Year 5 Step Back in Time at Blists Hill Victorian Town

Year 5 children enjoyed a memorable and hands-on history lesson during a visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town, where they explored what everyday life was like in the 19th century.

The children toured a wide range of buildings and shops that brought the Victorian era to life. In the pharmacy, they discovered how tablets were made, why carbolic soap was used, and how liquorice twigs once doubled as toothbrushes. They also learned that people could see a visiting dentist and even have their eyes tested there, and that Victorian pharmacists would all have been men.

At the grocery, shelves were packed with ingredients and food products, many sold in tins or carefully weighed on scales. The pupils learned that families would usually buy all their food from a local grocer. The sweet shop proved especially popular, with its tempting jars of sweets that were weighed out and wrapped in paper bags, just as they would have been in Victorian times.

The children visited three very different homes. One was a smart middle-class house with a kitchen, scullery, parlour and three bedrooms, as well as an outhouse – which the children were not keen on! They learned that families bathed only once a week and shared the same bathwater, with the father going first. This led to a lively discussion about the saying “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” which came about because the water could become so dirty by the time the smallest child bathed, that you might not see them if they slipped below the surface!

The Squatters’ Cottage was small, basic and crowded, showing how some families lived in much tougher conditions, surviving on food they grew, foraged or hunted. The Tythe House, with its three rooms, stood by a tythe road where money could be collected. The pupils were fascinated to learn that all the houses at Blists Hill had been carefully taken apart and rebuilt brick by brick.

In the schoolroom, pupils experienced a strict Victorian-style lesson. The teacher inspected hands, allowed speaking only when called upon, and made everyone practise handwriting and spelling on slates. Left-handed children were even told they had to write with their right hand, just as would have happened at a Victorian school.

The Printer’s Shop showed how posters and newspapers were made, with each individual letter placed by hand onto the press – a slow and careful process. At the bank, a costumed guide explained Victorian coins and their values and told the children that only wealthy people had bank accounts. They also noticed the very tall doors, designed so gentlemen in top hats could enter without ducking.

Other stops included the bakery, post office, drapery, bike workshop and chandlers, and the day was rounded off by watching horses pull carriages through the streets.

The trip gave Year 5 a vivid insight into Victorian life and was a day full of learning, surprises and plenty of memorable moments.