|
QUEEN VICTORIA'S REALM 1837-40:
INTRODUCTION
PEOPLE,
PLACES AND FACTS
|
The
family
|
|
|
|
|
|
2,
Aelfred Rd
|
The
family home. A terraced house in the middle of Axminster, a
cathedral town in the West of England.
|
|
Boudicca
|
A
female Tibetan spaniel, named after a famous Celtic queen. Fierce
and unkind to Leader.
|
|
Cleo
|
The
tortoiseshell cat, nice to look at. Eats mice and shrews.
|
|
Cocky
Pheasant
|
Peanut
eating tame bird who lives in the garden and keeps the cats in
order.
|
|
Dad
|
Goes
fishing, drinks wine and puts in the odd unhelpful appearance.
|
|
Great
Gran
|
A
famous witch from the
West Indies
.
|
|
Jane
|
A
junior witch, living at 2,
Aelfred Rd.
Feisty..
|
|
Leader
|
A
second Tibetan spaniel: a friendly, furry and totally useless mut
whom Boudicca terrorises.
|
|
Mum
|
Who
looks after the family and animals at 2,
Aelfred Rd.
|
|
Rose
|
Jane’s
long suffering older sister..
|
|
Sam
|
Jane’s
unfortunate friend whose parents are Norwegian. A judo, swimming
and kick boxing champion.
|
|
Uncle
John
|
A
great wizard and story teller.
|
|
Miss
Woodhead
|
A
history teacher who believes that
Britain
’s history is the story of her glorious past that children
should learn.
|
|
|
|
|
Victorian
Britain
|
|
|
|
|
Andover
Workhouse
|
A
workhouse that was at the centre of a huge scandal about how some
workhouses were run like concentration camps.
|
|
Lord
Ashley
|
The
main campaigner to ban child labour in mines and factories.
|
|
Bowes
|
A
village in
Yorkshire
where William Shaw ran a school upon which Dickens based his
Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas
Nickelby.
|
|
Charles
Dickens
|
A
famous writer who exposed child abuse and cruelty in his novels
Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, written after 1837.
|
|
Child
chimney Sweeps
|
Children
were forced up chimneys to work as chimney sweeps until
made illegal in
1863.
|
|
Coalbrookdale
|
The
area of
Britain
where the Industrial Revolution started. A
region of coalmines, blast furnaces, forges, iron works and
canals.
|
|
Concentration
Camps
|
Prison
camps that the Nazis set up to wipe out their political enemies
and Jews, gypsies and other races. They often starved their
prisoners to death.
|
|
Cotton
Mill
|
A
cotton factory. Many used water wheels to power their machinery
[as well as steam engines] in the same way as flour mills, hence
the term cotton mill.
|
|
Factory
Acts
|
Acts
of Parliament that made child labour illegal in cotton mills and
other factories
|
|
Industrial
Revolution
|
The
change of
Britain
from a farming to an industrial country that began in the 1770s
and 80. It saw steam powered factories in every town and city,
steam trains and steam ships.
|
|
Manchester
|
A
large city in
Lancashire
at the heart of the cotton spinning and weaving industry.
|
|
Mines
Acts
|
Acts
of Parliament that banned young children and women from working
down mines.
|
|
Mr
and Mrs McDougal
|
The
couple who ran
Andover
workhouse. Mr McDougal was a violent drunk, he and his wife often
fought each other. They ran their workhouse like a concentration
camp.
|
|
Mr
Miller
|
A
government mines inspector who inspected the
Hills Lane
coal mine in
Shropshire
.
|
|
Nicholas
Nickleby
|
A
character in Dickens’ novel who worked as a teacher in Dotheboys
Hall, a
Yorkshire
boarding school.
|
|
Oliver
Twist
|
A
character in Charles Dickens novel of the same name who was sent
to live in the Workhouse.
|
|
Prince Albert
|
Queen
Victoria
’s husband: a prince from
Germany
.
|
|
Steam
engines
|
Steam
engines were used to work the machinery in nearly all factories
during the Industrial Revolution.
|
|
The
Times
|
Britain
’s most famous newspaper that campaigned against the evils of
the New Poor Law and its Workhouses.
|
|
White
Slavery
|
The
treatment of British women and children in Victorian England as if
they were slaves.
|
|
William
Shaw
|
A
schoolmaster who owned
Bowes
School
upon which Dickens based Dotheboys Hall in his novel Nicholas
Nickleby.
|
|
Workhouses
|
After
1834 a huge new type of workhouse was built throughout
Britain
where the unemployed, insane, old and sick were forced to live on
a starvation diet. Charles
Dickens campaigned against them
|
TIMELINE
top
|
Date
|
Event
|
|
|
|
|
1819
|
Queen
Victoria
born.
|
|
1830s
onwards
|
The
Industrial Revolution changes
Britain
with the growth of towns and the spread of steam powered factories
for the making of all goods. Trains and steam ships become common.
|
|
1834
|
Poor
Law Amendment Act sets up new type of huge workhouses where the
poor lived in a state of semi starvation.
|
|
1830s
|
Start
of the railway boom that saw railways reach every large town in
Britain
by 1850.
|
|
1837
|
Victoria
becomes Queen on the
death of the King
|
|
1837
until the 1880s
|
Britain
is the world’s leading
industrial and trading nation.
|
|
1837-39
|
Charles
Dickens writes Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby:
novels that tell us about the Victorian workhouse and life in
boarding schools in
Yorkshire
.
|
|
1840
|
Queen
Victoria
marries
Prince Albert
.
|
|
1840s-1870s
|
British
Empire expands quickly in
India
and the rest of
Asia
.
|
|
1842
|
Mines
Act bans women and children under the age of ten from working in
mines
|
|
1846-49
|
Irish
Potato Famine, millions of Irish die of starvation.
|
|
1847
|
Ten
Hours Act limits the working hours in cotton and other textile
factories.
|
|
1848
|
Public
Health Act enables all towns to build water works and sewers.
|
|
1851
|
The
Great Exhibition in
London
shows
Britain
’s wealth to the world.
Prince Albert
plays a major part in the planning of the Great Exhibition
|
|
|
The
census shows more people live in towns and cities than
in the countryside –
Britain
is now an industrial nation
|
|
1854-56
|
The
Crimean War. Florence Nightingale nurses soldiers.
|
|
1857
|
The
Indian Mutiny, a huge native revolt threatens British rule over
India
.
|
|
1860s-1890s
|
The
era of the Wild West in the
United States of America
.
|
|
1869
|
The
Suez Canal
built.
|
|
1870
& 1874
|
Education
Acts mean that all children go to school.
|
|
1877
|
Queen
Victoria
becomes Empress of India.
|
|
1880
onwards
|
The
Scramble for Africa:
Britain
gains an African Empire
|
|
1880-1900
|
Germany
and
America
overtake
Britain
as industrial nations..
|
|
1897
|
Queen
Victoria
’s diamond Jubilee.
|
|
1901
|
Queen
Victoria
dies.
|
SERIES
INTRODUCTION top
The Magic History of Victorian Britain: Queen Victoria’s Realm tells how two children, Jane and Sam travel back in time to experience at first hand some of the most interesting, exciting and amazing things that happened in the first four years of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901). Jane is a young witch whose family has come to live in England from the West Indies. Sam is her best friend, his mum and dad are from Norway. Jane has many hobbies, drama, reading, writing stories and archery. She can hit the bulls eye nine times out of ten from ten metres. Sam is a wonderful swimmer, ice skater, judo champion and kick boxer who loves computers, making models and mending machines. Jane lives at 2, Aelfred Rd, Axchester, a small English country town. Jane and Sam go to a local school where they suffer from an old fashioned and deadly dull history teacher, Miss
Woodhead.
Alice and Tom This book is also woven around the lives of two Victorian children: Alice and Tom, whom Sam and Jane rescue from a life of slavery in a cotton mill. The two children go to live and work with a friend of one of Victorian England’s most famous reformers, Lord Ashley. Alice and Tom take part in and witness many of the changes that shaped Victorian Britain in the early years of her reign. Their adventures will cover the period until 1840 when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert.
2, Aelfred Rd is also the home of Uncle John, a famous storyteller who teaches history in a lively and exciting way. Uncle John is also a wizard, but a modern one with a wizard microchip in his wizard ring. Uncle John sends Jane and Sam on history mystery trips into the past. These are usually in answer to a plea from Jane to help her with a history task that Miss Woodhead has set because Jane has not paid attention in class. Jane also lives with her family, her mum, dad, and long suffering older sister, Rose. Mum looks after the family and dad spends most of his time fishing. The family also has three pets who go on Jane and Sam’s adventures: Cleo the cat, Leader a furry spaniel and Cocky Pheasant, a tame bird who lives in the garden. They travel with Jane in a three legged black cauldron that can be shrunk to fit in her pocket. A fourth pet, Boudicca, a second spaniel stays at home because she keeps picking on Leader and makes his life hell.
Magic and the past Magic is a wonderful way of getting inside the past. Through magic Sam and Jane can go anywhere at any time, take place in the most amazing events. They meet, talk and work with men, women and children from the past, both normal people and those who changed the world. Using our imaginations we can travel with them and share in their adventures, just as we do when we read a novel or watch a film. The Magic History of Victorian Britain, 1837-1901 consists of five linked stories that cover her reign. Queen Victoria’s Realm, 1837-1840 is the first of these.
Magic and stories In each story Jane and Sam often have to solve life and death problems that you can share. They have to decide what to do, and then see what happens. In helping Jane and Sam solve their problems there was a danger of using magic as an easy way of getting them out of trouble. This I have tried to avoid. Nearly all of the magic that Jane uses is possible using modern technology. As you read the stories, see if you can work out what inventions would make her magic work. For example, when I first wrote that Jane’s seeing mirror could show a detailed map of where she was, this seemed pure fantasy. Yet, I have just bought a car that has such a device, satellite navigation! Sam and Jane work as a team. Jane uses her brains to solve problems while Sam often rescues her from danger.
The people in the book It is usual to say that the characters in a book are not based on real people. The Magic History of Victorian Britain is different – Jane and her family existed, and I have tried to show them as they really were, for Uncle John died in 1999 and Leader and Boudicca are no longer with us. The people whom Sam and Jane met also existed: I have tried to paint as accurate a picture as I can of them, the world they lived and worked in and the problems that they faced. To do this I write surrounded with a pile of history books and documents, and I also use the Internet a great deal. It is an amazing, rich archive, full of highly detailed sources that contain evidence about the past.
2,
AELFRED RD top
Number 2, Aelfred Rd Jane and Sam had just come back from school to Jane’s house. Sam lived close by: he was Jane’s best friend. Jane was in a foul mood; she slammed the door behind her, frightening Cleo the cat who rushed upstairs. Sam had gone into the kitchen to find some lemonade, coke and cake for them both. Uncle John called out from the sitting room,
‘Jane, is that you? Can you please bring me a bottle of wine from the wine rack? Your father will be back soon, we need a glass or two before supper to cheer us up.’
Jane hurried into the kitchen: she put a bottle of red wine, a cork screw and two wine glasses on the tray of cakes with its bottle of coke that she and Sam would share in the living room. It was stuffed full of books. An upright piano stood against one wall, an old comfy sofa smothered with thick cushions rested against another. Under the bow window were two padded arm chairs. The sofa faced the gas fire. In the grate sat an ancient three legged black metal cauldron.
The family Uncle John lived with Jane, her mum, dad and older sister Rose, Cleo the cat and Leader and Boudicca, their two tiny furry Tibetan spaniels. Boudicca made Leader’s life a misery; she stuck her needle sharp teeth into his ear every time she could. Leader was always running away to play in the local park and had once arrived home in a taxi. Uncle John was a famous wizard who sent Jane and Sam on History Mystery adventures back into the past. Jane was a junior witch who wore a ring with a special wizard microchip that contained thousands of spells.
Magic The spells both helped her find out about what was going on and also, at times, to get out of terrible danger. The history trips were great fun, Jane and Sam went all over the world. They witnessed and took part in some of the most exciting events that had happened and met both ordinary people and families, as well as famous men and women who had shaped the world.
Jane’s day Jane had put the tray on a small, round coffee table, Uncle John picked up the bottle of wine, opened it and poured a glass before saying:
‘Well Jane, what kind of day have you had?’
He had noticed the glare on her face and feared the worst: another ghastly history lesson with Miss Woodhead.
‘I don’t believe it. Miss Woodhead has a genius for turning History into the least popular subject in the school along with Geography. How she does it, I don’t know. Each lesson she talks and talks and talks, and then makes us answer pointless questions using a really dull old textbook just like the ones dad writes.’
Miss Woodhead’s Victorian history lessons Once Jane started she was hard to stop:
‘Each week since the start of term we have been learning about the reign of Queen Victoria. Each lesson passes in a fog of dates, names and facts about growing big and small turnips, safety lamps, coal mines, blast furnaces, steam engines and trains and other really interesting facts. Miss Woodhead drones on about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, long forgotten battles and how Britain, according to her, came to have the greatest empire the world had ever seen. She seems to think that by telling us the truth about Britain’s glorious past we will soak up what she says like blotting paper. And when she stops we copy what she writes on the board into our books or answer mind deadening questions about sources and bias. I am bored out of my skull.’
Uncle John sat stony faced, so this was what history teaching was still like.
Jane ended,
’I’m drowning in a sea of meaningless facts. Surely history should be full of gripping and exciting stories like those we encounter on our history trips?’
Mum’s complaints While Jane moaned on and on about their boring old history teacher Jane’s mum screamed from up stairs, ‘Come up here at once and clean up the mess that you have made in your bedroom. It’s a real pigsty. And, bring that useless Sam with you. He is as much to blame for the state of your room as you are.’
Jane shouted, ‘Be with you in a minute’, and turned to Uncle John.
The History project ‘Uncle, we have a project on Victorian England to do. Can you help us find out in an interesting and exciting way about Queen Victoria and her reign? What might Sam and I have been doing if we had lived when Victoria came to the throne? What might our home have been like? Where would we have gone to school? What kind of job might I have had to earn pocket money? What happened to people who had no jobs, to the old, the cripples, the blind, the insane? What did you do if you were ill?’
Uncle John Uncle John coughed, smiled and said,
‘No problem, Sam can come round after supper for a history trip. But, meanwhile, you have to go upstairs to clean up your bedroom – that will keep you busy for a couple of hours. You could get a character from history to help you, Hercules. To get some ideas look up on the Internet what Hercules did to the Augean stables. They were a bit like your bedroom.’
Into the past Sam had rushed back to 2, Aelfred Rd after his supper. His mum had asked him why he was going to Jane’s, he told her that they were going to work together on their Victorian project. Because the night was cold and dark he wore his thick duffle coat and walking shoes. In his bag Sam had also put some sweets, biscuits and coke. He knew that it might be a long and hungry night. At Aelfred Rd he went into the sitting room, Uncle John was sitting happily in his rocking chair, Jane’s dad was fast asleep having drunk too much wine as usual, while in the cauldron sat Cleo, Leader and Cocky Pheasant – a peanut eating tame bird that lived in the garden. They would go with Jane and Sam on their history trip.
The trip Uncle John looked at Jane and Sam:
‘Ready for your next history trip? Jane said she would like to find out about life in Victorian Britain. I will see what we can do. A cotton town would be a good place to visit.’ With a twist of his wizard chip ring the room suddenly became dark. Sam and Jane realised that they were flying back through time. But, where would they go?
|
