Museum of Childhood

It was  a pretty wet miserable day today, and one I reminded the kids that will continue probably till summer decided to grace the UK again.   We really have been blessed with beautiful weather and a real summer, so we can't complain once Autumn starts to remind us its nearly done and dusted. 

Nearby in Sudbury, there is a museum of Childhood, which we spent a few hours in. It goes through what childhood toys, responsibilities and roles children took on over the ages.

We have been to Quarry Mill a few months back so the kids had some idea about the Industrial age and all the changes in a family structure with child labour coming about though the mill and mines. Both kids had some hands on experiences climbing up a fake chimney to see what it might have been like being a sweep.

We were frog marched into an 1876 Victorian Marms classroom, where the kids learnt what it was like to be in a classroom back then. 

They wrote on slates and did a lesson on poetry, as well as learning some of the good old fashioned ethics instilled into kids back in the day. Its surprising ( an quite shocking) how much of it is still a huge influence in schools today. I've always known that schools aren't there to educate, but to pacify and to brainwash the masses in becoming a complacent workforce. At least the Victorian schools didn't make any bones about coming out and saying it. 

The toys and collections were drawn from two main collectors items and ranged from items in the early 16th century to modern day toys. We were fascinated with the mechanical toys from the 16th century, not realising that the clockwork systems were so intricate back then.