National Archives – 8th November 2007 by Megan Claridge aged 11
There are lots of old documents at the National Archives. All of them have been requested by the British Government. When we went we found out that there are five floors of storage for documents, two of which are under ground. All the floors are full of shelving, and if you lined all the shelving up it would stretch to Birmingham from West London. There are about 100 million documents in 10 million folders. In the 1850s a man called Henry Cole was sent to fetch a document. Henry discovered that a rat had been eating all of the documents. So he marched into a court meeting and complained about the rat; that is how the National Archives came about. Not all of the documents would fit in the shelves, so the ones that couldn’t were sent to the Family Records Office and some to a salt mine, in Cheshire. They are in a salt mine because salt absorbs the moisture in the air.
The lady talking to us told us about some of the things she had in the National Archives. She mentioned some S.O.S. telegrams from the Titanic. We even saw a slide of the last telegram the Titanic sent out to a Russian ship. Unfortunately, the Russian ship could not get there in time. We also saw a painting of Pearl Harbour (dated around World War II time). It is not in an art gallery because it was requested by the British Government. The National Archives also have the Domesday Book, written by William the Conqueror in 1066. It lists buildings and land. In World War II the Domesday Book was evacuated before women and children. There were also love letters to and from Henry VIII and his wives. Katherine Howard wrote a love letter to her boyfriend Thomas, saying that she was bored with being with Henry, and wished that she was with him. Spies working for Henry found her letter and took it back to him and days later it was used as evidence at Katherine’s trial. The National Archives also have the signed confession of Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament (specifically, the House of Lords) because he couldn’t practice Catholicism. This was during the reign of James I. One of Guy’s friends working with him sent a letter to someone warning him. Guy was then arrested. He was tortured on a rack (which stretched you until the tips of your fingers came off!) Then he would have had the thumb screws, which squeeze your thumbs, which is why his signature is so faint on his confession paper.
Next we had a look at a painting called “Admission to the Casual Ward”. We had to list things that we noticed about it. We noted people in the painting were poor, cold, lacking clothes, hungry and Victorian. They were all entering the poorhouse. They would have been split up into age groups. The poorhouse would have been chilly and hard work. Poor people in there would have had gruel to eat and straw beds to sleep on.
Then we looked at the types of jobs children had. There was the shoe shine boy, cleaners, chimney sweeps and gas lamp lighters. We then looked at real documents of children. There was John Saville, aged seven. He was a coal mine trapper. He had to open and shut a little door underground. He had Sundays off, and his job was very dangerous; he could have lost many toes, fingers or even limbs! Then we looked at Betty Woodhead. She was nine years old. She worked 48 hours a week in a cotton mill. She cleaned fluff out of the machines. Not only that, but the machines were not turned off for her to do it. She had two hours of school a day and had Sundays off. Then we looked at a boy called Henry Munday. He was thirteen years old. He stole 4lbs of sugar and went to prison for four days. He turned a wheel (as a punishment), but the wheel didn’t do anything. Then Henry would have been whipped. We then looked at another child’s document. Her name was Eliza Taylor. She was nine years old, and she worked in a workhouse. She would have had a horrible life.
At the end, Henry got to try on a Victorian outfit.
I hope we go again! When you are at least fourteen years old, you can go alone to the reading room at the National Archives and they will let you look at the old documents.
National Archives – 8th November 2007 by Henry Scott aged 8
There are old documents in the National Archives that the Government owns. There are five floors of storage of which two are under ground and amazingly the shelving would stretch to Birmingham. The National Archive building was made because in the 1850s Henry Cole found a rat and was very angry because it was eating paper that he wanted. He was so annoyed, that he burst into a meeting and swung the rat onto the table saying something had to be done.
The Domesday Book is in the National Archives. In 1066, William the Conqueror asked for a list of land and buildings. It is made of parchment. Parchment is made from sheep skin and it took 900 sheep to make the Domesday Book. At the start of World War 2 the Domesday Book was evacuated to a mine in Somerset before even women and children left. This shows how important it is.
We looked at a painting called “Admission to the Casual Ward” and had to say things about it. The people looked sad, poor, cold and hungry. There were gas lamps in the picture and I was right when I guessed it was a Victorian poorhouse. The workhouse was cold and you were split from your family and had to sleep on straw. The food wasn’t nice and you had to work hard which meant you wouldn’t want to stay!
There were lots of children working in Victorian times. Some were shoe shine boys or chimney sweeps. Others were cleaners or lit the gas lamps. We looked at a boy called Henry Munday who may have been a street child. He went to Wandsworth Prison for stealing four pounds of sugar. He was whipped and had to do eight hours a day hard labour. He had to turn a wheel that didn’t do anything!
At the end of the day I got to dress up in Victorian clothes and it was BRIILLIANT!