Grandson of valet Alf Edwards and kitchen maid Caroline Palmer donates dozens of their personal objects to English Heritage
He was a valet, she was a kitchen maid and more than a century ago they met because of his passion for photography and desperate need of a warm place to use as a makeshift studio.
Alf Edwards and Caroline Palmer worked at opposite ends of an imposing country house, set in a huge estate with hundreds of employees, and there was little other reason for their paths to cross.
But they did and they fell in love and married despite everyone advising them not to.
The poignant, Edwardian below-stairs love story of Alf and Caroline is revealed in what English Heritage says is the most significant and biggest donation of objects relating to servants that it has ever received.
