Saltfleetby School Photo - Victorian School Day - Evening Telegraph Tuesday December 15th 1987

I am grateful to Sandra Addison for sending this newspaper clip by e-mail.

The good old days?

When they turned the clock back at the village school

PUPILS and staff at Saltfleetby School took a step back in time to experience the harsh realities of Victorian school days.

They opened up the old school house in the village to hold an exhibition of souvenirs of a bygone age when schoolmistresses were all-powerful and pupils knew their place.

Discipline, obedience and duty are still present at school but not in the forms which typified those times. The children swapped their casual 80's clothes for Victorian smocks, shawls, cloth caps and boots for the day.

In 1851, when the school was built, it cost two old pence per pupil for lessons. Holidays were timed with the harvest work in the fields around Saltfleetby and pupil's life expentancy was considerably shorter and life was like the daily dose of cod liver oil, hard to swallow.

In the archives

The 50 pupils at the present Saltfleetby school gained their first hand experience of the 'good old days' with the help of census forms and archives kept in the village and in Lincoln.

They also pooled a mass of information from neighbours in the village, some of whom donated relics handed down through the generations of Saltfleetby families such as the Applebys, Turners, Stubbs, Chapmans and Chattertons.

And under the guidance of teacher Mrs. Anne Fawcett they each chose a child from the earliest school records and discovered for themselves the experiences of Lincolnshire life in the mid-19th Century.

Many ended up as one of the 120 village farmers or labourers others became maids and some died before the age of 10 years.

The children sang the songs of 1851, baked recipes and tried on Victorian underwear!

Many of the girls in these days left school to go into service at the homes of the gentry in the area.

Ten-year-old Cheryl Lambert said: "I wouldn't have minded being a chamber maid, because we have had a lot of fun doing the washing and cleaning for the exhibition!"

For Rebecca Sparks it was a chance to try on Victorian knickers. Later some of the children played bagatelle and tried the hoop and skimmer. Only religious toys were allowed on Sundays, they were told.

Cod liver oil

Mrs. Fawcett said: "It has been a fascinating exhibition and has given the children the chance to show off their work to the people who provided the Victorian items.

"The children have worked all term to bring this together and they have been pleased with the visits from villagers," she added.

None of the children however were pleased when Mrs. Fawcett tried to give them a taste of cod liver oil - they queued up next to the sink in case it had a reaction!

Some of the villagers enjoyed seeing photographs of their own grandparents who settled in Saltfleetby trying to eek out a living off the land.

If you have information about anyone on this photo or have spotted a mistake. 

Please let me know.

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