Our Victorian workshop is delivered by two of our favourite characters: Miss Housego the schoolmistress, and the doyen of detectives, Mr Sherlock Holmes himself.
Our recreated school room explores Victorian attitudes to education, and includes a genuine Victorian desk, a world map of the empire, a framed portrait of the Queen, the Union Jack flag, and examples of Victorian clothing.
Your pupils will try out writing on slates or with dip pens, wear the dunce’s cap, see the painful birch and finger stocks, be asked to stand up when the teacher enters the room, experience segregation, learn to sing the national anthem and attempt to learn the the ‘R’s by rote, as was the practice in a Victorian classroom.
Outside we bring domestic service and the workhouse to life, with a Victorian mangle, carpet beating, oakum picking, polishing brassware, making gruel and peeling turnips!
In the other session, Sherlock will lead students on a detective session researching 35 famous Victorians – he will bring 35 clues to their identity, including a genuine period plate camera, a vintage pram, lanterns, an African drum, books, hats, an oar, a stretcher, and many more things.
Some of these characters are household names, others should be more famous than they are, such as Amelia Dyer…
