Here we are before we set off, in all our glory:
Here is the main house at the museum:
There were some beautiful Christmas trees which were lit with real candles in Victorian times.
We began our day at the museum with Jo, who showed us how to make Victorian crackers which contained a hat, sweet and cracker. We decorated them with pictures like the Victorians and tied the ends with raffia.
We also decorated biscuits to hang on the Christmas tree. The Victorians did this but didn't eat the biscuits afterwards.
We spotted a copy of Mrs Beeton's cookbook! Jo told us that Mrs Beeton's husband was born near Stowmarket and Mrs Beeton often went to the races at Newmarket.
The children then made scented pomanders using mace, star anise, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon. They smelled gorgeous and every one of them smelled different!
We discovered that the Victorians liked curry and even had it for breakfast!
There were some really interesting artefacts at the museum.
We had lunch...
...before we explored further.
One of the rooms we went into had items from the Victorian asylum in Stowmarket.
Some children tried on clothes...
We went to look upstairs.
We saw the kitchen garden from the window.
We also had a great time making portraits. Which is your favourite? Some are very formal, like the Victorians would have been. As you can see, the Victorians loved hats!
Here are the stairs to the servant's quarters.
We went to have a closer look at the walled garden after we had left the house.
The walls are not just to keep animals and people out - they protect the plants from winds and frost.
There were espalier trees, trained to grow sideways along the walls so that fruit could be picked easily.
Another interesting and exciting day out - we had a great time! Thank you very much to both Mrs Nobles who came to help ☺️
