Person

Eliza Anna Maidment became the principal of Durham County Council’s dairy and poultry school when it was established in January 1915. This school, based at Sherburn Hall in Durham, replaced the dairy shed at Armstrong College in Newcastle when it was needed for military purposes. The school taught women skills in dairy work and poultry keeping, vital skills needed to replace the knowledge and labour lost by the large numbers of farm labourers who left County Durham to serve in the war.

Eliza was born on 5 March 1868 and spent her early life in Somerset. She was the daughter of Robert and Eliza Maidment, with censuses suggesting she had four siblings. At the time of the 1871 census the Maidment family were living in Axbridge and Robert is listed as a farmer. By 1881 the family had moved to Netherton Dairy House in Yeovil at which time Robert is listed more specifically as a dairyman. It seems that Eliza’s early life living on a dairy farm must have given her experience and knowledge which led on to her future career.

It is not entirely clear when Eliza left the family home or where exactly she went, although newspaper articles do give records of at least some of what she did over the following decades. In 1889 she was working as a butter teacher for the Cheshire Dairy School, at which point she was also lecturing at other dairy schools in the country. By 1890 she was a lecturer and demonstrator for the Royal Agricultural Society, sharing her knowledge in a wide range of places all over the country. She must have moved up to the North East at some point between 1889 and 1893 as records show that in 1893 she was working at the Durham College of Science.

Eliza’s work introduced new methods into the areas of dairy work, with her producing a book in 1911 entitled ‘The Home Dairy’. Her work at Sherburn Hall in both dairy work and poultry keeping sought to take these new methods to the farms of County Durham and further afield. These methods not only increased food production at a time of shortage during the war but also presented opportunities to help the country’s productivity beyond the war years.

Eliza showed people that a good profit could be gained from keeping poultry on their own land during the war years. ‘Sittings’ of eggs were supplied by Sherburn Hall to local farms. She was quoted as saying dairy and poultry work were women’s work and encouraged women to continue, or take up, poultry keeping after the war saying it would suit their attention to detail and method.

Later in her life, Eliza continued to give lectures around the country. Newspaper articles from between 1934 and 1936 record her lecturing on behalf of the National Milk Publicity Council to organisations including The Women’s Institute.

At the time of the 1939 register Eliza was listed as a retired lecturer in agriculture and was living with her widowed sister, Florence, in Gateshead. Eliza remained unmarried and died in Surrey in 1950.

Civil Parish: Sherburn House

Birth date: 05-Mar-1868

Death date: 30-Aug-1950

Armed force/civilian: Civilian

Residence: Churchill Street, Churchill, Axbridge, Somerset (1871 census)
Netherton Dairy House, Closworth, Yeovil, Somerset (1881 census)
11 Rell Lane North, Gateshead, Durham (1939 Register)
54 Lower-Green Road, Esher, Surrey (Address at time of death)

Employment: Butter teacher – Cheshire Dairy School
Lecturer and demonstrator – The Royal Agricultural Society
Lecturer – Durham College of Science
Principal – Durham County Council’s dairy and poultry school, Sherburn Hall

Family: Parents: Robert Maidment, Eliza Maidment
Siblings: Mabel F Maidment, George H Maidment, Florence Kate Maidment, Marion Maidment

Gender: Female

Contributed by Fiona Johnson - Durham