In our classes we performed some tasks that taught us about Victorian way of life.  Our first one was to learn about how the Higgins family/Victorians would have dressed.  One boy and one girl were chosen to dress up as the heads of the family.  There were so many layers they had to wear, especially the ladies, and they looked so uncomfortable! First the women will put on a night gown sort of thing. Then big trousers to cover their skin (you’re not allowed to show that skin). Then they put on a corset to slim the body. After that they would put on a skirt cage to hold the shirt up them over the skirt cage goes a skirt. On top of the skirt there is a big dress that covers the whole body with a torso piece as well. Then they put a nice hat on with a bow.  The men would put on red pyjamas then over that they would wear a long sleeved top with a collar. Then they would put on dungarees with long trousers and blue straps to keep them in place. Over that they wore a black jacket and a bow tie around their neck and a fancy top hat on top.

Then we looked around a Victorian House that the museum had created in their rooms.  Inside there was a posh sofa with a big dining table and two wooden chairs. It also had a fire place to keep warm. There was an old clock next to the table. Also there was a picture of who lived there. In the corridor there were lots of pictures with people. The stairs were wooden but had a blue carpet on them.  The house was from a very rich family so there were lots of patterns on the fabrics but the colours were quite dull not like houses now.  We saw a chair that had candles on the arms so they could see when they were reading at night… but there were lots of fires!

There was also a room full of Victorian artefacts, we thought the most interesting thing was a pill maker.  It looked like a huge block with little gaps to put the pills in.  The people would put the mixture in and the machine would make it into the right size and shape

We had a great day and learnt so much, Please click HERE to see photos from our day!

By Arya