, stemware,
crystal or plate
silver. The scullery maid provided hot water for the
scullery, kitchen tasks, and household. In addition to her other tasks, the scullery maid had to keep the scullery clean by clearing away meat and vegetable garbage, scrubbing work tables, and swilling the floors. The water was carried through a drain outside the house. Scullery maids would rarely have handled fine
china, stemware,
crystal or plate
silver; these were cleaned by
housemaids and
footmen. Before the advent of central heating systems, scullery maids were required to light the fires on the kitchen stove and supply hot water for tea and washing. She performed these tasks in the morning before the cook came down to the kitchens. In a
household with no
between maid, the scullery maid may also have waited on staff in the
servants' hall, although this may have been assigned to another maid or a junior footman. In the days before the indoor
water closet she may have been required to empty and clean the servants'
chamber pots as well. This work has, in modern (i.e. the nineteenth century) times, primarily been performed by women, but in
medieval households female domestics were relatively rare. A male servant performing the tasks described above would be called a
scullion. In 1386, when the
English Parliament requested the removal of certain of
Richard II's ministers, the king infamously responded that he would not dismiss so as much as a scullion from his kitchen at parliament's request. The root of the word scullery is the 1300–50 French word "escuelerie" (pronounced
squillerye < equivalent to
escuele -dish (< L scutella, dim. of scutra pan) +
rie -ry. ==Fictional scullery maids==