Reader’s version of Build 1 — last modified 31 October 2026
Part 1 of The Five Houses of Wandsworth Common
This section will introduce the men, and occasionally women, who worked outside the Five Houses: coachmen and grooms, gardeners and garden servants, and the bailiffs and labourers of the farms attached to Bolingbroke House and Dent’s House.
Of the outdoor male staff, the coachman had the highest status and was the most senior of the liveried servants. Sometimes the coachman, rather than a member of the indoor staff, headed the servant’s hall. A good coachman was expected to drive smoothly and not too quickly. He was expected to get the coach ready within twenty minutes. A typical day would see him rise at 6 a.m. and spend the first ninety minutes getting the stable in order and dressing the horses. Washing and cleaning the carriage and harnesses took up the rest of the morning. The horses had to be fed and groomed, plus he had to order hay, corn, straw etc., but often they had the assistance of one or more grooms.
A groom might also be tasked with assisting indoors, for example by waiting at table. From sales particulars of the Five Houses, it has been established that each had one or more coach houses and stabling for around six horses, so more than one carriage would have been kept, certainly in the heyday of the houses.
The gardener was the most commonly employed male servant in the 19th century. He would be in charge of a lot of glass – hothouses, greenhouses, conservatories. He produced vegetables for the household and grew such as strawberries, pineapples and melons, both in season and out. A gardener at the Five Houses may well have had under-gardeners working for him as live-out servants from the local area.