What did Mrs Wood of Eltham Lodge do during the day?

Eltham Lodge from the front, 2000

I wonder how Anna Wood spent her days in Eltham Lodge.

She was a woman of some wealth and standing in the community and there is plenty of information on how her class busied themselves.

But at present nothing has come to light about her daily routines, the local societies she may have contributed to or even what she thought.

Now this is not some idle speculation or an exercise in sexist assumptions about Anna Wood, rather an exploration of her life In Eltham from when she arrived in 1838 till her death fifty one years later.

The detailed lives of working women in Eltham have not survived but we can be fairly confident we know what they would have done involving that balancing act between home and possibly outside work but Anna is a bit of mystery.

We know she was active in protecting the estate and refused permission for the South Eastern Railway Company to build its railway across South Park which resulted in them having to site the station further south in 1866.

The Wood house and the seven servants, 1841

It would have been much the sort of life described by Mrs Beeton in her guide to Household Management * which put much emphasis on how to behave in public, and participate in charitable activities but above all how to manage the home.

And in this role a woman who employed servants had to be like a “commander of an army or the leader of an enterprise”  **

Mrs Beeton was insistent that after breakfast Jane Elizabeth’s day would include an inspection of the servant’s work and a discussion on the order of the day.  Relationships between servant and mistress should be “firm, without being severe, and kind, without being familiar.”**

And her household was large ranging from seven servants in 1841, to six between 1851 and 71, and falling to five in 1881.

Along with these big events was the inevitable round of visiting or receiving visitors, which involved a strict protocol including leaving a card in the event of the person being out and only visiting if invited.

This was especially the case if the destination was the country or another town, “Do not” was the advice of one handbook on how young ladies should conduct themselves, “visit a friend in the country, or another town, unless you have what is called a standing invitation,” for it maybe that the invitation was “designed only to make a show of politeness.” ***

It followed that before arriving at the house, the guest should have informed her host “of the exact day and hour when she may expect you.”

But these social engagements were only part of her activities.  Mrs Beeton also stressed the importance of charitable work, and above all

“Visiting the houses of the poor is the only practical way really to understand the actual state of each family; and although there may be difficulties in following out this plan in the metropolis and other large cities, yet in country towns and rural districts these objections do not obtain. 

Great advantages may result from visits paid to the poor; for there being, unfortunately, much ignorance, generally, amongst them with respect to all household knowledge, there will be opportunities for advising and instructing them, in a pleasant and unobtrusive manner, in cleanliness, industry, cookery, and good management.” ****

Rear of Eltham Lodge, 2000

There were also those activities which combined good works and social gatherings. 

In Chorlton-cum Hardy a similar rural community on the edge of Manchester, one of the most important was the church bazaar committee which included the wives and daughters of both the gentry and farmers is a good example.

The committee had been formed to raise money for the new parish church and culminated with a bazaar held at the Royal Exchange during the Easter of 1862.

It was a cross section of the township and included the daughters of the well off, farmer’s wives and married woman from the larger houses. ****

All of which leaves me  thinking that Mrs Wood would have done her bit and it is now just a matter of finding it.

*Beeton Isabella, first published in 24 monthly parts between 1859-61 before being published in a bound edition in 1861

**Ibid, Chapter 1 page 1 Google edition page 50

*** The Behaviour Book, Leslie, Miss, Willis P Hazzard, London, 1839, page 10, Google edition page 19

****Ibid, Beeton,  page 6, Google edition page 55

***** They were Mrs Ed Booth, rectory, the Misses Holt Beech House, the Misses Morton Lime Bank, the Misses Dean Barlow Farm, Mrs Whitelegg the Green, Mrs J B Wilkinson Brook Cottage, Mrs Tunder the Grange, Mrs Law the Lodge Urmston, Mrs Aders Bella Villas Whalley Range, Mrs Burghardt Whalley Range, Mrs Findeisen Holly Bank, Mrs Meredith White Thorn Cottage Pennington Brookfield House Mrs Broughton Lowe Longford Terrace Longford, Mrs Dewhurst Myrtle Lodge Longford

Pictures; of Eltham Lodge, courtesy of Darrell Spurgeon, Discover Eltham, 2nd edition 2000, and detail from 1841 census courtesy of National Archives and ancestry.co.