[HV0451] – School Hill, c.1885

Originally shared in 2025 as part of
Stories Seen Through A Glass Plate – Working Lewes

A maid sweeping the doorstep would have been a common sight in Victorian Lewes and most houses on School Hill had at least one servant. In her ‘Book of Household Management’ (1861) Mrs Beeton writes, ‘The general servant or maid is perhaps the only one of her class deserving of commiseration. Her life is a solitary one and… her work is never done.’