YORE SHOES

 

These shoes were made to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubliee (or her diamond one). In Victorian days they used to have big street parties just like we do to celebrate events. Queen Victoria's diamond jubliee was a jubliee with a difference. Not only did people dress in their best and wave on the streets, 19,000 prisoners were pardoned and five thousand poor people in India recieved a good free meal. Back in England the union jack bunting was put out and a lot of ginger beer was drunk. At the end of the day, children were allowed to stay up and watch fireworks. This means that for the Victorian children, events like this were huge and were probably looked forward to with eagerness as a break from their repetitive lives. For factory children and little chimney sweeps the celebrations must have been very exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These children's shoes are very old and belonged to a little boy in China. They have a chinese dragon on the front which is supposed to protect people and give luck. They were probably treasured by their owner. Would you like to wear them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Victorian times, children were dressed like little adults and often had shoes that matched their parents shoes exactly.

 

 

 

This is a picture of a little boy's first pair of shoes from 1869.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a little girl's shoe from 1875

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children in the Victorian times grew up very quickly. Whether they were rich or poor they were separated from their parents from an early age and encouraged to be indpenedent be it in a luxuorious nursery with a nanny or working long hours in an unhealthy factory or mill. Children in the nurseries had a better standard of living but they might not have been happy... why do you think that was?

 

 

 

 

The Elves and the Shoemaker was a popular story in the Victorian times after it was published in the german Grimms Fairy Tales and then translated in 1884 into English. There are many that think that this story was written to highlight the Victorian problem of child labour and harsh Victorian life... bare this in mind as you read the story...

 

This is the story:

 

There was once a shoemaker who worked very hard but he could not earn enough money to buy food for himself or keep a nice place to live. All he owned was enough leather to make one last pair of shoes. He cut out the pieces for these shoes one night and left them on his work bench so he could finish them early in the morning. He quietly went to bed and in the morning he sat down to work.

 

To his amazement the shoes were already sitting on the table, beautifully made. The man didn't understand but carefully looked at the shoes. They were perfect, neat and not one stitch was out of place.

 

The same day a customer came into the shoemakers workshop. The customer loved the shoes so much that he paid a very high price for them. The shoemaker could then buy some more leather to make two pairs. That night the shoemaker sat down and cut out the pieces for the two pairs of shoes and went to bed early and very tired.

 

The next morning, the same thing had happened again! The work was finished and two beautiful pairs of shoes sat ready and waiting for him on his workbench. More buyers came along and snapped up the shoes so the shoemaker went out to buy enough leather for four pairs of shoes. He cut out the four pairs and went to bed as before, before rising to find the same result again, four stunning pairs of shoes.

 

This carried on for a long time. One evening at Christmas time the shoemaker and his wife decided that they would sit up and watch to see what happened overnight. So they left the fire burning and hid behind a curtain to watch.

 

As the clock struck twelve two little Elves appeared. They hopped onto the work bench and began to work away. The elves worked very hard until daybreak then ran away. The shoemaker's wife said to her husband, "These Elves have done so much for us and made us rich, we should give them a gift for helping us. They don't have any clothes so they must be ever so cold, let's make them each a shirt, trousers, coat and waistcoat to wear and you can make them a little pair of shoes!"

 

The shoemaker thought it was an excellent idea and that evening he and his wife laid out the gifts and hid behind the curtain to watch what happened. At twelve the elves appeared once more and when they saw the clothes they laughed and got very excited. They got dressed and skipped around very happily. Afterwards they danced out of the front door and the shoemaker never saw them again but he and his wife never had any troubles ever again.