Girls and boys from Year 1 in Beech House, the Infant School at Bolton School, spent an instructive session learning about the Victorian seaside experience with History Alive.
The focus was on Blackpool and how families from the North-West would flock there for one week in the summer, having saved up all year. The pupils learnt about promenades, piers, donkey rides, candy floss, toffee apples, painted metal buckets and spades, sweets, parasols, Blackpool rock and ice cream – something served between wafers and a rare treat at the time. They learnt how people would spend time on the beach and rent out a deckchair for the day and they even had a go at putting one up! Sandcastle-building was something of an art form back then and people would spend a whole day on it and take part in competitions which might attract 2000 spectators! Whilst on their holidays, children in Victorian times would wear straw hats or a knotted hankie on their head to protect themselves from the sun. The children also learnt how bikinis were not allowed in Victorian times and people protected their modesty by changing in bathing machines – a wooden shed on wheels.
Penny licks were discussed and how people would pay a penny for a lick of ice cream – a treat that was banned after people regularly became ill! Year 1 also discovered more about the Pleasure Beach, which is 100 years old this year.
After learning about the Victorian Punch and Judy show and puppets and other historical artefacts, boys and girls set about creating their own puppet shows!
