Victorian childhood brought to life

Year Six re-live a Victorian child worker's day

On Monday, 16th January, Upper Two visited Coldharbour Mill near Uffculme. Once again, history was brought to life during a fascinating day at a unique location, and the bitterly cold conditions certainly added to the authenticity of the experience! The children enjoyed a tour of the factory, where they found out what it was like to be a child worker in a textile mill in Victorian Britain. They also learnt about the processes involved in transforming wool into a range of manufactured products.
 

The second part of the day was a drama activity where Mr Robson, the factory foreman, put the children to work to decide their suitability for a job at the mill. Both staff and children dressed up in Victorian costume to bring the experience to life and the pupils wrote letters of application, in advance, to express why they needed work at the mill.

Daniel Cole and Manny Burrage wrote: “It was an extremely interesting and fun day. Mr Robson was scary and horrible while he was acting, a shocking insight into the mind of a Victorian child. However, he was a very nice chap when he came out of role! The machines were really interesting, and we got to see wool changed into fairly strong string which we got to take home.”

The whole day was a great success and served as the perfect climax to an enjoyable topic.