As you know we are now in May and we all know how I feel about that..
Unusually though this May has so far been slightly different than the last 5 in that its been quite fun.. and so I thought I should probably come and share some nice stuff with you, again.. unusual for May I know!!
So.. I have the football on the radio (Bradford are at Wembley!! OMG!) and I have a coffee at the ready..so lets start..
Did I ever tell you I have the BEST job?? Well I do.. recently my job got a whole lot more interesting and I've been able to move into the classroom and have been given my teaching assistant contract.. (yay me!) at the moment its temporary (what? i have to see if I like it or not..lol) but I AM liking it so I'm kinda hoping they invite me to stay.. the kids are great (sshhhhh!! dont tell them I said that!!) and the staff are fab too.. so I think I'm winning here.. lol
Anyway.. last week I got to go to one of my fave places in a working capacity (always good) and we took our class to this place here...
This is Bradford Industrial Museum, a little place not far from where I live that frankly, I find to be sooooooooo interesting and not enough people go there really.. I don't understand it.. its brilliant.. and its FREE! What could be so bad about that?!
So anyway.. the children in our year group are studying the Victorian era and were learning about Sir Titus Salt and the Saltaire Mills etc (also not far from us and a great day out too!) and as the Industrial Museum is virtually on the doorstep we thought it'd be wrong not to go..
So go we did. We had a FABULOUS day!! Upstairs in the very top of the mills they have created a Victorian schoolroom and its absolutely brilliant. There's a man by the name of Mr Ibbetson (Apologies if I spelt his name wrong..) who is dressed as the Victorian school master and he takes the children through the experience of attending school in the 1890's/early 1900's (ish) obviously without all the yelling and beating.. for this would not be so much fun and I dont think the parents would allow it.. lol
The children get to do maths on slates and write with ink and fountain pens and they sing and stand to answer questions and they have to say "yes Master" and it was brilliant really.. I would recommend it whole heartedly to anyone.. I think at the moment its a school exercise - obviously but we had the best time so kudos to the museum for the effort they put in to these educational experiences.. I went to one last year where they showed the children what it was like to be a housewife in 30/40's.. they had a woman there in one of the houses showing them how to wash and starch shirt collars and how to use the mangle..and talking to them about how they used to have to go outside to the toilet and take a bath in front of the fire.. it was so much fun watching them open mouthed and listening to the 5 year old asking where the tv was!! lol
I guess I found the Victorian Schoolroom and the woollen mills so interesting because I got to find out about some more about my ancestors. Having recently been reading the old census reports I've found things out such as how the men in my family were all mill workers or owners.. overlookers, stuff manufacturers, spinners, weavers etc.. it was very interesting to see how things worked and what things they spent their days doing and then to find out that Great Grandma Kathie who's grave we went to see a couple of weeks ago..(see here for post & pics) was actually an Elementary school teacher before she married her husband, my Great Grandfather Sam. Well that had me hooked and I took everything in on the trip to the museum.. it fascinated me to think how her life had been as a school marm in the early 1900's.
I want to show you how the school room looks but a) I dont have any photos of our trip as obviously, it was a school thing and b) even though you can find them on the net there are children in the pics and I dont like to post pictures of other peoples children without permission even if I dont know them lol.. so I will just tell you that if you google the museum you might be able to find some pics and in the meantime I will post this one..
Just to give you an idea of how it looked.. this isnt the one at the museum we went to but its very similar with the benches etc. It truly was fantastic and there's not just the schoolroom there either, theres all kinds of things to look at like the mill owners house, the workers houses, the textile machinery and the motor vehicles.. its a brilliant day out, if you ever come to Bradford it should definitely be on your list of things to visit and if you live in Bradford and you haven't visited already then shame on you.. get your bums over there this summer, you'll be glad you did!!
Bradford Industrial Museum's page on Visit Bradford website. <------ br="" check="" it="" out="">
Ok.. thats all for today.. I got so much to do..and i got so enthralled in that that my coffee went cold so i have to go make another now! lol ttys! xx
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