“They’re a different sort of folk in the city. Don’t let no-one think they can trick you because you don’t know their ways.”
Earlier this month, The People’s Friend published an interview with me online about my upcoming Victorian Upstairs, Downstairs series The Country Maid. Now, with the first part in this week’s magazine (available online and at most stores) I thought I would post a companion blog. This will showcase my writing process and inspiration alongside an in depth look at story locations and historical research. This will be posted a few days after each part comes out, so you’ll need to read that first before coming here :D
We start off with Grace Beckett
leaving her home in Wilby to work as a maid in Norwich. Wilby is a Norfolk
village 17 miles south west of the city. The name’s origin is Old Norse and
means Willow Tree Settlement. According to the 1841 census, only 124 people
lived there, meaning there was little opportunity for work unless it was on the
fields. (You can view this census at GENUKI - GENUKI:
Norfolk: Genealogy: Towns and Parishes: Wilby: Census: 1841)
All across the countryside, those
who needed money fast, who were tired of the same old faces and gambling on a
good harvest, would travel to the city, either taking on factory work or finding
a household in need of servants. Many dreamt of fortune and adventure, but
Grace's excitement is soured due to desperation. With her parent’s savings
stolen, the family farm is under threat if she cannot send back a decent wage.
The train station Grace uses is the
one in Attleborough, which opened in 1845. It’s an hour and a half long walk
from Wilby, so she’s already exhausted to begin with. Riding on a third-class
train carriage would have offered sparse comfort. As well as being crammed in
with other passengers on one of the long benches either side, these carriages
were little more than covered carts, which meant hardly any protection against
the winds or rain.
However, it would have been much
worse ten years earlier. A budget ride in third-class was standing room only
and there wasn’t even a roof. The Railway Regulation Act in 1844 mandated
third-class carriages had to be covered and offer seating, so I suppose it
could have been worse for Grace!
Grace arrives at Norwich Thorpe
Railway Station, which was built in 1842. During the 1850s, the station was
vastly different to how it looks nowadays. In 1886, the building was
redesigned, replacing its slender clocktower with a clockface within a dome.
(From the book "The Eastern Counties Railway Illustrated Guide", scanned by the British Library and uploaded on Flickr. More can be seen at British Library | Flickr)
Norwich was where I was born. The
name stems from the Anglo-Saxon word Northwic, which meant Northern
Settlement/Farm, and according to the 1841 census over 60,000 people lived
there. It’s a city steeped in its history, particularly its medieval defences
and Tudor buildings, which Grace would have walked past while trying to track
down her new place of employment. It was said that Norwich had a church for
every Sunday of the year and a pub for every day. Their biggest industries at
the time were textiles and dyeworks, Colman’s mustard and boot factories.
A journalist from the 19th
century had this to say about Norwich:
Norwich is a very fine city, and the Castle, which stands in the middle of it, on a hill, is truly majestic. The meat and poultry and vegetable market is beautiful. It is kept in a large open square in the middle, or nearly so, of the City. The ground is a pretty sharp slope, so that you see all at once. – Rural Rides, William Cobbett.
However, Norwich
is full of narrow, winding streets and Grace soon becomes lost. She’s helped by
Robert Chapman, a footman. Footmen at the time would deliver messages, serve
meals, basically a little bit of everything. Their bright coloured livery could
often be spotted at the back of carriages, clinging on, ready to jump down and
assist the family they worked for when they went out on shopping excursions.
Originally, one
of the main characters was meant to be riding in the carriage when I was
writing my series breakdown, but I decided to keep the vehicle empty. Instead,
it is stuffed with boxes filled with waistcoats, fancy hats and cufflinks for a
certain dandy who’ll be introduced later on.
Marchant manor lies on the outer edge of the city’s heart along what is now known as Earlham Road. The building’s design is a mash up of several Georgian houses around the country. Plenty of windows and a large, symmetrical front. Close enough to ride into the city but far enough from the slums and smog. The location, however, and its gardens, which will feature in Part 3, were inspired by a real-life place in Norwich, but I’ll get into that when it appears 😉
Now that Grace has arrived at her destination, you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what happens when she comes face to face with her employer. There’s 30 parts to Grace’s story, which will be finished just after New Year, so I hope you enjoy the ride!
(Below is the paragraph for Part 1 from the breakdown I submitted to The People’s Friend magazine when working on the overall story of The Country Maid with them. Grace was originally known as Jane :D)
Part 1: While pondering her predicament, Jane is forced to travel and leave behind her family’s lush fields for an overcrowded city of smoke and factories. Someone knocks into her and her luggage bursts open. No-one helps until Robert Chapman leaps down from the back of a carriage and shows her Marchant house. He hurries off upon hearing Freddie Marchant’s calls to attend him, leaving an anxious Jane to report to her employer.
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| About the author |
Kitty-Lydia Dye wanders the beaches for inspiration. Her historical fiction has been influenced by the local myths roaming the haunting landscape of the Norfolk marshes. Many of her short stories have appeared in The People's Friend magazine. She has also released a collection inspired by Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. She enjoys knitting dog jumpers, gazing at the waves at night, exploring church ruins as well as taking part in amateur dramatics (and played the part of an evil flying monkey!)
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