0:00:22 > 0:00:25This story belongs to Oscar and his mummy, Emma.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35It's a tiny tale about how children just like you
0:00:35 > 0:00:39lived in the olden days, over 150 years ago.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01- So, how's Bunny today? Is he OK? - He's not very well.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04He's not very well? Oh, poor Bunny!
0:01:04 > 0:01:07Do you think we should give him some treatment to help him get better?
0:01:07 > 0:01:12- Yeah.- Hmm, what do you think? - A plaster.- A plaster, good idea.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Oh, there we go, right on his tummy there.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Now, a long time ago, people didn't have plasters, did they?
0:01:18 > 0:01:20- No.- No, they didn't.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Would you be interested in finding out what hospitals were like
0:01:23 > 0:01:26- a long time ago?- Yes.- I think that'd be really interesting, wouldn't it?
0:01:26 > 0:01:29- Shall we go on an adventure together?- Yeah.- Yeah!
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Oscar and Mummy Emma are going on a journey of discovery.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39Together they're going to find out what life was like
0:01:39 > 0:01:40all those years ago.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Oscar and Mummy Emma have come to Abbey House Museum near Leeds
0:01:46 > 0:01:50to find out how sick children were looked after in Victorian times.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57- So, Oscar, what do you think of your costume?- I think it's good.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01And what sort of person do you think would have worn an outfit like this?
0:02:01 > 0:02:03A little boy from 100 years ago.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06A little boy from a long time ago, I think that's right.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10- And do you think it would have been a rich boy or a poor boy?- Poor boy.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12Poor boy - why do you think that?
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Because there are holes in the trousers.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17You have got holes in your trousers, haven't you?
0:02:17 > 0:02:20- And you've got a bit of a dirty face as well.- Yeah.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23What do you think of your costume?
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Well, it feels really heavy and it's quite hot as well.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29What sort of job do you think someone would do
0:02:29 > 0:02:33- who would wear an outfit like this? - A nurse?- Maybe a nurse.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36This would help keep my clothes nice and clean, wouldn't it?
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Oscar and Mummy Emma are outside an old shop.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44It's a Victorian chemist's
0:02:44 > 0:02:47that would have sold medicines and ointments.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50- So what can you see in the shop window?- Blue bottles!
0:02:50 > 0:02:53There are lots of blue bottles, aren't there,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55in different shapes and sizes?
0:02:55 > 0:02:56In Victorian times,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00children from poor families couldn't afford to go to a chemist's shop
0:03:00 > 0:03:04like this one and buy medicines to help them if they were hurt or sick.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16So Oscar and Mummy Emma are going to a different sort of shop
0:03:16 > 0:03:19to meet Sarah and to find out what people did instead.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Hello. In Victorian times,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25people who didn't have a lot of money could make their own medicines
0:03:25 > 0:03:28at home with things they could buy cheaply from a grocer's shop.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31So, today, I'm going to pretend to be a grocer,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34and you're going to guess what items you might need.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Sarah is going to help Oscar and Mummy Emma to buy the things
0:03:38 > 0:03:42they need to make a popular home remedy for bumps and bruises.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45But first they have to guess what the ingredients are.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49So, you need two ingredients to make the remedy you're going to be making
0:03:49 > 0:03:52at home, and I'm going to get you to guess what those ingredients are.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56So, the first clue is it's something really smelly that you put on
0:03:56 > 0:03:58- your fish and chips.- Vinegar.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01- Vinegar, well done.- Clever boy.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Can you spot any vinegar in my shop?
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Great stuff. Did you guess vinegar, too?
0:04:11 > 0:04:14The second thing you need to guess is from a nursery rhyme.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16THEY SING # Jack and Jill went up the hill
0:04:16 > 0:04:19# To fetch a pail of water
0:04:19 > 0:04:21# Jack fell down and broke his crown
0:04:21 > 0:04:23# And Jill came tumbling after
0:04:23 > 0:04:25# Up Jack got and home did trot
0:04:25 > 0:04:27# As fast as he could caper
0:04:27 > 0:04:30# He went to bed to mend his head
0:04:30 > 0:04:33# With vinegar and brown paper. #
0:04:33 > 0:04:34Brown paper!
0:04:39 > 0:04:41- Is it there?- Excellent.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43Well done.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Vinegar and brown paper were used to treat bumps and bruises
0:04:46 > 0:04:51a long time ago, and some people still use this home remedy today.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08This lady is called Mary Seacole.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10She nursed people in Victorian times.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Mary learned how to make home remedies in Jamaica
0:05:12 > 0:05:16when she was a little girl, using plants and herbs that grew there.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Mary learned these from her mum, and loved to practise on her old dolly.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24She tried to cure injured animals,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26and she helped her mum treat people, too.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30When Mary grew up, she travelled around the world, and used some
0:05:30 > 0:05:33of her remedies to help soldiers in a war called the Crimean War.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38This is the book that Mary wrote about her adventures.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45Oscar and Mummy Emma are going to find
0:05:45 > 0:05:48a herb to use in their home remedy, just like Mary.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56Now, our challenge is to find a herb called sage.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01Shall we see if there's some here? What about this one?
0:06:01 > 0:06:06- Oh, no, I think this one's mint. - That one?- It is! Well done.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Would you like to help me pick some?
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Remember to check with a grown-up before you pick any leaves.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Now, Oscar and Mummy Emma are going to use the sage
0:06:14 > 0:06:16they've picked in their own home remedy.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19They're rolling over the leaves to release oils in the sage...
0:06:22 > 0:06:23..and adding it to the vinegar.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28The brown paper they bought at the old shop
0:06:28 > 0:06:32has been ripped into strips and warmed up with the sage and vinegar.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36Now Oscar is going to wrap the warm strips around Mummy Emma's arm.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39Well done, and that puts the medicine on my arm,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44and then we also need to wrap a bandage round as well.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Mary Seacole would have used remedies like this
0:06:47 > 0:06:48to care for people.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51- Does your bandage feel better already?- It does!
0:06:51 > 0:06:54This old remedy can help soothe bruises,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58but many of the remedies that people used to make didn't work,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00and some even made things worse.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15Oscar and Mummy Emma are going to find out one of the reasons
0:07:15 > 0:07:18why children and their families got sick in Victorian times.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24- So, Oscar, can you guess what these are?- Old-fashioned toilets.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26They are old-fashioned toilets!
0:07:26 > 0:07:28They used to call them "privies."
0:07:28 > 0:07:29And in Victorian times,
0:07:29 > 0:07:33people didn't have a toilet in their own house, so they would go to
0:07:33 > 0:07:37a toilet at the end of their street in a little cubicle like this one.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39You had to share it with all your neighbours.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42What do you think it would have been like to share
0:07:42 > 0:07:44a toilet like this with everyone in the street?
0:07:44 > 0:07:46- Yucky.- Aww....
0:07:46 > 0:07:50- Where do you think the wee and poo goes?- Down the street.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52It did, it did go down the street.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54It would go in this gutter here,
0:07:54 > 0:07:56and it would float all the way down the street,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58where children would be playing,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00and it was quite difficult to keep away from,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03so the children would be playing right next to the wee and the poo,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06and often it meant the children were poorly
0:08:06 > 0:08:08and they ended up with poorly tummies.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10The street must have been smelly!
0:08:10 > 0:08:12The street must have been smelly, you're right!
0:08:17 > 0:08:19It was really hard for people to stay clean
0:08:19 > 0:08:21and to keep their things clean, too.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30People didn't have washing machines all those years ago,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32so everything had to be washed by hand.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38Mummy Emma is using a washboard to scrub the dirt out of some bedding.
0:08:39 > 0:08:45- What do you think of my soap? Do you want to sniff it?- Whoa, smelly!
0:08:45 > 0:08:47It is a bit smelly, isn't it?
0:08:47 > 0:08:51And Oscar is using a stick called a dolly to push some washing
0:08:51 > 0:08:53around in a washtub.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55In Victorian times,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58some children were paid to do other people's washing.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00So what do you think of doing the washing like this? Is it easy?
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Do you think you could do this all day?
0:09:02 > 0:09:05- No, no. - MUMMY EMMA LAUGHS
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Like, it is pretty fun.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Washing took a lot of time and effort,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14and if a child like Oscar was sick, his clothes and bedsheets
0:09:14 > 0:09:18might have needed washing by hand over and over again.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20OSCAR SIGHS
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Now Oscar and Mummy Emma are using a machine called a mangle
0:09:28 > 0:09:31to squeeze the water out of a bedsheet.
0:09:31 > 0:09:32Oh, this is hard work.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35- What do you think?- Yeah.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37That looks like a tough job, too.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43Washing things was hard work,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46but it was really important to keep things clean,
0:09:46 > 0:09:47especially in hospitals.
0:09:49 > 0:09:50In Victorian times,
0:09:50 > 0:09:54there was an English nurse called Florence Nightingale.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57She cared for soldiers in the same war as Mary Seacole.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Florence saw that illnesses were spreading among injured soldiers
0:10:01 > 0:10:05because the hospital where they were treated was so dirty.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09So Florence got her team of nurses to clean the wards and make sure
0:10:09 > 0:10:13the soldiers could be given clean water and better food.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15This saved many soldiers' lives.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19When she returned to Britain, Florence persuaded important people
0:10:19 > 0:10:23to train lots of new nurses and make changes in hospitals
0:10:23 > 0:10:25that would be better for patients.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38OK, so we'd take your temperature...
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Oscar is pretending to be a patient
0:10:40 > 0:10:43in Florence's new type of hospital ward.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48The big windows let in lots of fresh air.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52And the tiled walls were much easier to keep clean.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56Shall we have a look? Ooh, I think that's OK, actually.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Florence opened a school for nurses to teach them how to take
0:11:01 > 0:11:03better care of their patients.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07Florence also realised that giving patients healthy food
0:11:07 > 0:11:09was really important.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12So, Oscar, these are the sorts of foods that people would have had
0:11:12 > 0:11:13in hospital a long time ago.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17We've got beef tea, milk and bread.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19What do you think?
0:11:19 > 0:11:23Beef tea might not sound very nice, but hospital food like this
0:11:23 > 0:11:25helped sick children to get their strength back.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41"Once upon a time, there were three little pigs..."
0:11:41 > 0:11:45Sick children often had to stay in hospital for weeks and weeks
0:11:45 > 0:11:47at a time, which can't have been much fun.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51There were no televisions to watch or tablets to play with back then,
0:11:51 > 0:11:54and most children couldn't read, so they must have been
0:11:54 > 0:11:57really grateful when the nurses found the time to read them a story.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00..lived happily ever after.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Oscar and Mummy Emma are playing a card game called Happy Families
0:12:06 > 0:12:08that was popular in Victorian times.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12They each have to collect all the members of the same family.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14When a child was in hospital,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18their mum or dad could only visit them once a week on a Sunday.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20If they weren't too busy,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23the nurses or people called "lady visitors" played games
0:12:23 > 0:12:27with the children to pass the time, or teach them to read and write.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42So, Oscar, have you had fun today learning about medicine
0:12:42 > 0:12:44- in Victorian times?- Yes!
0:12:44 > 0:12:48It's been lots of fun finding out what happened a long, long time ago.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52Can you remember some of the things we did?
0:12:52 > 0:12:57What were the shared toilets called? Privies or stinkies?
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Yes, privies! But they would have been really stinky.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Can you remember the name of the machine that Oscar and Mummy Emma
0:13:05 > 0:13:07used to squeeze the water out of the washing?
0:13:07 > 0:13:09Was it a squeezer or a mangle?
0:13:12 > 0:13:14That's right, it was a mangle.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18So, Oscar, what did you enjoy doing most today?
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Um, doing the washing with a giant plunger!
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Doing the washing with a giant plunger,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26you made lots of bubbles, didn't you, in the bucket?
0:13:26 > 0:13:29What did you enjoy most, Mummy?
0:13:29 > 0:13:31I enjoyed going into the grocer's shop and buying the things
0:13:31 > 0:13:34that we needed, that was fun.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37But most of all, I've really enjoyed spending time with you.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42What a journey of discovery.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45That was Oscar and Mummy Emma's tiny tale about what happened
0:13:45 > 0:13:50if children got ill over 150 years ago.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Now, Mummy Emma has shared this story with Oscar,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56it's time for Oscar to start his very own story.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Do you know someone with a story to share?