Poor people could work in mines, in mills and factories, or in workhouses. Whole families would sometimes have to work so they’d all have enough money to buy food. Children in poor families would have jobs that were best done by people who weren’t very tall.
What was it like being poor in Victorian times?
For the first half of the 19th century the rural and urban poor had much in common: unsanitary and overcrowded housing, low wages, poor diet, insecure employment and the dreaded effects of sickness and old age. By 1851 the census showed the urban population was larger than that of the rural areas.
What did poor Victorian children do?
Poor children often had to work instead of going to school. Many worked with their parents at home or in workshops, making matchboxes or sewing. Children could also earn a bit of money as chimney-sweeps, messengers or crossing sweepers like the boy in this picture.
What was life like for the poor?
| The Poor | The Wealthy |
|---|---|
| had few luxuries. ate food they could afford to buy worked long hours lived in damp, filthy conditions. Many children died of disease. | usually well fed, clean and well clothed. didn’t need to work lived in big houses with servants went on holidays children had expensive toys children went to school |
Why was living in the Victorian era difficult for the poor?
Poverty was caused by many factors in the 1800s: Unemployment – families had no means of support. Large families – many children had to be catered for. Death of main ‘bread-winner’ – no one to make money.
Did poor Victorians go to school?
Where did poor Victorians go to school? Poor children sometimes had the opportunity of attending a church school, but these schools had very poor facilities with class sizes of up to 100 children. However, from 1880 the law changed and all children between the ages of 5 to 10 had to go to school.
How much did poor Victorians get paid?
A labourer’s average wage was between 20 and 30 shillings a week in London, probably less in the provinces. This would just cover his rent, and a very sparse diet for him and his family.
What jobs did poor Victorian girls do?
Children worked on farms, in homes as servants, and in factories. Children provided a variety of skills and would do jobs that were as varied as needing to be small and work as a scavenger in a cotton mill to having to push heavy coal trucks along tunnels in coal mines. There were so many different jobs!
How did Victorians punish their children?
Boys were usually caned on their backsides and girls were either beaten on their bare legs or across their hands. A pupil could receive a caning for a whole range of different reasons, including: rudeness, leaving a room without permission, laziness, not telling the truth and playing truant (missing school).
What toys did poor Victorians have?
The toys children played with in Victorian times often depended on how wealthy their family was. Children from rich families played with rocking horses, train sets, doll’s houses and toy soldiers, whereas children from poor families tended to play with home-made toys such as peg dolls, spinning tops and skipping ropes.
What clothes did poor Victorians have?
Poor Victorian women wore thin dirty dresses which were dark colours and made from cotton or wool because silk and linen would be far too expensive and wouldn’t last as long as they needed them to last for ages.
How were the lower class treated in the Victorian era?
The Working class consisted of unskilled laborers who worked in brutal and unsanitary conditions (Victorian England Social Hierarchy). They did not have access to clean water and food, education for their children, or proper clothing.
How were the poor treated in Victorian Britain?
The new Poor Law ensured that the poor were housed in workhouses, clothed and fed. Children who entered the workhouse would receive some schooling. In return for this care, all workhouse paupers would have to work for several hours each day. However, not all Victorians shared this point of view.
Did poor Victorians have toilets?
In reality, bathrooms were not commonplace in the Victorian Era. The conversion of older houses to include bathrooms did not take place until the late 1800s. It was not until the 1900s that all but the smallest houses were built with an upstairs bathroom and toilet.
Where are the Victorian poor sent if they do not work?
The Victorian Workhouse was an institution that was intended to provide work and shelter for poverty stricken people who had no means to support themselves.
What do you think most poor Victorians did with their human waste?
These poor people could only dispose of all faeces, urine, and dirty water into their own small cesspool or the communal one. Although the ban on connecting house drains to the Roman sewers had been lifted in 1815, many slum landlords refused to connect their houses because of the amount of money it cost.
Did poor Victorians drink tea?
Tea was the staple drink. Coffee might be consumed at breakfast even by the poorest, but in the form of chicory/coffee mixture. Breakfast was generally bread, occasionally with butter. For the poorest a sandwich of bread and watercress was the most common.
What was the life expectancy of a poor Victorian child?
Around one-third of children, and more than half in some poor neighbourhoods, died before they reached the age of five.
Did servants ever get a day off?
By the 1880s, servants were given a half-day off on Sundays, starting after lunch (and only if all their chores for that morning had been completed), and they were usually given one day off each month, starting after breakfast, and again, their chores all had to be finished first.
What age did Victorian children work?
Additionally, these factories were also ordered to provide two hours of daily education for children under 13. The Mines Act (1842) – This act raised the minimum age of a colliery worker to 10 years old. The Factory Act (1878) – All trades were now unable to employ anyone under the age of 10.
Where did poor Victorians live?
Poor people in Victorian times lived in horrible cramped conditions in run-down houses, often with the whole family in one room. Many people during the Victorian years moved into the cities and towns to find work in the factories.