Victorian Life

Historian Ruth Goodman explores exactly how little leisure time most people had in the 19th century – and what they did with those precious snatched hours.

It was in the Victorian period that school shifted to becoming a more universal experience. Ruth Goodman explores the Ragged school movement, the social mobility that schooling offered and how the classroom was a different experience depending on whether you were a boy or a girl.

In week four of our course on Victorian Britain, Ruth Goodman explores the great strides in healthcare that took place in the 19th century – from the move towards clean water supplies and improved waste disposal, to antiseptics in hospitals and in the home and the impact of germ theory on life expectancy.

In week five of our course on life in Victorian Britain, Ruth Goodman explores how the 19th century saw work change for most of the population, with shift working made possible by gas light, a new adherence to fixed hours of work and a fierce concentration upon a smaller number of tasks whilst at work. She also looks at the slow movement towards protection for workers, including children.

In the 19th century, men took more control at home than at any other time in history. In the final episode of our course on Victorian life, Ruth Goodman discusses the ‘male breadwinner pattern’, the employment of boys and its impact on family life, as well as how Victorians controlled the size of their families.