History Mystery Tour

Year 5 and 6 visited the National Coal Mining Museum on Monday 23^rd January to find out about life at work for children in Victorian Britain.  When they got back, they imagined being the inspectors they had heard about; listening to stories from the children who worked underground.  Here’s what they heard...

INSPECTOR MEGAN

“The hardest job to do down in the dark and dusty coal mine is when a boy has to pull a cart full of coal”. Said Samuel Fletcher.

“When my dad took me down to the coal mine for the first time I was only five and I didn’t know what to do because I had never been down in a coal mine before and then he took a light down so we could see and then he went with the light and left me alone with no light just nothing and I was left in the pitch black all on my own”.

“Once my mother made me a creamy delicious cake and I took it down to the mine and I put it down on a piece of brown dirty cloth and then I went to grab a lovely piece and then it was gone the ugly, vicious rats had eaten it all I can still imagine how massive the rats were”.

“When a boy (aged 8-9 years) had to pull a cart full of dusty coal his older sister (aged 11-12 years) also had to help but instead of pulling she had to push. She had to wear a scarlet damp cloth but if she didn’t wear a cloth on her forehead she would have a bald patch in the middle of her head”.