Living History Days

Bring your class or year group for a day full of activities and adventure!

Children take on real characters and enjoy a full day of activities themed around Victorian life, World War II or Science.

Price Guide: £6.60* per child (inc vat)

Time: 10am - 2.15pm see our calendar for dates

*Minimum charges apply and some sessions may carry an additional resource charge.

1851: A Day in the Life of Abbeydale Works

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
Dates in: September, October, March, June and July.
Taking on the role of characters from the Victorian census, children discover work in the water-powered scythe works, crucible furnace and the counting house. They can compare life in the Manager's House to the drudgery of the worker's cottage.

Christmas at the Workhouse

Kelham Island Museum
Dates in: November and December

As young Victorians from the 1861 census, children discover life at a Sheffield workhouse and the struggle to keep out of it. They become workhouse inmates, labour as silverware stampers, learn from the Guardian of the Workhouse all about Victorian Christmas traditions and experience life from the back-to-backs of Cotton Mill Walk.

1940s: Wartime Children

Kelham Island Museum

Dates in: September, October, January, May, June and July
Children travel back in time to wartime Sheffield. They will investigate the lives of real people and encounter the trials and tribulations of air aids, evacuations and life on the Home Front. They will experience sounds, songs, gas masks, and the Anderson Shelters.

Abbeydale at War

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet

Dates: Various

Discover how World War II impacted on the lives of people in this small working hamlet in Sheffield.

Children at Work, 1865

Kelham Island Museum
Dates in: February
The Employment Commissioner of 1865 investigates the working conditions of children as they labour as apprentices in a cutlery factory, grinding and buffing, making spoons and cutting files. They are also set to work in a wealthy household and experience lessons and games with the Mistress of a Dame School.

The Great Sheffield Flood, 1864

Kelham Island Museum
Dates in: March
Experience living and working by the river in Victorian Sheffield on that fateful day. Explore why a dam was needed and how it burst, recreate the stories of the families living along the river and look at home life, children's games and entertainment of the time. A full day of drama, role play and related activities. Horror and Heroism, Life and Death!

Fantastic Forces

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet

Dates: Various

Explore forces, motion and materials in the historic context of Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet. Children can make a toy that runs on elastic energy and listen to a story about what life was like before electricity.

Florence Nightingale: Health & Hygiene in the 1800s

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet

Dates: Various

Join Florence and her Grandpa as they visit the sick and needy at home and in the Crimea. With Florence's Grandpa, children explore Victorian houses and learn about the effect of living conditions on people's health. Florence Nightingale then takes them across the seas to the Crimea to help needy soldiers and explore changes in medicine.

Victorian Homes, Toys and Games

Kelham Island Museum or Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet

Dates: Various

Explore home life for a working Victorian child in our 'back to back' house, using artefacts and costume. With vintage and replica toys discover the games that children played and make a simlple toy to take home.