The Victorian Seaside
Most of our current perceptions of the British, and especially the English and Welsh, seaside are all the stronger for having Victorian roots. This was the era that gave us, what we now regard, as the traditional seaside holiday. Childish innocence (buckets, spades and sandcastles), nature (starfish, rock-pools and gulls as well as the power and tranquility of the sea itself), simple 'old-fashioned' fun' (donkeys, roundabouts, Punch and Judy, boat trips, beach entertainers), and tasty, informal seaside food: fattening, glutinous and eaten out of the bag while on the move, in defiance of conventional table manners (fish and chips, ice cream, candy-floss, cockles and whelks).
Most of these attributes, or their identification with enjoyment are invented Victorian traditions, They are only part of the panorama of Victorian seaside attractions, which also embraced the fashionable promenade, military and German 'oompah' bands, a spectrum of seaside entertainments from minstrels and pierrots to music-hall and variety which now survive only as self-conscious 'heritage' revivals. The piers upon which many of these activities took place, where they survive, may now be drawn into the cloud of affectionate nostalgia through which the idealised seaside of the past is viewed.
Over most of the country, working-class visitors relied on cheap excursions, organised by Sunday-Schools, employers, temperance societies or commercial promoters, among whom Thomas Cook was as unimportant as were the penny-a-mile Parliamentary trains under the Act of 1844, which charged more and took longer than the 'cheap trips' .
Only from the 1870s onward did the Lancashire cotton workers take the lead in developing a genuine working class holiday system, saving through the year to convert the traditional Wakes holidays (unpaid for most until after the Second World War) into seaside breaks, and changing the character of many northern resorts in the process. Londoners, like, for example, Sheffielder's and coal miners, depended more on 'St Monday', that enduring but unofficial extension of the weekend. They also used August Bank Holiday, 'St Lubbocks Day' after its inventor in 1871, as it became a popular holiday from the mid-1870s.
But by the last quarter of the nineteenth century many of the more accessible resorts were having to cope with novelty of the working-class presence of growing dimensions and spending power, especially young people with wages and few responsibilities, and older men who lacked family commitments or chose to cast them aside. Here was a recipe for potential strife and the popular media of the time, from Punch to Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, added jokes about cultural conflict between the classes to their older staples about clerks and shop assistants pretending to be gentlemen, adding a new dimension to the comedy of social embarrassment.
Victorian Women
As Britain developed during the Industrial Revolution, and the masses moved from rural areas to towns and cities, the wide range of industries meant that women of all classes had more choice of employment, depending on their status and location. The wealthy women of the upper-classes did not need to work unless they became impoverished following the death of their husband or father, and any money or property would pass to a male heir. The Married Woman's Property Act was introduced in 1882, and for the first time women were recognised as having a legal right to retain ownership of any land, money or property they may have been given; previously it had passed automatically to their husband.
Middle class women may have worked within family business performing administration duties, and it was also acceptable for them to work outside the family as a teacher or governess.
Women of the upper working classes generally had jobs that required an education and were not seen as strenuous or improper, such as shop work, bookkeeping, teaching and nursing.
The women of the lower working classes had the most varied, but also the most demanding jobs. The increased number of factories, cotton mills, pits, and wealthy households all needing staffing. Women were employed particularly in the textiles, clothing and pottery trades, as they were seen as suitable 'feminine' industries. Paid lower wages than men women rarely held a position of authority. Domestic service was probably the most common employment, entailing long hours and low pay - at least twelve hours a day, seven days a week with a starting wage of £10 per year. It was possible to 'work your way up' the hierarchical system of domestic service to become a housekeeper, earning more money and the respect of the staff below. Domestic servants lived in small separate quarters within the houses of their masters and mistresses, so they were constantly on hand to aid their employers.
Victorian Workhouses
In the nineteenth century, no official support system or benefits were available for those who were unemployed, elderly, sick or disabled. People had to work to earn money, and so if they were unable to for any reason, they had no means of paying rent or buying food. It was decided that help should be provided for the needy, and so the Poor Law Amendment Act, or new Poor Law, was passed in 1834. Parishes (like council wards) joined funds in order to build a workhouse - a place for the impoverished and destitute to live and work. Several parishes were grouped together into Unions, so that many of the establishments were known as union workhouses.
The general attitude towards the poor was one of disdain, and the belief that they deserved their unfortunate status was widely held. Conditions in the workhouse were deliberately basic to act as a deterrent, and to discourage people seeking an 'easy' option. It was meant as a last resort solution to poverty, providing shelter, clothing and food. Only the most desperate people turned to the workhouses for help.
Once admitted to the workhouse, people were known as inmates, and would be categorised according to their status. Men women and children were segregated, meaning families were separated, some never to be reunited. Many people were born into workhouse life, as unmarried mothers were cast out from society and forced to seek shelter there.
Meals were basic at best. Cheap, filling food such as gruel (a thick porridge-like sludge), bread and cheese, broth, rice milk, and potatoes were not uncommon. The workhouses were strictly run, with many rules which were to be adhered to at all times, with consequences for those who flouted them. Jobs were found for the inmates, either inside the workhouse to maintain the building and the residents, or sent out as cheap labour to fund the workhouse. The institutions had infirmaries for the sick, and employed some of the more adept inmates as nurses. Many workhouses developed and became hospitals in the 20th-century.
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Tomorrow we take our final look at Victorian life. Victorian Leisure, Victorian Schools and Victorian Inventions.
