Tilford Rural Life Museum……….Part 2
On Tuesday, the other half of the class joined me at Tilford Rural Life Museum. It was a cold but beautiful day. Too cold to put our hands in the freezing, icy water, so we had a demonstration of how people did their washing (always on Mondays!), using a prosser and a dolly. We had a demonstration of how the water was squeezed out of the clothes by using a mangle.
Next, we heard about what it was like to be an evacuee in the local area. We found out about the things children learnt at school and the games they used to play. We learnt that their toys were similar to those played with in the Victorian times, or children made their own toys.
After that, we found out about ‘home life’ in the 1940’s. We looked at a Morrison Shelter that was also used as a family dining table. We went inside the shelter to see what it was like. We learnt about the kinds of dangers that children faced and the weapons that were used to cause fire and damage. We had a go at using a ‘stirrup’ pump. We found out that people used these pumps to put out fires caused by ‘incendiary devices’.
After lunch, we went to the school! We began with playtime – using the play equipment used by children in the 1940’s. Sean really enjoyed playing with the Hobby Horse, whilst Billy was really skilled at skipping with a rope. Inside the classroom, we had to sit at ‘desks’ and write in our copy books using pen and ink. We looked at some old coins – shillings, pennies, farthings.
After school, we looked at the Anderson shelter. We wondered what it would have been like to spend a long time in there during an air raid.
It was a great day that really helped with our learning about being a child in the 1940’s.
