Oak Class - Willis Museum
On Friday 20th March Oak class visited the Willis Museum in Basingstoke to learn more about the Victorians and how Basingstoke has changed from the Victorian era to present day. The children started off by sharing what they had learnt about the Victorians, workhouses and Queen Victoria during our topic. We then started our workshop where the children became detectives and were asked to find out about Mary Ilsley who lived in Basingstoke during the Victorian era. In groups children looked at a variety of Victorian artefacts and dressed up in Victorian style clothing. During this task we were asked to observe and identify who would have used the range of artefacts and what each item was used for. They then compared a map of Basingstoke in 1872 to present day and looked at photographs of people, schools and streets within the Victorian era. After this, we then viewed a census extract from Winchester Street during 1901 (the end of the Victorian era) and discussed the average number of people who lived in a house – not all the people who lived in each house were from the same family, many of the members of the household were servants. We learnt that Mary Ilsley lived at 53 Winchester Street and worked for Thomas Edney as a domestic servant. The children were then able to visit a Victorian parlour and kitchen where we looked at the similarities and differences between modern day and Victorian life. We noticed that there was William Morris wallpaper on the walls and a range of ornaments (like a stuffed bird) in the parlour.
After lunch we went for a walk around the top of Basingstoke town and looked at the different buildings, statues and plaques. During our tour we were looking for evidence of Victorian buildings that still exist today. The Willis Museum itself was a Victorian building- it used to be the old town hall and The Hay Market Theatre used to actually be a hay market.
The children learnt a lot about Basingstoke during the Victorian era and thoroughly enjoyed their day!
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