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  • Home
  • Your Visit
    • Plan your Visit
    • Travel Information
    • Museum Description
    • Museum Map
    • Terms & Conditions
  • Events
    • Museum Events
    • Regular Activities
    • Event Hire
  • Museum Shop
  • Groups & Schools
    • Groups
    • Schools
  • Jobs
    • Volunteers
    • Vacancies
    • Trustees
  • Galleries
    • Objects of the Month >
      • March 2022
      • February 2022
      • January 2022
      • November 2021
      • September 2021
      • August 2021
      • July 2021
      • June 2021
      • May 2021
      • April 2021
    • Aerial Views
    • Hornsea of Old
    • Hornsea Town >
      • Market Place
      • Newbegin
      • Eastgate
      • Westgate
      • Southgate
      • Cliff Road
      • Atwick Road
    • Seafront
    • The Mere
    • The Railway
  • Hornsea Pottery Art Trail

Object of the Month
May 2021

Picture
May 2019
Servant / Butler’s Bell Push
During the Georgian, Regency and Victorian eras (mid 18th and 19th centuries), anyone who wanted to represent themselves as having an air of middle-class respectability, employed domestic help.  Servants, butlers and housekeepers had a crucial role to play in the daily running of households in these eras.  These staff were responsible for numerous labour tasks such as heating, cooking, laundry, fetching and carrying – requiring lots of movement around the house, and lots of work.

In order to be able to communicate efficiently with the domestic staff, internal bell systems became very popular when they were invented in 1744.  Prior to this invention, servants would have to wait outside their employer’s rooms or linger unassumingly in the background of the family quarters, waiting for orders.  This was considered intrusive and inefficient.  The innovate bell systems therefore increased privacy and meant that servants could remain in their quarters whilst waiting to be summoned.

The example here was from the home of Mr Robert Hobson of Hornsea, a local plumber who lived on Cliff Road.


Picture