4 Grounds-Person jobs available:

RURAL NORTH BEDFORDSHIRE
(7 miles to Bedford)
DOMESTIC COUPLE
HOUSEKEEPER- GROUNDS & MAINTENANCE PERSON-DRIVER-SECURITY
ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: Flexible, proactive, forward thinking couple who work well together.
Genuine Animal and country lovers. Long term, family oriented, team players. ONE must drive. Fluent English.

Part residence home of a busy professional couple with adult children. The owners live in London and travel abroad frequently. This position requires a self sufficient couple who can between them oversee the daily maintenance and running of this beautiful Manor house, outbuildings and separate guest cottage to a high standard. Duties are interchangeable.

Domestic responsibilities:

• Cleaning to a high standard throughout the main house, cottage, gym and outbuildings.
• Laundry, ironing and wardrobe management
• Care and cleaning of high-quality furnishings, fine art, and fabrics
• Provisioning and household organisation and management
• Overseeing 3rd parties including window cleaners, plumbers, electricians, dry cleaners, to ensure household is constantly in full working order
• Simple batch cooking /baking for the freezer, utilising fruit and vegetables from the gardens. Liaise with garden team for seasonal produce.
• Assistance with caring for the family’s pets ( eg feed and care for the chickens, walk the dog)
• Monitor biomass boiler, reordering of biomass pellets to ensure always a stock in store.
• Pet sit and house-sit when the family are away

Grounds/General Household responsibilities

• Household maintenance and general maintenance work throughout the house and grounds. Cleaning of gutters, accessible windows and patio areas.
• Assist the garden team with strimming, clearing leaves, watering when required.
• Looking after cars, valet, arrange servicing, MOT etc.
• Driving local errands, occasional shopping, glass recycling etc.
• Organising and delivering apples that have been picked for juice making
• Clean and manage the biomass boiler, cleaning out prior to new delivery of pellets.
• Cut and clear fallen branches/ trees, stock and clean fire grates, logging and burn garden waste. Keep the outdoor fire pit dry and ready for use.
• Oiling, sanding all outdoor furniture twice per year.
• Help with caring for the family’s pets ( dog walking, care of chickens, potential 3 cattle )
• Pet sit and house sit when the family are away

Working week: 5 days Monday to Friday, occasional weekend cover may be requested by negotiation. Accom 2 bed gate lodge, with small garden.

SALARY NEGOTIABLE DEPENDING ON PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE (HU4094)

COTSWOLDS, STOW ON THE WOLDS
EXPERIENCED COUPLE
HOUSEKEEPER – LAUNDRESS - FAMILY COOK
DRIVER- SECURITY- GROUNDS AND GENERAL MAINTENANCE

Large country house in a glorious setting, part residence property of a young couple with 3 children Nannies are employed.

An experienced couple is required who can between them take ownership of the day to day running of this property including the house and grounds. The housekeeper will have cleaning support during the principals “in residence” periods and there is grounds and maintenance support available too.
You will need a keen eye for detail, have excellent housekeeping and laundry skills and be able to maintain the wardrobes. Good family cooking will be required when the owners are in residence.
The property is modern with high tech support systems, there are 4 acres of grounds with stables and outbuildings which include gym, pool and sports facilities. The gardens are lawns, hedges and flower beds, mainly a garden maintenance role. There are chickens to care for too.

There are 4 cars to care for and you must be willing to wash and polish the cars up to 4 times per day when in use, the principals are extremely particular about the cars. You will refuel, organise MOT and service and ensure that oil, water tyres etc are all checked regularly. There will be some airport runs and driving to events occasionally.

Ideally one of the couple will have table service skills and be able to meet and greet guests, serve drinks etc.
During the periods in residence, no more than 2 weeks at any time, the working days are longer and demanding, but time back can be taken and the role becomes more of a caretaking role when the principals are not in residence. Therefore flexibility, ability to cope under pressure and stamina is essential to this role.

Salary Negotiable, 2 bedroom separate house and 2 days off per week. Guaranteed one weekend off per month where you can leave the property, but ideally you will make this home.
SUIT EX YACHT COUPLE Strictly non-smokers and ideally both to drive. (HU3249)

EAST FRANCE, CLOSE TO SWISS BORDER
GUARDIEN ESTATE COUPLE
French speaker essential
Gardener, grounds/ handyperson/Security/Driver/Housekeeper
Essential Requirements: One must speak good level of French, driver essential.
Previous experience working in a similar role. Motivated, self-sufficient, discreet and responsible persons. Dog lovers essential.

The 19th century mansion in 3 hectares of gardens is the weekend home of a business man based in Paris. The property is used Friday to Sunday each week, mainly by the principal with occasional visits from his 4 adult children and between October and January for up to 10 guests who stay for the local shoots during the season.
The current couple have been employed for 10 yrs plus and will shortly retire.

The housekeeper will be responsible for the day-to-day general housekeeping – maintaining a clean interior and dealing with the laundry, washing and ironing and shopping.
Fresh healthy family style home cooking, capable to follow a recipe. External caterers are available for 2 large parties per year, one at the end of the shoot season and the 2nd during the summer months in the gardens.

There are 3 hectares of well-established gardens with large areas of lawns, hedges and trees. There is also a “Jardin Potager” all will need to be maintained, mowing, strimming, clearing broken branches and generally maintaining the grounds.

Other duties will include caring for garden furniture, maintaining the cars, doing the airport and train station run and managing petty cash and household bills. Liaising with the owner by email and arranging local contractors when needed.
Good DIY skills essential for the day-to-day routine maintenance of the property.

There are 2 medium size dogs on the property which you will need to care for, so dog lovers are essential.

Fully refurbished separate house in the grounds of the property, 3 rooms on 2 levels. It is essential that the couple are self-sufficient, and self-directing and have previous experience working in domestic service.
Salary 6,000 Euros Gross per month. WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF FRENCH AND DRIVER ESSENTIAL. (HU4077)

RESIDENTIAL DOMESTIC COUPLE
CRANBROOK, KENT
HOUSEKEEPER-NANNY, FAMILY COOK & GROUNDSPERSON -DRIVER
Essential Requirements: Energetic, experienced, professional couple. Self-starting team players with great attention to detail, proactive and discreet. Desire to be part of high- performing team in a long-term position. Both must drive with full, clean driving licences. Enhanced DBS Checks will be required.

Overview: A newly created vacancy for an experienced, energetic and flexible couple to lead the management of a small estate 90 mins from Central London. The estate comprises a Grade-2 listed 6-bedroom family home, 2-bed guest cottage, 2-bed stable conversion (currently occupied), outbuildings, pool and tennis court set in 50 acres including formal gardens, woodland, pasture and a wonderful kitchen garden. This is the family home of professional working principals and their three school age children.

Whilst duties are separate the couple must work well together and have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in similar roles.

Nanny-Housekeeper (7.00-19.00 Mon-Fri incl. one night babysitting to c. 23.30)

The housekeeper-nanny will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the main house and for the care and supervision of children outside school while principals are working. The role has a broad set of responsibilities with a high degree of autonomy offered and expected. It is expected that the housekeeping part of the role will take up the largest amount of time, but the housekeeper will need to be enthusiastic about being in sole charge of primary school aged children.

Housekeeping duties will include cleaning, tidying, bed changing, laundry and wardrobe care, ironing, taking deliveries, running errands, liaising with and overseeing contractors and tradesmen (eg window cleaners), leading the weekly grocery shop, provisioning and organisation of household supplies. Occasionally the house is used as a film location and you will act as a point of contact for the production team. The property's guest cottage is periodically run as a self-catering holiday let for which there will be some oversight and provisioning duties (but note the cleaning is done by a separate team).

Nanny duties will include dropping off and collecting the children from school ( walking distance) when the principals are unable to do so, taking to and from activities, ensuring kit and homework bags are packed as needed for the day; ensuring uniform is clean and smart; supervising homework; preparing and supervising meals (breakfast and children's dinner, lunch in school holidays – note, no allergies or fussy eaters); supervising bedtimes. In school holidays, taking children to activities and providing supervision where needed. Providing babysitting one night/week and additional ad hoc babysitting and potentially overnight stays by mutual agreement.

Strong cookery skills would be desirable, for example: meal planning, preparation and cooking of fresh, healthy family meals. There is access to a large kitchen/vegetable garden for seasonal produce. You may enjoy displaying cut flowers, working with the principals and gardener to ensure good use of available fruit, vegetables and flowers in the garden.

Other duties could include:

• Support with entertaining

Groundsperson (hours TBC)

The groundsperson will be responsible for the maintenance of the buildings, gardens and grounds. Have a practical background with good hands-on maintenance skills and be capable of property maintenance and hard landscaping, ideally with previous qualifications of a trade and gardening knowledge and experience. Experience of overseeing building projects would be an advantage.

Maintaining the garden and grounds to a high standard including grass cutting, edging, path clearing, hedge cutting and tree pruning, weeding, tree management (with tree-surgeons where required), lake maintenance, driveway maintenance and seasonal duties e.g. leaf clearing. Cleaning and caring for the cars (e.g. fuel, checking tyres and valeting) care of garden machinery, undertaking and arranging servicing, repairs etc. Pool and tennis court maintenance (working with contractors), maintain a stock of logs and monitor heating oil.

There will be some occasional driving duties for the principals to and from airport- station pickups, restaurants etc.

Other duties include:

• Driveway maintenance
• Overseeing 3rd parties including oil tank filling, septic tank emptying pit, car services/MOT

Shared Duties

Driving duties, for example taking children to afternoon/evening activities, can be shared (subject to required checks and approvals)

Pet care should the principals add any animals to the family Pet sit and house sit when the family are away.

Salary & Accommodation

Salary in line with market expectations depending on experience.

Accommodation will be in a spacious furnished separate 2 bed flat adjacent to the main house with utilities paid. Sorry No dependents or pets. Strictly non-smoking. Enhanced DBS checks are mandatory. Automatic Car provided for work duties. (HU4084)