As a Fulham Palace remote learning volunteer, I usually work from home but was excited to attend the “Home is where the heart is” Victorian family fun day event on Sunday 24 March. My role was to be Miss Esther Maddox, governess to Bishop Tait’s and Mrs Tait’s children and also to the other children living on the estate in the mid1800s. A classroom was set up in the Terrick drawing room with an added play and craft area, which was supervised by learning placement Becky.
1841 census for Fulham Palace showing Esther Maddox the governess
A timetable of events was available to visitors for the occasion and were to be handed out when we opened at 11.00. I arrived about 07.50 at Fulham Palace to make up my classroom set. However, by 9.00 we were finding visitors were looking in on our room preparations! By 10.30 I was still setting up my classroom and table top museum but that did not deter children from sitting down at the tables, keen to draw on the freshly cleaned slates with chalk; nor did it stop adults who were passing through, asking questions, whilst picking up my teaching resources, which delayed the proceedings more. But who was I to stop any interested party?!
Within a whisker of 11.00 we started the event for real and it was a full table of 12 children and parents, the only issue was I was timetabled to undertake an “English class” at 12.00! Well in for a penny and for a pound, literally, (that was mathematics class).
Then children of school age arrived to attend class and once again the chairs and spaces were filled up, so I was advising other children to come for the actual planned class later and that I looked forward to seeing them. With interest obvious of the participants around my table, still before 12.00, I launched into English lesson two; but it was not a lesson as one might remember from one’s own school days nor indeed what the Victorians would have had. The second lesson went much better than the first with far more verbal interaction from the children present, the lesson plan flowed more, we were on a roll now.
It was then at 12.08 it was time to undertake the actual lesson that was in the event timetable!
Some of the children present, I have seen at other events, like the World War II event last year. Making my apologies and explanations about the poor time-keeping, we got going. In addition to the English, the lesson ended up being a bit of maths, physics, astronomy, zoology, history, geography and basically a cracking good, all-around time. (I suspect a visiting Ofsted official might not have been in awe though, as we drifted from one subject to another and ran over time).
Front of house supervisor Tim as Bishop Tait
One father decided to join the class uninvited and I had his young daughter’s assurance, she would make sure he behaved; they played the part between them beautifully, just a big kid and his daughter. As the lesson drew to a close half an hour after the allotted time, it was supposed to be my lunch break. A few blueberries and a drink of water later, I was engaged with a family of three, from Austria. The little boy did not speak much English and was very reluctant to join in and pulled his hat down over his face. His mother and older sister tried to encourage him but we ended up with him being given a wooden top to decorate and if he felt confident enough to come back and show me his work of art, with his mother explaining in German what the event was about. Sometime later, a hatless little boy came back to me with his now coloured in spinning top and he said “Thank you”. That sort of volunteer encounter, one cannot put a price on.
A beautiful dolls house bag created by Cherry, one of our young visitors.
With a wink of an eye, it was time to get started on our arithmetic lesson. Quite a few children came back from the morning lessons. This was the time to handle Victorian money that was in circulation around the time or before the Tait family were at Fulham Palace. Did you know there was an eighth of a farthing coin? No, neither did I until I undertook research for this event. We talked about the slang names for money of the time, such as florin and tanner and how they came about and which monarchs, did what and why with coinage. Well of course the adding up included playing quoits, as a team, not as individuals. I had help from two of the children I had seen in the morning, to get the play organised and to make it fair. The class got to a score of 580. In the end I realised I was not needed anymore for this lesson, while the quoits continued.
So, by this time the Victorian coins were getting an interest from adults present. I had visitors ask about my costume of a chatelaine, propelling pencil, folding scissors and fob watch. Someone talked about my writing with a biro or pen and a girl visitor chipped in with, “No, it was a quill they used”! I had someone say she would have employed me as a Governess for her children, this was as I was making noises about asking for a pay-rise to the Tait family, for undertaking more lessons than timetabled.
Tricia as Esther Maddox the governess
The next lesson was collective nouns, less people turned up for this but those who did, mainly adults, seemed fascinated by the handouts. They were even more fascinated when I said that when I was at school we had to learn about collective nouns as though one’s life depended upon it! One lady arrived saying that her husband was working at home and she dropped by, not knowing an event was on, with her two children. They stayed at the table for about 40 mins, drawing, talking and chilling out. The lady took away a copy of the collective nouns sheets to continue at home. I ended up giving two one to one lesson with children who came to see me.
The final planned lesson on “Thank you letters”, to the Tait family did not happen, as those whom had lasted until the end of the event, really only wanted to talk about what was on display, including the shove halfpenny game, the farm jigsaw and the fact it had stand-alone animals, which could become another game and the cube jigsaw. The Victorian coins were still popular by adult visitors. During the day we had visitors from Canada, Brazil, Australia and the US who joined in with the learning. The adult from the US told me that the atlas book has made him want to investigate when Alaska was brought from the Russians, as he and I did not know the answer. I had two parents come up after a lesson to say how much their children had enjoyed joining in.
I had bought along a Victorian doll my great-grandfather made for my grandmother and had it on display. That caused much interest from visitors, along with scrap books and an atlas of the time. Other Victorian items such as a sovereign holder, vesta holder, agate snuff box cum pill box, fan and bag, mosaic brooch and clothes brush, were also on display.
Miss Maddox and her Victorian collection.
Still, as we were obviously clearing up the room, visitors were arriving and the lasting image I have of a family from the US moving away my clearing up piles, to take a look at my display. I was asked for an explanation of what was “happening here, today”. I was asked what was on show in my display cabinet. I was then asked if the children were really interested in what was on show. After my response, the visitor said, “Well that stuff should not be here like this, it should be in a museum”! I muttered something about family heritage but in reality, I was amused, amazed and astounded, whilst also being lost for words too.
Facilitator Kayleigh as Mrs Fletcher the head cook
Why have I gone into such detail of my communications with visitors, young and older, bigger and smaller? Well, it is to try to persuade anyone, who has an interest in heritage learning, to think about becoming a volunteer in this area of work. It is so rewarding and the children just love having someone spend time with them and being listened to and encouraged. One does not have to be an actor to role play, nor an expert in history or artifacts, one just has to go with the flow and inform the visitors of the things of which they express an interest. If you do wish to take the plunge, maybe you could shadow an experienced education volunteer to gain confidence and to put aside any concerns you may have.
Sewing bee volunteers Lois, Vicky and Esther with learning producer Alex at the event, helping visitors to dress up as Victorians.
I have learnt so much myself about the Tait family and the Victorians in my research for this event, I have questioned what we take for granted now and how the Tait’s family life was affected by illness and disease. This family became very real to me as I undertook my research. Additionally, the communicative encounters I had with so many visitors, made any time spent to be very worthwhile. Money cannot buy the good feeling with which I left this event at Fulham Palace. Whilst I learnt something from others during my day, I hope too, they also left Fulham Palace feeling they had learnt something interesting too.
I would like to thank, Kate, Becky, Kayleigh, Alex and Allison for all the help they generously gave me, as I had so many props to transport and clear up. I would also like to thank Lucy for her encouraging words and Franziska for the fresh herbs.
Tricia Kern
Learning volunteer