The British Empire, crime, punishment, leisure and advertising are all brought to life in our resources which are based on records from the second half of Queen Victoria’s reign. 
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19th century mining disaster
What happened at the Trimdon Grange Mining Disaster?
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19th century people
What can we tell from this photograph?
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4099 is my name (SEND)
How can we share the experiences of someone who lived in the past?
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A ‘right’ to relief?
In what ways did paupers hold the Poor Law to account?
A Great Christmas Inconvenience
What can we learn from the documents about how some Victorians celebrated Christmas?
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A Victorian prison
Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
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All on board!
What can we learn from old board games?
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Black Victorians
How much can documents reveal about the lives of Black people in Victorian Britain?
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Body Snatchers
What led to the Anatomy Act of 1832?
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Census detective
What can you find out?
Census Detectives
What does the census reveal about families in the past?
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Child migration
Why were children sent to Canada in 1869-1913?
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Children’s Clothing in the Workhouse
What do the letters tell us about pauper children's clothing in the workhouse?
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Coping with Cholera
How did the authorities react in 19th century?
Craft Club – Christmas Cards
Festive pop-up cards
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Criminal petitions
What do they reveal about the justice system?
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Dr James Barry
Why was he significant in 19th century medicine?
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Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence
What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain?
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Florence Nightingale
Why do we remember her?
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Food Glorious Food
What was food like for a child in the Victorian workhouse?
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Four days’ hard labour
What was life like for a Victorian child criminal?
Fun in the Files
What can our documents reveal about how people had fun in the past?
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Going to School in the Workhouse
How was school for pauper children different, and what was the same?
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Have we underestimated the Victorian Poor?
To what extent did the Victorian Poor accept their fate in the workhouse?
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Health and the Poor Law
To what degree did the Poor Law make an important contribution to Public Health?
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History Mysteries: Anne Lister
Who was Anne Lister?
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Holding History
What is 'The National Archives'?
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LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain
How have changes in laws and attitudes affected LGBTQ+ people in Britain?
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Mapping London
How and why does an area change over time?
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Mental Health on Record
What do the documents reveal about the understanding of mental health in the past?
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Past pleasures
How did the Victorians have fun?
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People – GCSE English Language
Using images for descriptive and narrative writing
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Places – GCSE English Language
Using images for descriptive and narrative writing
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Protesting against the New Poor Law
What can archival material tell us about protest?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson One
What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about punishments for workhouse children?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson Two
What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about attitudes towards punishments in the workhouse?
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Rebels in the records
What can we learn from documents that show how people ‘rebelled’ in the past?
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Rob Roy
A Victorian railway accident
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Say ‘cheese’: a portrait of Queen Victoria’s family
What can Queen Victoria's family photographs tell us?
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Selling the Victorians
Victorians for sale! Has advertising changed from Victorian times?
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Significant Events
What happened then?
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Significant People
Who is who?
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Significant Places
What's in a place?
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Suffragettes on file
What did the struggle for the vote involve?
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The Boxers of Whitechapel
What do the documents reveal about the inhabitants?
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The South African War
How did the British conduct war in 1899-1902?
Time Travel Club Activities
Discovering The National Archives
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Travel smart through time (SEND)
How and why have people travelled around in the past and how have they done it safely?
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Treasures
What 'treasures' are there at The National Archives?
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Trimdon
What was it like living in a late 19th century mining town?
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Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive
What types of sources might be useful to find out about the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the past?
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Uncovering the past
How can we use photographs to find out about the past?
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Victorian children in trouble with the law
Did the punishment fit the crime?
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Victorian family history
How can we find out about the life of a Victorian child?
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Victorian Food and Drink
What do old adverts reveal?
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Victorian Health Reform
How did the Victorians view compulsory vaccination?
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Victorian homes
Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
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Victorian Industrial Towns
What made them unhealthy?
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Victorian lives
How was life different in Victorian times?
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Victorian Railways
Did they create more crime?
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What is a Jubilee?
What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
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What is history?
How do historians work out what happened in the past?
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What was Chartism?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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What was the significance of the Match Girls’ Strike in 1888?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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Whitechapel
How can we find out about what Whitechapel was like in 1888?
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Workhouse Voices
What did paupers say about the Poor Law?
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Workhouse Voices Creative Writing
Stories inspired by letters from the past
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Workhouse Women
How were women treated in the Victorian workhouse?