Female departmental heads are quite the unexpected thing at Old College, so Head of Housekeeping is rather special. The daughter of hoteliers, Head of Housekeeping always had her eye on a career in hospitality – but first explored the full benefits of a wild youth during a globetrotting gap year, followed later by college and work experience in some of Europe’s finest hotels.
Few at Old College would believe that as a youngster Head of Housekeeping was a feisty bohemian beauty, as there is little about her demeanour to suggest that now. With a penchant for bleach and multiple pairs of spectacles, she always seems far more at home dealing with detergent rather than people. She is an infinitely practical woman with little tolerance for whimsy, which perhaps explains her inexhaustible agitation where The Fellowship are concerned.
The quirkily named Bedders (the Housekeeping staff) are a delightfully mixed bag. There is a clutch of tenacious veterans who view the cleanliness of College as a matter of personal honour and have been around for almost as long as some of the Fellows. However, they are hampered somewhat by a transient ragtag band of casual workers whose efforts are less than diligent and quite often criminal. Head of Housekeeping masters them with aplomb through an uncompromising, non-nonsense regime that never fails to avert disasters of a domestic nature.
Head of Housekeeping is an unlikely ally of Deputy Head Porter and from the very start annoys Head Porter by pre-empting the practical needs of a lady in the Porters’ Lodge, which of course he hadn’t even considered. There is a barely concealed tension between the two department Heads, although it is difficult to say where the origins of this lie. Thankfully, this mutual contempt does not extend to Deputy Head Porter and Head of Housekeeping comes to her rescue on more than one occasion. She has nothing but sympathy for her having to contend with Head Porter on a daily basis and sees it as her duty to support her endeavours in the running of the Porters’ Lodge.
Lucy Brazier 
Sounds like the Head of Domestic Services I worked beside in my first job in the NHS millions of years ago, when matrons ruled the roost and Heads of Domestic Services still ran fingers along skirting boards – and woe betide the domestic should that finger come away dusty! She was a bit of a sweetie under the grim exterior too, and became a bit of a mother figure to little FF… it must be the bleach fumes that do it.
These ladies are absolutely fundamental to the proper running of Great Britain, in my opinion – and things started to go downhill for us as a nation when these types were phased out. They maintain standards from the ground up, therefore giving a solid foundation to any establishment they served. The image of a little FF is really quite delightful! Perhaps we should refer to little you as ‘ff’ in the lower case 🙂
I couldn’t agree more! There were no superbugs in that hospital, I assure you – they’d never have dared! Carbolic soap was on hand to wage instant war – and woe betide anyone who tried to make a cup of tea without scrubbing up to the elbows first! And the odd thing was the domestics were actually happy in their work and loved her ordering them around – the satisfaction of a job well done. Ah the good old days! (Just to avoid any misunderstanding, this was not Florence Nightingale – ff didn’t join the NHS till well after the end of the Crimean war… 😉
Bring back these indomitable ladies, I say! Also, as FF is barely 21, of course I realise that all this is so much more recent than these young whipper snappers might imagine 😉
I actually imagined Head of Housekeeping rather like this from the start. I have long noted that older woman who become, shall we say “persnickety,” have a past littered with more than a few acts of “mischief” – more so when their early days were those of beauty or glamour. Perhaps it is my acting background, but I always wonder about the backstories of fictional characters – and when they’re not available I tend to make them up.
LOVE these posts.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
– ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
I have no idea if this was true of the real HoH, but it suits our version quite well, I think. She sees a little of herself in DHP, which is why she is kinder to her than otherwise she might have been. I have enjoyed writing these so much – The Dean and Senior Bursar are my favourites so far! Really pleased you are enjoying them 🙂
xx
The fact that PG is another female “in power” could have gone either way – and it adds to her character that she is kind to PG. I imagine she saw it as a way to stand up for herself as she insisted on a bathroom for PG as well. It’s never easy for a female in the boys club – fictional or otherwise.
xx,
mgh
Quite right! And any excuse to get one over on Head Porter, of course. It is certainly an interesting dynamic at Old College.
Xx
Interesting indeed! xx, mgh