John Drake after helping drive his tractor during the labour shortages of the First World War, and later places her illegitimate child in the care of another tenant farmer, Timothy Drewe. Lady Sybil helps the housemaid Gwen Harding interview for a new career as a secretary and later marries the chauffeur, Tom Branson.<\/p>\n

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Dining at Downton<\/h3>\n

A dinner party early in series one demonstrates the close connections between the Crawleys and their servants.<\/p>\n

Dinner parties are key set pieces throughout Downton Abbey<\/em> from the first season to the film. They bring together characters of all social classes as the Crawleys dine with each other and a wide range of guests, from royalty to opera singers. They are waited on by their servants, who of course overhear conversations and conflicts that shape their own opinions and decisions. As historian Nicoletta F Gullace noted in her article in the Journal of British Cinema and Television<\/em>, \u201cmeals in particular connect those above and below stairs in a nexus of inequality\u201d as the labour of the servants to create and serve multicourse dinners is contrasted with the leisured dining of the Crawleys and their guests.<\/p>\n

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Dinner at Downton Abbey. (Photo by moviestills)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

At a dinner party in episode three of season one, visiting Turkish diplomat Kemal Pamuk listens to the Crawley family discuss Gwen\u2019s career aspirations. The middle-class Matthew Crawley, his mother Isobel, and Lady Sybil \u2013 the youngest of the Earl and Countess of Grantham\u2019s daughters \u2013 support housemaid Gwen\u2019s desire to pursue her own goals. But Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, wonders why anyone would prefer \u201ca cramped and gloomy office\u201d to \u201ca large and pleasant house\u201d and asks the butler Carson to support her opinion.<\/p>\n

Cora does not pass judgement on Gwen\u2019s goals but states that, \u201cIt matters that the people who live and work here are content.\u201d Amongst the family, only Lady Mary remarks, \u201cWhy are we talking about this? Why does it matter?\u201d When asked his opinion, the guest Pamuk is confused by the amount of interest the family takes in the future life of a housemaid, saying: \u201cWhy are you English so curious about other people\u2019s lives? If she wishes to leave, and the law permits it, then let her go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pamuk\u2019s perspective is presented in the series as that of an outsider observing English customs, but other English aristocratic families of the time might well have shared Pamuk\u2019s views and wondered why the Crawley family took so much interest in the personal contentment of their servants \u2013 they are even seen to ask members of the staff for their opinions on the ideal workplace.<\/p>\n