Victorian Period

The Victorian period is the time during the reign of Queen Victoria. She was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 to 1901. During this time there were vast changes and new discoveries in England. When she was crowned, she was only 18 and England was mainly rural with many farms and small towns. By the time she died at the age of 82, England was highly industrialised and most places were connected by railways

The Workhouse

Life in Victorian Britain was very hard if you were poor and didn't have a job. In 1834 a law was amended which changed the way the poor could be helped. Poor people receiving help from the parish had to live in a workhouse and could no longer live at home. In return for parish relief, they would be made to work hard in the workhouse; which is how the term originated. Because of the new law, the amount of workhouses increased and the homeless poor were put in them. To make sure that people would only use workhouses as a last resort conditions inside were much worse than on the outside.

To stay in a workhouse, you had to work to help pay your way. All the work was boring and repetitive with only two breaks for lunch and dinner. Work started after breakfast at 5am and after work they would say prayers and go to bed around 8pm. Conditions were awful for the workers, with many becoming ill due to bad hygiene and poor diet. They even had to eat with their hands as they had no cutlery.

Factory Man

The factories that sprang up in England during Victoria's reign provided work for most dads. Factories were not easy places to work. People, including children, worked very long hours and for very little money.

Dads would often be woken up by a 'knocker-upper' (someone who was employed to wake people up in the morning) or the sound of the machinery in the nearby factory. Workers' houses were usually near the factory so that they could walk to work. All day they would have to work on dangerous machinery in a cramped and dingy room.

Many of the factories would run all hours, and sometimes dad would work as many hours as he could to make enough money to support the family.

Poorer families would often have barely enough money to live on. Each member of the family would have to have a job, not just mum and dad!

Family Life of the Rich

Family was important to many Victorians, and the home was the heart of family life. Families would spend time together in the drawing room where they played music, enjoyed games and received guests.

Dad was the head of the household and was often very strict. You would be taught to respect your dad and obey him without question; you would even have to call him "sir".

If your dad wanted time to himself he would go to his study where no-one was allowed to enter unless they had his special permission.

Life was good, but only if you were rich!

Wealthy Victorians, like many rich people before them, enjoyed lavish lifestyles, spending money on big homes, extravagant clothes and hosting parties for other wealthy Victorians.

Rich gentlemen and ladies would spend a lot of their free time enjoying themselves. They went to the Opera, enjoyed a bit of theatre, went ballroom dancing and attended lavish charity events.

Lords and ladies were not the only ones to enjoy the high life; there were many wealthy people who had become rich from owning factories.

Poor Victorians

Life was hard for poor Victorians. Families were large and often found it hard to find money for food and housing.

Homes were small and cramped with little or no utilities like water or heating. The houses and streets were cramped and there was a lot of pollution. Air pollution from the factories and water pollution from sewage caused lots of disease and many people died.

Unlike the rich, the poor liked to spend time together away from their smelly homes; instead they might go out to eat. There was a lot of cheap food from stalls in the street and pubs.

Britain Rules

During Victorian times Britain became the most powerful country in the world. The British Empire was the biggest empire in world history and for a long time was the most important world power. By the end of the 19 th century, the British Empire covers a fifth of the world's land surface and includes 400 million people. All the colonies of the British Empire were shown on school maps coloured in red.

Do I Have To?

In the early 19th century, England had public schools for the rich and charity schools for the poor. A lot of working class children had little education. Some would be taught by their parents, but might only learn to write their name.

In 1880 a new law was introduced saying all children between 5 and 10 years old had to go to school! Even then a lot of poor families could not afford to send their children to school, so in 1891 the law was changed to make all schooling free for children up the age of 11!

So next time you ask why you have to go to school, remember, it is because the Victorians said so!

Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922)

Alexander Graham Bell was a Victorian Inventor. His mother and his wife were both deaf so he spent a lot of time researching the condition and experimenting with hearing devices. In 1874 the president of Western Union, William Orton, paid both Bell and fellow inventor Elisha Gray to find a way of sending more than one message at a time down a Telegraph wire.

Through his research using methods of sending messages through a 'water transmitter', Bell eventually invented the Telephone.

Bell offered to sell the rights to his invention to Western Union for $100,000 but was turned down. 2 years later the president of the company said that if he could buy the patent for $25 million he would see it as a bargain.