History at key stages 1 and 2 (Year 5/6)

Unit 12: How did life change in our locality in Victorian times?
Section 1: Who lived here in 1841?

Objectives

Children should learn:

to find out about the past from census returns
to select and record information relevant to a chosen topic

Activities

Outcomes

Children:

Ask the children to find 1841 on the class time line. Ask them who they think might have lived in the local area in 1841 and how they could find this information. Introduce the idea of a census, and discuss what information might be on it. Give the children copies of a census return and ask them to list the headings under which information is collected.

Give the children returns from 1841 for the local area. Ask them to record the name and one other field of data (age, occupation, place of origin, size of family). Discuss with the children their findings, helping them to identify patterns and draw conclusions about the area in 1841.

Ask children to produce graphs for fields they have investigated.

understand what a census return is and what can be learnt from it
extract data from a census return and record it in a graph

Points to note

This activity uses a variety of sources of information that are available for most localities. Census and other information for a different year can be substituted where none is available for 1841. Most local councils have archives that can supply copies of census returns. They are also available from local study centres, which are usually located in local libraries.

Census returns are often handwritten in copperplate writing, so may need to be transcribed. This activity could be adapted by transcribing some pages onto a simple database for some children.

Children's conclusions could be very simple, eg typical names, ages of people working, types of jobs.

Sections in this unit

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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.


	1. Who lived here in 1841?
	2. Who lived and worked here in 1891? What has changed since 1841 and why?
	3. How did the arrival and expansion of the railways affect our area?
	4. What evidence of Victorian times remains in our area?
	5. How did life change in our locality in Victorian times?