Milton Keynes Museum - Project with Stantonbury Campus - Daily life in Milton Keynes before the new city

Stantonbury Campus

DAILY LIFE IN MILTON KEYNES BEFORE THE NEW CITY

Joe Dorsett

My Photo is of a range inside the kitchen. It looked more than 150years old!!! I choose the stove because it shows the major change in the type and style that stoves are like now. If I had lived in those days it would be a chore to start, end and clean out the fire every day of every month of every year. I think the stoves we’ve got now are a privilege to have so we don't have to do everything like it, like they had to do it in the old days. At least we don't have to go outside in the cold and get the water from the bucket and get the coal.

The stove played a key part in the museum's history because it shows how the production and style of stoves has changed, it also shows how stoves have developed in the last century. The effect the stove made was phenomenal, at it’s a prime it could cook bread, boil water and even serve the house with hot water and heat. Today we only have to press a button to serve the house with heat and only have to flick a switch to turn on the cooker and to make hot water to have a hot bath.

Aimee

This picture is of a school classroom in the Victorian days, showing that we have white boards and they didn't. I like the classrooms that we have today better than they had back then.

I chose this picture because we wanted to compare the classrooms from the Victorian (1878-1901) to today(2005). One of the differences is that we have whiteboards and we use whiteboard pens, but they had blackboards in which they used chalk to write with. Another difference is that they had wooden desks and we either have plastic ones or metal desks.

It is important to see how the classrooms have changed and how the teachers act. Our punishments today are very different because our punishments are nicer than back then, because we just have detention, exclusion and isolation but back then the children had whips and canes and Stocks and finger stocks.

The effect on Milton Keynes is that the classrooms are bigger. Children are being taught more lessons by different teachers and respect the facts of life. Another difference is that they had toilets outside with wooden seats but now Stantonbury has indoor toilets with plastic toilet seats.

Mansour Hussein

My picture is about the post office from the street of Ridgemont in the 19th century. The post service started in 1840 and it only cost 1p for up to a pound in weight. I chose this picture because I thought that on those days they would not have any transport like cars so how they did they manage to post around the country and how long did it take them to post?

It is important because people need to communicate and to do that to post or to go where they lived.

In those days they had to have a guy on a horse delivering the post but nowadays they just use hotmail.

Harriett

The picture is of Stephanie (B) having fun in the pillory at the Milton Keynes Museum and pretending that she is stuck. We so wanted some eggs to throw at her and then she starting moaning that she was stuck but in the end she was not!

I chose this picture because I thought the picture is so funny and it makes me laugh whenever I look at it. It shows Stephanie was having a fun time and joining in the activities looking around and seeing what pictures we could take and share with the rest of the group.

It is important to show Stephanie had been there and she was a contribution to the group and to show that she was trying to feel how the Victorians felt when they got put in the pillory and got things thrown at them, like mouldy fruit and vegetables!

The effect on Milton Keynes is that there is a nothing to say that it is from Milton Keynes except it is in Milton Keynes Museum. It is a pillory from many years ago from the (1878-1901) period. People don't get put in pillories or stocks anymore because it humiliates the person in them and now we have modern ways to punish the prisoner and they have such things as (bail ) and other ways of punishing people.

(Contributions below are as yet uncredited)

This is a picture of a well. It's over a hundred years old. It's made of bricks and it has lots of plants in it. It's very deep - you can't see the bottom.

I like this well for it’s like the one in the film ‘The Ring.’

For people back then needed to drink water and that was the way to collect it. It was also quite pretty.

Now they have taps from learning that the well got the people sick so we have come up with a healthier solution.

My photograph is of a 19th century record player. It was called a polyphon - it was very big and made out of wood. If you compare them to the record players today there massive.

There records are made of brass unlike the ones today that are played by laser and are made of plastic.

I chose this object because it shows how music players have evolved over a hundred years. From work shop to funky factory.

It is important because it shows how good they thought their technology was in their time, so maybe that means in the future they will make some other type of CD player that will be ten times better.

The effect that it had on Milton Keynes was that it shows how important entertainment was in people’s lives. For this reason Xscape is an important element of Milton Keynes.

Another interpretation of the same artefact by a different student:

This is a music player that plays big disks as it winds around the music box. It has dents in and the stick rolls over them and it makes music. You would have to find quite a big place to put it because it is so big.

Massive compared to today's music players. I like music and it played lovely tunes when we listened to it. People would probably listen to it at the dinner table while eating.

It was important because when the people were doing the ironing or something they would want to listen to music. It was only because there wasn’t any. This is the way that people were entertained during this time. A modern equivalent would be Clubs and Discos.

A picture of a miniature bowling board. It was for kids when they were bored and wanted something fun to do. I chose to photograph this object because kids liked these kinds of games especially bowling at home in your own living room. It is important because it shows the way that entertainment was based at home at this time.

Again this shows that at the time people entertained themselves primarily at home; but now this has very much changed. Xscape is a modern version.