From Servants to Staff: the Whole Community in the Chatsworth Household 1700- 2000; 3 Collaborative Doctoral Awards Funded by the AHRC

Applications are invited for three doctoral studentships commencing on 1 October 2015. The three year award covers fees and an annual maintenance grant.

The aim of this project is to use the extensive archival materials in the Devonshire Collection in order to gain an understanding of the wider community who have lived and worked at Chatsworth over the past three centuries, brought together by relationships of work and service. It will employ an interdisciplinary linguistic-historical approach to explore the changing relationship between masters and servants between 1700 and 2000.

Key research questions to be addressed include:
• how has the language used about servants and estate workers in these archives changed across this time?
• how have the working conditions of those employed in and around the house changed?
• how has Chatsworth functioned as a community at different times?
• how can Chatsworth represent the stories of the people who have worked for the Cavendish family in an ethical and engaging manner?

The project comprises three interconnected PhD projects, each focusing on a different century:

• “Community, Conflict and Change at Chatsworth, 1700-1820”
• “A Community of Masters and Servants? Chatsworth, 1811-1914”
• “The making of a modern estate: employment & service at Chatsworth in the 20th century”

Each will be a coherent project in its own right, but taken together the three projects will chart a compelling narrative across three centuries of social and economic change.

This project forms part of an established working relationship between the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Sheffield and The Chatsworth House Trust.

Project director:
Dr Jane Hodson, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

University supervisors:
Dr Karen Harvey (Department of History)
Dr Clare Griffiths (Department of History)
Dr Julia Moses (Department of History)

Chatsworth supervisors:
Matthew Hirst (Head of Art and Historic Collections)
James Towe (Archivist and Librarian)

Application deadline: 12 Noon 23rd April 2015.