Part one | Daily life: how did people live in the 19th century?

Ruth introduces the cold and heavy physical labour of everyday living. She examines the normal routines of life – from washing and dressing, to eating and sleeping – and how this differed for people from different walks of life.

Part two | Leisure: how did people spend their free time in the 19th century?

Ruth explores exactly how little leisure time most people had in the 19th century – and what they did with their precious snatched hours

Part three | What was school and education like in Victorian Britain?

It was in the Victorian period that school shifted to becoming a more universal experience. Learn more about the Ragged school movement, the social mobility that schooling offered and how the classroom was a different experience depending on whether you were a boy or a girl.

Course syllabus

Part one: How did people live in the 19th century?

Ruth introduces the cold and heavy physical labour of everyday living. She examines the normal routines of life – from washing and dressing, to eating and sleeping – and how this differed for people from different walks of life.

Part two: How did people spend their free time in the 19th century?

Discover exactly how little leisure time most people had in the Victorian period – and what they did with those precious snatched hours. Ruth also looks at how people in towns took up sport and gardening for fun, plus the pleasure found in reading a book with a nice cup of cocoa…

Part three: What was school and education like in Victorian Britain?

It was in the Victorian period that school shifted to becoming a more universal experience. Learn more about the Ragged school movement, the social mobility that schooling offered and how the classroom was a different experience depending on whether you were a boy or a girl.

Part four: What was health and medicine like in the 19th century?

Ruth examines the move towards clean water supplies, improved waste disposal, antiseptics in hospitals and in the home. We’ll then learn about the slow adoption of germ theory and how it improved life expectancy.

Part five: What was work like in Victorian Britain?

In the 19th century, work changed for most of the population with shift working made possible by gas light, a new adherence to fixed hours of work and a fierce concentration upon a smaller number of tasks whilst at work. Ruth explains all of this – as well as the slow movement towards protection for workers that took place over the course of the 19th century.

Part six: What did the family look like in Victorian Britain?

In the 19th century, men took more control at home than at any other time in history. Ruth explains the ‘male breadwinner pattern’ and the employment of boys and how this affected the whole family.