The hall boy or hallboy[1] was a position held by a young male domestic worker on the staff of a great house, usually a young teenager.
His duties were often among the most disagreeable in the house, such as emptying chamber pots for the higher-ranking servants.
He slept on a fold-down bed in the hallway connecting the servants' quarters.
[4] The hall boy was the lowest-ranked male servant, but he could rise to a higher position in the household,[5] eventually becoming a valet or butler.
Arthur Inch, a former butler who acted as a technical consultant for the film Gosford Park and the television series Downton Abbey, stated in an interview that he began his life in service as a hall boy at the age of 15.