From ratcatcher to keeper of the snow: royal servants enter

Life below stairs in the palaces and grand houses of Britain takes centre stage in a series of exhibitions

Bridget Holmes, the “necessary woman”, scrubbed royal chamber pots through the reign of five Stuart monarchs. As “keeper of ice and snow” at Hampton Court Palace, Frances Talbot hewed great blocks of ice with a 6ft-long saw so palace guests could enjoy fancy iced desserts and chilled champagne through the summer of 1775.

And William Hester, a Kensington Palace rat-killer in the 1690s, chased vermin in a crimson and blue coat embroidered with depictions of wheat sheaves and rats.