13 replies to this topic

[shaz]

Hello everyone! I was wondering if anyone knew any website about victorian holidays, and/or knows about them. I would really appreciate it if you told me. Thankyou!

[shaz]

Can't anyone help me? This is kinda urgent, cuz I have to find some stuff on it for tuesday. LoL! Anyways, please help me if you know anything about Victorian Holidays, or any related websites. Thankyou sooo much!

[Mr R Drew]

your message is unlikely to be replied to any quicker by pasting another urgent message, so please avioid this in future. the teachers who contribute to this site have different areas of expertise so you may have to wait for the correct teacher to log in.

regarding your request:

a useful website would

BBC History - The Victorian Seaside

remember though - these only became possible for most after the railways and the Bank Holiday Act of 1871, also many people still had no holidays until holiday pay came in after WWI as they could not afford to take time off.

Edited by Mr. D. Bryant, 02 April 2012 - 10:23 AM.
Replace 'dead' link.

[Mrs Faithorn]

Very briefly:

Holidays in Victorian times - developed rapidly especially in the last half of the C19th as a result of cheap railway travel and increased leisure time.

As a result factory workers were more able to afford day-trips and holidays to places such as Blackpool, Weston-super-Mare and Southend.

Be patient! I don't teach this stuff and don't have websites bookmarked. I am looking now and will post anything useful that I find.

You could try yourself in Google using search terms like:
'Blackpool +history' (without the quotes)

There is some useful information here.

Edited by Mr. D. Bryant, 02 April 2012 - 10:25 AM.
Repair 'dead' link

[shaz]

OMG! Thankyou sooo much!!! Can I ask one more question, since I haven't found anything else on this subject?:
Did people have holidays before the nineteenth century? If so who? Where did they go? What did they do?
I have been searching all day, and I haven't found anything. Thankyou soo much for answering my other question! I had already been on the BBC website, and I used a lot of info from it.

[Mr R Drew]

before the C19 Britain was a mostly agricultural society.

the rich would visit each other's palaces and if they were lucky have trips abroad.

however the vast majority of the population would not have a holiday. they would spend any rare days off resting and enjoying their local scenery.

[shaz]

I just need to ask one more question. Where did most people who visited Brighton go from. I tried searching for this in many different search engines, but I couldn't find anything. Thankyou to both of you, for the other info!

[Mrs Faithorn]

have holidays before the nineteenth century? If so who? Where did they go? What did they do?

Given the points that Mr Drew made in his message, then the only people who could afford holidays before the C19th were people from the upper classes.

Young men (not women) would go on the 'Grand Tour' of European cities (especially in Italy). Supposedly this was to widen their knowledge and understanding of European culture and art, but I suspect it was also a bit of a 'marriage market' to find a suitable wife.

In the C18th spa towns like Bath were very popular with wealthy families who would go there to 'take the waters' (supposed to cure all sorts of ailments) and to socialise with others of the same background.

For both of the above groups there were banquets and dances to attend and ladies would take gentle walks in the public gardens or take tea with their friends. Gentleman (when not visiting the must-see historical sites eg the Colisseum in Rome) seem to have spent a lot of time gambling at cards and things like that.

In the early C19th the Prince Regent made Brighton very popular with the upper classes and it became a fashionable place to go. Swimming in the sea was mainly seen as a 'medicinal' thing since salt water was supposed to be good for things like gout (which is linked with eating and drinking too much fine food and wine!)

For the workers there were one-day holidays (even before Bank Holiday became official). The most notable of these was May Day. Holidays like this went back to Medieval Times and before the Reformation (C16th) many Holy Days - such as Saint's Days - were days off.

On May Day there were things like the traditional dancing round the Maypole and I expect there were entertainments like jugglers to watch and stalls to spend what little money they had on treats like ribbons for their girlfriends' hair.

Note 'holiday' comes from Holy Day

[shaz]

Thankyou sooo much for that, Mrs. Faithorn! I really appreaciate it, because now I can use it to answer the question. Thankyou soo much!

[Mrs Faithorn]

Pleased to help.

Note that I have added a bit to the original message now so you might want to have another look

[Mrs Faithorn]

I just need to ask one more question. Where did most people who visited Brighton go from. I tried searching for this in many different search engines, but I couldn't find anything. Thankyou to both of you, for the other info!

If you are talking about Brighton in the early C19th then the wealthy people who visited there would probably have come from all over England, though I guess they would also have been people rich enough to have town houses in London as well as a country estate.

In the 'summer season' people would get out of London and either go back to their country estate or perhaps to Brighton for part of the time.

If we are talking late C19th Brighton, then a day trip by train from London would have been possible for working class Londoners.

[shaz]

Oh, thankyou for that bit as well! I don't think I could have found out this information without you! Thankyou, once again!

[Mr Humphreys]

Daytrips from Victoria Station ran to Brighton from the early 1850s - including the Thomas Cook specials.

I'd recommend doing a websearch on "Thomas Cook" for his influence on Victorian holidays.

Reading the excellent book 'The Age of Reform' - the townspeople of Brighton actually objected to the amount of working class Londoners 'lowering the tone' of their resort and made the rail company increase the price of train tickets to a level which most people could not afford!

[Mr Field]

They most certainly did - and they still do!

The railway was opened in 1840 with 99 bridges, 3 tunnels and one viaduct. The station was (and still is) on the top of a hill with a straight road right down to the beach. You would get on at Victoria, arrive in Brighton and just roll down the hill to reach the beach.

Whilst I was at school we did a term's work on the history of Brighton - Dr. Russel and all his healthy seawater.

The effect of the railway actually changed the 'upper class' season. Instead of the upper classes visiting Brighton during the summer, they began visiting in the Winter!