Month: September 2018

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Workhouse – three words – hell on earth.

Who worked in The Workhouse?

Master, Matron, school teacher and a part-time clerk. The ratio of staff to inmate was practically non-existent. Punishments were harsh. Riots might have happened but there was nowhere else to go.  We found out about one such riot at a Workhouse in Andover.

What were the jobs and punishments?

Jobs included:

  • Crush bones to make fertiliser
  • Breaking stones to make gravel for the roads for example.
  • Turning a mill, used to make flour and other products.
  • Cleaning the building (which was huge)

The jobs were not nice, laborious, slow, menial, boring, dull, lacking interest and sometimes painful. It must have felt degrading to do those jobs. Some people might have felt like they were dying. 

Punishments such as solitary confinement were used and the first line of action was no food at the next meal. We read about one lady being sent to prison for 2 months for breaking a window.

We are really glad that we were not living in a place like that and worried that people must have suffered ill health, mental health and maybe even taken their own lives. It feels really sad. 

How could you end up in a Workhouse?

You could end up in the workhouse for many reasons; because you were robbed, your house burned down, you had a run of bad luck. To call the inmates idle and profligate could have been as an insult in itself because there was no kindness or thought that the person found their way there through no fault of their own, there was only suffering. (MasterKAF is thinking like a depressed philosopher!)

MrsDTB decided to end the session here as, to be honest, it was getting very sombre! We feel very lucky to be living in this day and age and have the opportunities that we do. 

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JAM is good for you!

Alongside our other interests such as Victorian History and English Literature, we have begun to take creative inspiration in the coolest of ways. JAM really is made for the YouTube generation and is a big hit in our house. 

So far we have signed up for the Lego course and Drawing Bootcamp and loving them. If you haven’t already seen what these guys do then it is worth taking a look and they run a very good blog here. 

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Clockwork – Episodes One and Two

SERIES NAME: CLOCKWORK

EPISODE TITLE: Southern Hospitality

 

EPISODE SETTING: It takes place in a Non-Time setting (since Steam Punk never happened!) based on a Wild West styled civilisation. The episode features two locations, the Clockwork itself (one of three large airships but more of that later!) and the Dry Dock, a city on the ground where ships are repaired and people meet. We will also discover that there are around 100 smaller airships housing around 3 people.

 

There will be some action in this episode but mainly it is for setting up the story for the rest of the season.

 

SETTING SYNOPSIS: This ship is in Dry Dock and Silver, the ~Chief Mechanic of the ship, is without a Crew. He is on the lookout for new recruits. He owns a repair shop and is currently fixing up a steam plane.

 

SCENE ONE: A Dangerous Dilemma

The episode begins at Dry Dock where a major sandstorm is blowing across the city allowing dangerous animals to come out and attack the inhabitants. The owner of the steam place, Rose, is on her way to collect it from Silver at the workshop. She is running for her life as well as for her plane because a big mutant bat is chasing after her, flying low and getting closer and closer. Rose is panicking because she needs to find the workshop and has never met Silver before.

 

Silver sees her coming through the window and tries to knock the back door open by kicking it with his mechanical leg. He fails in his attempt and falls to the ground hitting his head and crying out in pain. Rose, who is now just by the door, pushes it hard with both hands but it does not open. Instead, one hand smashes through the glass and she is now terrified as the bat is still chasing her. Her hand, whilst very bloody, feels a key in the lock on the other side. She unlocks the door and opens it to see Silver lying in pain on the floor. He is in pain, holding his bashed up head and Rose shouts “Oh my gosh, are you alright?” Silver groans “no” and hauls himself up locking the door again just in time to stop the bat getting through.

 

SCENE TWO: Plot Thickens

An evil secret alliance has been the cause of the sandstorm as they want to take over the city to gain power and wealth. They can control other creatures with telepathic manipulation and by bribery too (in the case of the more sentient beasts).

 

SCENE THREE: An Heroic Undertaking

The episode continues in the workshop. The Evil Alliance has strengthened their assault gaining power from the moon’s cycle and gravitational pull. It becomes clear that they are after Rose because she had previously stumbled across an important site that they were guarding.

Covering his head wound with his hands still, Silver says “I have an airship. If we can make it there, we can get above the clouds and we won’t have to worry about those things” as he tenses up in disgust. He grabs Roses hand and they run through the back door, making it to the ship. On the last step Silver trips and dents a valve on his mechanical leg freezing it stiff. He is a bit frustrated but they manage to close the door on the bottom level of the ship, a close call! Rose shouts to Silver “throw me the keys and I’ll start the engine”. She catches them and runs up on to the flight deck. Whilst she starts the engine, the raging evil bat is now hammering against the bottom of the ship trying to get in. It fails and howls in pain. Silver knows he can fix the damage but they will still be able to take off.

 

Once the ship is airborne, Silver limps rigidly to join Rose and says “How come you can fly this so well”. Rose replies “My father and mother owned a ship and I grew up flying around the globe with them. They taught me everything I know”. Silver is a little bit impressed by what she says. He whistles to his trusted companion, an owl who is asleep somewhere on the ship, trying to get her attention. The owl wakes up having been sleeping heavily to recover from speedily exiting the workshop when the sandstorm began. She has a few cuts and bruises from the broken glass when the window smashed in.

She finds Silver and Rose who spots the injuries saying “I’ll try to help with my wound healing balm” but she cannot find it “Oh no, I must have lost it when that bat was chasing me, perhaps he has it now. Silver is not impressed as he loves his owls!

 

SCENE FOUR: The Truth Revealed

The evil mastermind known as “The Nameless One” as everyone is too scared to ask for his real name, is still following our heroes having been tracking them all along. The Evil Alliance wants Rose to join them and to take over the ship too.

 

SCENE FIVE: The Final Showdown

The Nameless One has summoned more beasts from the sandstorm below to pursue the Clockwork. They are led by a corrupted dragon and aided by a legion of undead archers. Their arrows are able to reach the Clockwork.

 

Silver attempts to take a shot at the Dragon by firing one of the ships’ cannon. It misses the dragon but takes out some of the other beasts. This makes Silver irritated and he screams out a *bleeped out* word. Rose looks at him with raised eyebrows and says “Honestly, language!”. Silver says “sorry” through gritted teeth as he is sti9ll very angry but not at her.

 

Meanwhile Rose is concerned about her healing balm. Does the bat have it or is it somewhere else? As she rummages through her pockets again, she finds it. The lid had come off and most of it had leaked but there was just enough to heal the Owl. Silver was elated by the news saying a very grateful “thank you”. He then aims at the Dragon again, this time with his bolt action rifle. But he forgot to load real bullets, instead he loaded flares. This set the dragon alight burning its scales but not killing it. The dragon winces in pain. One of the beasts, a flying elephant spouts water toward the dragon trying to put out the flames. It fails spectacularly and somehow the weather lands in the ship’s Rain Collection Systems (RCS) which feeds the boiler and powers the ship even more.

Our heroes are now more determined than ever to defeat the dragon. Silver reloads his rifle with the correct ammunition and fires it straight into the mouth of the dragon just as it’s about to the blast flames all over the Clockwork. The bullet reaches it intended target and the dragon falls away whilst the other creatures flee. With its dying breath, the dragon roars out in fury.

 

Rose asks if she can join Silver as part of his crew on the Clockwork. Silver nods gently and says “Sure but you’re gonna have to do something more than being a doctor”. Rose smiles back and blushes a bit wondering what she has got herself into.

 

*THE END*

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SERIES NAME: CLOCKWORK

EPISODE TITLE: 

Scene One – Episode Two begins on board the ship where a giant mechanical bug attacks the ship from the outside. It unbalances the ship, knocks Rose out of her bed and knocks everything Silver is working on off the desk.

 

He screams, “Who dares?” as heavily amplified mechanical bug noises can be heard. Metal hitting against metal and a buzzing noise at high speed.

 

The bug reaches the outer door to the ship and is peering through the window.

 

Silver opens his cabin door and peers out of the window, shouting “So you’re the Sass-Master I am looking for?” He runs up the stairs as fast as he can and manages to take his trusty rifle from the gun rack, firing 3 shots. 2 rebound but one pierces the armoured exoskeleton. The bug now crawls onto the top of the ship and Rose sees it as she comes out of her cabin. She tries to use her special power of communication but fails, realising it is a mechanical bug, so her powers are useless. This makes her feel nervous, worried and a bit embarrassed.

 

Silver pulls out a knife from his boot and runs at the bug. He trips, and the knife flies out of his hand striking the bug in one of its sixteen eyes. The canned audience makes a sound as if to say “ouch, that has got to hurt!”

 

Silver shouts to Rose “Do you have any idea what is going on?” She replies, “Yes I do, I have seen this once before on my travels around the globe with my folks”. Silver is frustrated as he doesn’t care where she saw the bug before but instead, how to get it off the ship! He unleashes a mechanical sheep he has been working on to try and distract the bug. Instead, it runs off the side of the ship, breaks a water tank and does nothing to distract the bug. Silver and Rose look at each other thinking, “Ooh heck, it’s going to be another one of those days.”

 

Scene Two – The Plot Thickens – The bug has been tracking the ship since it left dry dock. It’s being controlled by the Evil Nameless One and his minions. Silver and Rose have no idea of the connection.

 

Scene Three – An Heroic Undertaking – The bug reaches the bridge of the ship and captures Silver’s trusted owl by grabbing him with a claw that shoots out from an inner compartment in the bug. Silver shouts “Ok, I owe him at least 30 punches by now!” The owl scratches and tries to bite the bug too but it cannot make a dent in the metal. The bug laughs, and it is at this point that we realise it is being piloted by someone inside. Silver pulls out yet another knife and runs at the bug jumping onto one of the metal cables holding the ships air tank. He jumps off and onto the bugs back doing some damage but then slips and breaks his nose! The pilot of the bug is beginning to think that he needs some help and radios for backup shouting “All airborne bugs to The Clockwork NOW!” Messages are received but are crackly and not all bugs hear the location. This causes panic in the enemy camp, especially the leader bug and its pilot. Silver runs at the bug once again and tries to cut off its communication aerial with partial success. Now the bug can only radio locally. Still, though, the Owl is trapped inside the bug and Silver knows that the only way to get him back is to get inside the cockpit and release him.

 

Scene Four- The Truth Revealed – The Evil Mastermind is planning to turn a nearby pyramid into a missile silo. He knows that this is something The Clockwork will try and stop so has sent the bug to destroy it.

 

Scene Five – The Final Showdown – Back on board, the fight continues but Silver is no closer to getting his Owl back. More bugs arrive to reinforce the leader. (Imagine you are standing in a swarm of locusts – that’s what it sounds like). Silver takes both side arms and starts shooting rapidly He causes massive damage to the swarm of bugs and takes two out completely. He shouts, “I am completely out of ammo, man the cannons”. But through the noise of the swarm Rose does not hear which makes Silver really angry. He jumps and goes into a dive roll to reach the ladder taking him below deck. He sighs, thinking everything today could have gone so much better as he sees the leader bug take off from the ship with his precious owl inside. Silver passes out from exhaustion. What will happen next? Is the owl going to be safe? Is their life ever going to get any easier? Tune in next week to find out!

-THE END-

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Strike!

The third episode finds the team facing the gruelling inequality of the Potteries. These were the factories that were the powerhouses of the Industrial Revolution.

Amidst the bottle kilns of the Staffordshire potteries, it’s not just the machinery that’s revolutionary! With no break since leaving the 19th-century equivalent of the motorway services – the coaching-inn the team now have kilns to keep alight, clay to prep and pots to make. It’s hard work for very little pay, and dissent is in the air. Will our apprentice potters, like their forebears, take up the call to arms for better working conditions and pay?

What?

The Pottery Riots in 1842 were part of the General Strike which happened in many places across the country including but not limited to, Hanley and Burslem in what is now Stoke on Trent. As the strike gained momentum, Chartists lent their support, soldiers were called in to fire on the protestors who then, rightfully, stoned them back. In the end, people were wounded and killed and property was destroyed. By the end, it would have looked like a setting in a war movie!

Where?

Staffordshire, The Black Country and North Wales were three areas where strikes have been recorded.

When?

In the middle of 1842, riots became more common than ever and the movement of Chartism received a lot of support. We will find out more about Chartism in another session.

Who?

There were people known as flywheel turners, turning large wheels used to spin pots. They worked in a team with the potter. There was a one-legged dancer who had to pump with their right leg to power a pot makers machine. Over time due to what they had to do, their body became deformed and they had one very strong leg and one normal leg. There were also clay ballers which is pretty self-explanatory!

The people were working class.

The people who were middle class would work as overseers, over the working class. They would have better pay.

The customers were intended to be middle class, but the upper class also bought from the potteries too. 

Why?

It was done to make wages and fuel the industrial boom of Victorian Britain. The strike began to happen as more people were promised payment but did not get it when the pottery broke in the kiln. The pots can sometimes explode in the kiln if the clay has not been balled properly. If one person messed up in the process, then everyone lost out. This made people feel pretty terrible, angry and rebellious.

How did the Strike change Victorian Britain?

It ended up changing workers’ rights for the better. Also, the County Police was formed.

 

Things to find out more about

Chartism

The General Strike.

The rise of British Armed History on the Beeb

The British Police Force

 

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Victorian Coaching Inn

Episode 2 focused on the Coaching Inn. Here is our write up. MasterKAF chose the words and MrsDTB typed it up ?

What was it?

Where the richer folk would stop on journeys to eat and sometimes sleep. It was like a motorway service station and overnight hotel. It was also a chance to replace horses or resting them so that they could continue the journey.

Where were they?

The episode was filmed at a renovated real-life coaching inn called the New Inn. Coaching Inns were dotted along the roads in the country.

When were they used?

The mid 18th Century was the point when they were most common. After this point, they began to go out of business as there were not enough customers because trains were becoming more popular and cheaper to run.

Why were they used?

It was the fastest mode of transport at that time. Today you might be able to out cycle a galloping horse though! But then bikes were incredibly expensive and not even that fast, plus they were very hard to ride as they made a massive front wheel and a tiny back wheel!

Penny Farthings were not practical or fast!

The mail coach also used Coaching Inns so they could get a fast turnaround of their carriage.

Who used them?

Coaching Inns also had local farm workers as customers. They were not given nice food though. Sometimes they only got bread or cheese. Richer customers were supposed to get meat soup or good quality fish or rabbit, but in the episode, we watched, the people were given their food so late that it was too hot to eat, even though they had already paid for it. The coaching inn owner planned to sell the soup again later! Not the most ethical thing to do.

 

 

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Finding out more about Victorians

We are watching the series “24 hours in the past” on the Beeb and would like to watch it again! It was good because it was an accurate depiction of the Victorian working-class society.  

There are 4 episodes looking at different types of areas in Victorian Britain.

1. Victorian Town – This episode focused on working in a dust-yard.  Its basically a recycling plant and it turns out that the Victorians were really good at finding ways to reuse everything!

People put all their rubbish into a bin and left it outside their door to be picked up by the dustmen. All the dirt and grossness would be taken to the yard for sorting.

Rags would be washed and then go to the clothing makers, or to make rag rugs or dusters. 

Bones would be washed clean and then used to make soap. 

Sieved ash from the fires would be sent off to make bricks. 

The dustmen also had the job of clearing horse poop on the roads for later use. This was added to night-soil which was collected from the privy and mixed with hops to make a fertiliser. The hops would also make the mess less runny. 

The people who cleared the roads also searched for what they called “pure”, which was dog muck that went to the tanners who used it for tanning leather. To tan is to soften and make leather more usable for clothing. 

The Victorians were very good at recycling. 

We are planning to take a trip to the place where this was filmed to learn more:
https://www.bclm.co.uk/learning/educational-visits/41.htm

We will write more blogs about the next episodes.

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No Dig Adventure Starts Here

MasterKAF and I had been chatting about the kind of allotment that we wanted to have in our garden. Growing fruit and vegetables is a real priority for us because we want to eat more healthily and also save money. Added to that the chance to work outdoors and there is no contest! The one thing that was putting us off a little was the grunt work needed to set up the patches.

We have been looking at the work of a chap called Charles Dowding who promotes the idea of No Dig Gardening.
If we have come across a way to work the land we have without breaking our backs in the process then MrsDTB is one very happy woman. There is a good range of videos on YouTube that explain much better than we can at this stage, how the process works but to start with, we needed to prepare the ground. 

Essentially you need to smother the pasture, blocking out all light so that the grass and weeds weaken away. For this, we chose a heavy-duty membrane that will block the light but let water through. Having measured two plots we cut and laid the membrane using tent pegs to secure the edges. 

MasterKAF hard at work

These areas can now be left for a few weeks before it will be time to put a layer of mulch down and replace the membrane again to allow our no dig beds to develop. 

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More gardening!

We are really getting into this gardening lark. MasterKAF helped to sow a number of seeds this morning that are all going into the greenhouse to help feed us over winter. We thought it a good idea to begin to compile a log of what we do in the garden so that we can track progress. Here are is the log so far, which covers everything we have begun to work on for the next few months:

Plant When Sown Where Sown # Seeds When Planted Where Planted # Plants
Potatoes 27 August 2018 Grow Bags Outdoors 12 27 August 2018 Grow Bags Outdoors 12
Carrots 20 August 2018 Kitchen Garden 50 – Kitchen Garden  
Dwarf Beans 20 August 2018 Kitchen Garden 40 – Kitchen Garden  
Salad Leaves – – – 05 September 2018 Greenhouse 6
Carrots – – – 05 September 2018 Greenhouse 18
Carrots       05 September 2018 Kitchen Garden 1
Salad Leaves 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 30      
Corn Salad 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 18      
Radish 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 36      
Mange Tout 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 10      
Pak Choi 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 12      

He also had fun playing with some Lego models in the garden as is still running around outside as we speak. ?

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Yay, new friends

Yes!! We did it!! We got out and met some new friendly faces and it turns out it was easier than we thought. 

One of the things that living life on the Spectrum does for us is make new places and people more challenging. I have to say though, that sometimes it is my son who is the one leading from the front and today was no exception. 

After a morning in the garden and reading together (still on the Geeky Chef Cook Book) we headed into Hereford together as there was a local meet up of other Mums and kids at a local park. The plan was to go via the library so that we could pick up some new books for him and me. Just as we were arriving, the heavens opened and showed no sign of relenting on the sudden downpour. Not being scared of that “wet-water-stuff” we headed to the park anyway hoping that some folk would still join us, but it was not to be. 

A few minutes later I got a message to say that everyone was meeting at a play centre that we had never been to and was a long, but doable, walk away. I turn to MasterF and enquire on his thoughts given that we were now cold and wet. In months and years gone by, the expected response would have been upset, meltdown and a return home. No one was prouder than me to hear our young man say, “No Mum, we have come this far, I am not giving up now!”.  

“Proud-Mother” does not even begin to cover it ?

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Plants and Stars

We started the day by planting carrots and lettuce in the greenhouse. This is to give us some winter vegetables and we have more seeds on their way to be sown in the next couple of days. 

This is our first planting in the greenhouse over winter to try and see what vegetables we can grow. Then we planted a small amount of carrots outside in the kitchen garden to see how they compare to the ones grown under glass. 

These are Rainbow carrots to give us an unusual mix of colourful carrots. We were lucky to get them on special offer reduced from £6 to £1!
After weeding a little patch, we prepped the soil with Calcified Seaweed to add some extra nutrient and made sure we water them in well. 

In the evening we did some star gazing in the back garden. We are really lucky to be up high and have very little light pollution near the house. We saw two major constellations and one planet. 

Mars was looking bright and rather red for a planet so far away. The sunlight takes 13 minutes to reach Mars. So if Mars was destroyed we would see it 13 minutes too late. Mars is one of five planets easily visible to the naked eye, the others are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. We also found that there are 24.7 hours in a Mars day. This means that Mars’ year is 255.5 hours or 10.7 days longer than earth. So we could have an extra long Christmas, birthday or taking a longer holiday. What’s not to like?