As promised I am posting some pictures taken during our mini-break to Durham to visit the living museum. It was a wonderful place and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely and learnt a lot. We were met at the entrance by this vintage tram which we could ride on for free and it dropped you off at the various attractions.
We first visited the mining community and were actually taken down a coal mine for a demonstration.
It was really cramped and wet down the mine and the miners worked in some terrible conditions.
The car was from the 1940s but the miners' cottages all had coal fires giving that smell of smoke that you used to get in towns and each cottage was set in the early 1900s with the occupants giving demonstrations of crafts such as embroidery.
Near the mine was the village school. Here are the children waiting to go in. Henry and Hannah saw the classrooms set in about 1900 with the wooden desks, ink wells, blackboard and chalk and even a cane! Numerical times tables were around the wall - not a computer in sight - I think they preferred their modern classroom.
After the mining community we went to the farm - set in 1940 with land girls helping the farmer.
The farmer's wife was in the kitchen cooking an actual stew - there was a wonderful smell of leeks. Sadly the photo is not very good due to problems with the light but you can see everything had to be done by hand - there were modern electrical devices to assist her.
Henry and Hannah loved seeing the privy or earth closet. They were not so amused at being told how it had to be cleaned out regularly by hand and the contents spread on the vegetable garden. Thank goodness for modern flush toilets!
There were a lot of old items of farm machinery in the barns.
...and a large (fairly) friendly pig!
We then caught a tram to the town - our experiences will be in part 2.
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