A Victorian Visit – Preston Park

On Thursday 6th February, along with Discoverers, Leaders visited Preston Park.  The aim was to begin to investigate the Victorian era, immersing ourselves into life in Victorian times.

Leaders began by spending time in the classroom, learning what life would have been like in a Victorian school.  There were many surprises: the amount of children in every class; the different ages of the children in a class; how the children would have carried out their lessons on a slate; and the punishments that you would be given if you did not something you were asked.

Teachers would most likely be women although, once they got married, they were unable to be a teacher.

Leaders spent the afternoon investigating the Victorian street.  There were so many tiny bottles in the Chemist, all were made of glass, and contained an array of different ingredients that would be mixed together to make medicine to treat you.  Leaders found the bottles in the sweet ship far more interesting, filled with a rainbow of different coloured sweets.  The lady in the shop explained who would have been able to buy the sweets and how much they would have cost.  There were some very sad faces when they realised that this would not have been a daily or weekly event.

The Drapers was the place they found out about the Victorian clothes, investigating lost of different headwear, and saw some Victorian pennies.

Finally, they spent some time on the street having a go at paying with some of the toys.  The hoops were much harder to use than the children expected.