They were rather large compared to families nowadays, with an average of five or six children and their organization was also very patriarchal. Victorians encouraged hard work, respectability, social deference and religious conformity. Upper and middle class families usually lived in big and comfortable houses.
What was life like for Victorian children in London?
London’s population grew rapidly during the 19th century. This lead to major problems with overcrowding and poverty. Disease and early death were common for both rich and poor people. Victorian children did not have as many toys and clothes as children do today and many of them were homemade.
What was life like for a poor Victorian family?
A poor Victorian family would have lived in a very small house with only a couple of rooms on each floor. The very poorest families had to make do with even less – some houses were home to two, three or even four families. The houses would share toilets and water, which they could get from a pump or a well.
How were children treated in the Victorian times?
With no laws to protect children, this meant they had few rights and were badly treated. Seen as simply the property of their parents, many children were abandoned, abused and even bought and sold. Thought to be born evil, children needed to be corrected, punished and made to become good citizens.
What was society like in Victorian London?
The social classes of this era included the Upper class, Middle class, and lower class. Those who were fortunate enough to be in the Upper class did not usually perform manual labor. Instead, they were landowners and hired lower class workers to work for them, or made investments to create a profit.
How did Victorian families live?
The houses were cheap, most had between two and four rooms – one or two rooms downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs, but Victorian families were big with perhaps four or five children. There was no water, and no toilet. A whole street (sometimes more) would have to share a couple of toilets and a pump.
What jobs did Victorian kids do?
Thousands of children worked in the mines, factories, and workshops of Victorian Britain. Until 1842, when new laws were introduced to stop children under 10 from working in mines, children as young as four years old sat underground in the dark.
What was Victorian parenting like?
Victorian parents didn’t shy away from the word “no”, and they taught their children the difference between right and wrong, true and false. Parents were encouraged not to spoil them or give in to them.
How much did a Victorian child get paid?
In 1830, a child working in a cotton mill earned just one tenth of an adult’s wages. Most factory owners and businessmen were very happy to employ children as they did not have to pay them very much, so they could make more profit. Click here to find out more about Victorian jobs!
What did poor Victorian children do for fun?
Older boys often played football, cricket and tag whilst girls would often play hopscotch and jump rope. Young boys usually played marbles while young girls had skipping ropes and dolls to play with. The poorest children often made their own toys out of anything they could find.
What jobs did children do in a workhouse?
Instead, the education the children did receive was vocational, and completely dependent on their gender, age and ability. Furthermore, children were made to work, often doing manual labour and occasionally ‘hired out’ to factories and mines.
How were Victorian girls treated?
Women’s rights were extremely limited in this era, losing ownership of their wages, all of their physical property, excluding land property, and all other cash they generated once married. When a Victorian man and woman married, the rights of the woman were legally given over to her spouse.
What jobs did boys do in the workhouse?
Work
- Stone-breaking — the results being saleable for road-making.
- Corn-grinding — heavy mill-stones were rotated by four or more men turning a capstan (the resulting flour was usually of very poor quality)
- Bone-crushing — this was abolished after the Andover scandal)
- Gypsum-crushing — for use in plaster-making.
What was daily life like in Victorian England?
Rich people could afford lots of treats like holidays, fancy clothes, and even telephones when they were invented. Poor people – even children – had to work hard in factories, mines or workhouses. They didn’t get paid very much money. By the end of the Victorian era, all children could go to school for free.
Was Victorian Society strict?
The Victorian era is seen as an era of contradiction. Social movements that promoted public morality coincided with a divisive class system that imposed harsh living conditions on the working and lower classes. Dignity and repression were contrasted with child labor and rampant prostitution.
How were children treated in the 1800s?
Children of the time, were either forced to abandon their education to maintain a full time job, or balance school along with work. When kids were not in school their day to day lives were extremely harsh. Their day to day lives were determined by there social status, how much money they had.
What were children taught in the Victorian family?
Wealthy parents sent their children to fee-paying schools or employed governess, but gender still affected those of high class: boys’ schooling was considered more important, and they were taught academic and functional skills while girls were taught sewing, needlework, drawing, and music.
Why do Victorian houses have downstairs bathrooms?
When bathrooms became stand-alone rooms, they were often located at the back of the house, as out of the way as possible, to deal with sewer smells. Once the S-Bend was invented, and plumbing could keep the smells out, bathrooms could move around, and often were located under stairs or in former dressing rooms.
How many children did Victorian families have?
For families with children the average was 2.94 children per family. A quarter had 4 or more children at home. From around 1870 there were changes in the composition of families.
How were children treated in workhouses?
The conditions were harsh and treatment was cruel with families divided, forcing children to be separated from their parents. Once an individual had entered the workhouse they would be given a uniform to be worn for the entirety of their stay.
What jobs did Victorian girls have?
Women and work in the 19th century
Most working class women in Victorian England had no choice but to work in order to help support their families. They worked either in factories, or in domestic service for richer households or in family businesses.