An Interview with Mrs. Leoni Millouir and her childhood in the Victorian Britain

• Hallo Mrs. Milliour! I am Sandra Brown from the ucp-news and I would really like to ask you a few questions about your childhood. I heard that you were brought up in the time as Queen Victoria reined Britain... would you please answer me a few questions about this?

• Yes, of course. I don't mind if I do!

• Thank you, Madam! First of all, I would really like to know some things about work and how it was in this time, secondly, how playing was and then how school was. But let me begin by asking you a few questions about work in this time. Who had to work, where...

• Who had to work? ALL had to work!!! At the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign also children, poor children had to work, because their parents really needed the few money for living! Many people in this time hadn't enough money to eat enough every day. These were very hard times and you had to fight for life every day!

• Have you also been forced to work already as a child?

• Oh yes, sure! Like all others also. I was five years old when my parents first sent me away from home to work on a farm. There was often very bad weather and I was nearly the whole year sick or I had a cold, but nevertheless I can say it was a "good" job.

• A good job?

• Yes! I had three sisters and six brothers, the most of the boys had to work in coal mines! They often had to push trucks of coal to the surface or they had to open and shut doors to allow air to circulate through the dark tunnels... they told me often horrible stories... Many of the jobs my siblings had to do were unpleasant, unhealthy and also very dangerous! I had luck. But I haven’t worked long at the farm, only one year. Then I was sent to a big factory where I worked as a piecer. I had to repair broken threads in cotton mills. It wasn't a very good job, but I think even better as working in mines! But it wasn't easy, we also had to do very hard work! Many of us fell ill or had bad accidents which often left us with dispiteous injuries.

• Oh my god that’s horrible!

• Yes, exactly, it was horrible in this time! There were no laws, how they have to protect us there. We were made to work long hours with very little pay!

• In 1841 Victoria passed the new law, to make it illegal to employ young children and many other betterings, was the work better then, when child work finally was forbidden?

• Yes, but however there were still many children forced to work, when Queen Victoria died in 1901!

• Yes, how awful!!! You had so much to work every day, did you also had any time to play (with other children etc.)?

• No, not really! We hadn't much free time. My day always began at six o’clock, when all the factories opened and it always ended at eight to nine o’clock in the evening - we only had lunchtime from twelve to quarter past twelve, so we had to work often fifteen hours a day! After that we were (logically) very tired and we had to go to sleep, so there wasn't much time to play. We also didn’t had the money to buy toys. If we played, we had to make our toys ourselves! We shared all things with kids in the same street.

• And which toys had the kids?

• We had hoops, marbles and skipping ropes. Sometimes we made footballs out of old rags which we found or we made bats from pieces of wood, only easy things! Occasionally street musicians came; they often had some monkeys with them that was always very funny! At the weekend our family often went into the surpal-park, because on Sundays there always played bands, which was really great!

• In this time also the railways were built, did the families made holidays or did they travel?

• Our family not. The railway was mainly for rich people or for people from the town. For normal families like us it was too expensive! But every two years my family went for one or two days to the seaside that was great! I'll never forget this time, there was nothing better. We all saved our money and prayed every day, in hope, to go there again in two years. These two days were always something special, always something unforgettable... I really like to remember these times, only THESE times, all others were horrible!

• I believe you! Only all two years? That’s very less, but it was even better than nothing! That's sheer madness, for families in our time that would be unthinkable to go swimming only all three years! Leoni, you have told me now quite a lot of things but I think, I have never heard something about school, not one word. I think you've missed this point. Wasn't this up-to-date in this time? Please tell me also a little bit about this theme.

• That's possible that we haven’t spoken about this already. But there isn't much to say about school... In this time there still wasn't a compulsory schooling. My siblings and I only went to school one day a week. That was always different and depended on the money we children earned that week, but school was mostly on Saturdays, I think. If we've earned to less money that week, we weren't allowed to go to school, our parents forbid us to go.

• That would mean that only a few children regularly attended school at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign?

• Yes, right! But in 1870 finally the new law was passed that all children had to attend school regularly, every day!

• That was surly a great day for you all?

• Yes! That was the best law Queen Victoria ever passed! From this time on we hadn't to work as much as before. In the afternoons we always went to school and after that we had to work for our parents. This were as many working hours a day as before in the factory and in the mines, about ten hours, but this was always a good alternation and it seemed to me that I haven't to work as long as I had to work in the factory! This first year was nevertheless the hardest year of my whole life. Our family was completely peaked. It was horrible!

• Were there strict rules in a classroom?

• Yes! It was extremely! We often got hit and punished by the teacher.

• What subjects did the pupils had in this time?

• The girls mainly learned needlework and housework, the boys other things. That was good, I think.

• And what about the rich children? Did they went in the same schools and classes like the "normal" kids?

• No! They were sent into good private schools or they had their own teacher called a `Governess`!

• Really very interesting what you tell us Leoni! I would still talk to you for a long time but I really have to come to the end! Thank you for this much information, for this long, intensive and interesting interview with you about your past! All the best for your future Leoni! Thank you very much, bye!

• My pleasure! Your welcome! Thank you too Sandra, bye!!