"Victorian Times"

1837–1901
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1819 in Kensington Palace in London. Her name was Alexandrina

Victoria. When Princess Victoria was 18 years old her uncle King William died and she became queen. She was crowned at Westminster Abbey in 1838.  Victoria married her handsome cousin Albert a young prince from Germany. (She had proposed to him). Albert didn't speak English very well and lots of people didn't like him.

qualify as a doctor in Britain. She founded a hospital

for poor women and children in London.

telephone.

age. His novels were outstandingly popular in his time and

are still popular now.

he was the author of Alice in Wonderland (1865).

Sherlock Holmes.

England never went to school at all and more than

half of them grew up unable even to read or write. Although some did go to Sunday schools which were run by churches. Children from rich families were luckier than poor children. Nannies looked after them, and they had toys and books. A governess would  teach the children at home. Then, when the boys were old enough, they were sent away to a public school such as Eton or Rugby. The daughters were kept at home and taught singing, piano playing and sewing. Slowly, things changed for poorer children too. By the end of the Victorian age all children under 12 had to go to school. Now everybody could learn how to read and write, and how to count properly.

were very strict. Children as young as thirteen helped the

teacher to control the class. These “pupil teachers” scribbled notes for their lessons in books .They received certificates which helped them qualify as teachers when they were older. In schools before 1850 you might see a single teacher instructing a class of over 100 children with help of pupils called “monitors”. The head teacher quickly taught these monitors, some of them as young as nine, who then tried to teach their schoolmates. Salaries were low, and there were more women teaching  than men. The pale, lined faces of older teachers told a story. Some taught only because they were too ill to do other jobs. The poor conditions in schools simply made their health even worse. Sometimes, teachers were attacked by angry parents. They shouted that their children should be at work earning money, not wasting time at school. Teachers in rough areas had to learn to box!

to attend school by law. In winter in the countryside,

many children faced a teeth chattering walk to school of several miles. A large number didn’t turn up. Lessons lasted from 9am to 5pm, with a two hour lunch break. Because classes were so large, pupils all had to do the same thing at the same time. The teacher barked a command,  and  the children all opened their books. At the second command they began copying sentences from the blackboard. When pupils found their work boring, teachers found their pupils difficult to control.

they scratched letters on them with sharpened pieces of slate.

Paper was expensive, but slates could be used again and again. Children were supposed to bring sponges to clean them. Most just spat on the slates, and rubbed them clean with their sleeves. Older children learned to use pen and ink by writing in “copybooks”. Each morning the ink monitor filled up little, clay ink wells and handed them round from a tray. Pens were fitted with scratchy, leaking nibs, and children were punished for spilling ink which “blotted their copybooks”. Teaches also gave dictation, reading out strange poems which the children had to spell out correctly.
Abacus The pupils used an abacus to help them with their maths. Calculations were made using imperial weights and measures instead of our simpler metric system. Children had to pass inspections in maths, reading and writing before they could move up to the next class or “standard”. Teachers were also tested by the dreaded inspector, to make sure that they deserved government funds.

shrieking schoolmates. Games of blind mans buff, snakes and ladders,

hide-and-seek and hopscotch are in full swing. Some boys would beg a pigs bladder from the butcher, which they would blow up to use as a football. Others drilled hob nails through cotton reels to make spinning tops.
By the second half of Queen Victoria's reign, most people earned more money and worked shorter hours than ever before. This meant that for the first time, ordinary people had enough spare time to enjoy sports and other pastimes, and to go to the seaside for holidays.