Victorian Valentines, 14 - 16 February 2003

We were given a grant of £3000 for Awards for All to organise this weekend of activities showing something of the life and times of the people who lived and worked in Valentines in the last half of the 19th Century.

The event was very successful - on Friday 14, some 250 children from local schools visted Valentines Mansion to find out more about Victorian Valentines. And on the Saturday about 550 members of the public came along to see and take part in the activities we organised.

The Saturday activities included:

• costume - Bridget Owen from Redbridge Museum with Valerie Geller displayed the sort of costumes Valentines residents would have worn
• food - examples of 19th Century dishes recreated by Pat Elliott
• music from the late Victorian period performed by Richard York
• Punch and Judy shows by Professor Alexander
• recreation of the family and servants at Valentines Mansion as they would have looked in 1864
• Victorian artefacts - a display from Bryan and Christine Dyer
• Working with the governess - Barbara Elliott's account of the work of a governess.

13 characters were 'at home' in the mansion during the day and 20 people took part in the activities, all but one were in costume.

Gallery

A few photos from the Victorian Valentines event.

	The dressmaker with governess and young Clementina Ingleby
	Charles Holcombe
	Mrs Ingleby with Richard York
	The play
	Victorian characters