The Victorian Era1837-1901

Queen Victoria • Victoria was born in 1819 to Father Edward, Duke

of Kent. Her Mother was German, she was Princess Maria Louisa Victoria of Saxe-Coburg.

• Victoria's father died when she was a baby, on 23 January 1820. She knew that one day she would be Queen of England.

• Victoria did not go to school. Her German governess gave her lessons. Victoria grew up speaking German as well as English.

• In 1837 Victoria became Queen of England at the age of just 18! Her coronation lasted 5 hours long!

• The Queen had nine children Edward VI, Princess Victoria, Princess Alice, Princess Beatrice, Prince Leopold, Alfred (Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) Princess Helena, Prince Arthur and Princess Louise.

• She was Queen of a vast Empire, as well as of Britain.

Fun Fact

In 1842 the Queen rode on a train for the first time, from London to Windsor.

The Victorian Era • The Victorian age in British history is

named after Queen Victoria, who was Britain's queen from 1837 until 1901.• No TV, no computers, no central

heating, no cars (until the last few years of Victoria's reign).• Many children went to work, not to

school.

Diary of a Victorian child

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV3JO_RYIDE

The British Empire • Britain ruled the British Empire. • Victoria was Empress of India as

well as Queen of Britain, Canada (the biggest country in the Empire) and small countries such as Jamaica.• Some British children left

Britain with their families to new homes in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.

The Industrial Revolution

• The Industrial revolution brought Factories to the land of England.• The population rose from 16

million in 1801 to 41 million 1901.• Men, Women and Children

worked in the factories. • They also worked in the Coal

Mines.• Workers of the mines and

factories were on a low wage and lived in the slums.

The conditions during Industrial revolution• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohGyBYzZoig

Victorian Factories

• Britain was the first country in the world to have lots of factories.• Factories were noisy. People had

to shout above the rattle and hiss of machinery.• The air was thick with oil, dust and

soot. Making workers very ill. • Iron and steel works got so hot

that workers dripped with sweat.

Cotton Mills

• Cotton mills were factories where cotton was spun into thread.• Weaving machines turned the

thread into textiles, such as cloth and carpets.• The cotton and wool industries

employed thousands of workers, mostly in the north of England.• Mill workers lived in small houses

close to the factories.

Children and Factories

• Factory owners employed children because they were cheap, did not complain, had nimble fingers, and could crawl about under machines.• Small girls worked in mills as ‘piecers’,

this meant going under the machines and joining broken threads together. • They risked getting caught in the

machinery, losing hair or arms.• At first, there were no laws to protect

working children.

Coal Mines

• Most of the energy we use today comes in the form of electricity or oil. In Victorian times, energy came from water-power (waterwheels), from horses and above all from burning coal.• Steam engines burned coal.• All this coal had to be dug from

coal mines. Britain had a lot of coal, deep in rocks beneath the ground.

What were the coal Mines like?

• Most coal was dug from deep mines. A long vertical shaft was dug down from the surface. Leading off from it were side tunnels. Miners rode in a lift, worked by a steam engine.

• In the tunnels, they hacked at the coal with picks and shovels. Coal mines were dark, dirty and dangerous.

• The only light came from candles and oil lamps. Gas in the mine could choke miners, or explode. Tunnels could flood or collapse. Accidents killed many miners.

Fun Fact

• Mine children often worked in complete darkness. There were no electric torches. Candles cost precious pennies.

What jobs did the Children do?

• Some children pushed trucks of coal along mine tunnels. They were called 'putters'.• 'Trappers' opened and shut wooden

doors to let air through the tunnels. A trapper boy sat in the dark, with just a small candle, and no-one to talk to.• Some children started work at 2 in the

morning and stayed below ground for 18 hours. Children working on the surface, sorting coal, at least saw daylight and breathed fresh air.

Victorian Schools

• Children sat in rows and the teacher sat at a desk facing the class.• Most teachers were men, but later

many women trained as teachers.• Children wrote on slates with chalk. • Girls and boys learned together in

primary schools, but were separated in secondary schools. Both boys and girls learned reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling and drill (PE).

Subjects taught at school

• Boys learned technology: woodwork, maths and technical drawing, to help with work in factories, workshops or the army when they grew up.• Girls had lessons in cooking and sewing, to prepare them for

housework and motherhood.• Children were often taught by copying and repeating what the

teacher told them. Lessons included teaching in right and wrong, and the Christian religion.

Fun Fact

• One Victorian slang word for 'children' was 'chavy'.

Rich Vs Poor schooling

• Boys from rich families were sent away to boarding school. Some ‘public schools’, like Eton and Harrow, set high standards.

• Other schools were awful places, run to make profits for the owners. Boys in these bad schools were half-starved, ill-treated, and taught very little.

• Girls sent away to be trained as governesses were not much better off, as you can learn from reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

• Girls and young boys were taught at home by a male tutor or a female governess. The first good girls' schools were started in Victorian times, such as the North London Collegiate School (1850).

Fun Fact

• Victorians counted their money in pounds (£), shillings (s) and pence (d). There were 20 shillings to one pound, and 12 pence in one shilling.