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Year Group 5

Curriculum Area: Unit 12 How did life change in our locality in Victorian Times?

The effect of the expansion of the railways in Didcot

Overview

Introduction
Preparatory work
The Lesson
Introduction

This lesson plan contributes to QCA History Study Unit 12- How did life change in our locality in Victorian Times? The exercise uses census return data and old maps to help pupils consider the impact the arrival of the railway had on Didcot's development as a town. The different maps and census data put together in the PowerPoint presentation make an interesting starting point for this historical enquiry.

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ICT competences required by

Teacher

Ability to:

  • use a data projector
  • use ready prepared PowerPoint presentation
  • use chosen data handling software
  • demonstrate copying and pasting graphs from data handling software into word processing software

Child

Ability to

  • use chosen data handling software
  • copy and paste a graph from data handling software into word processing software
The Learning Objectives

Pupils should learn:
  • How did the arrival and expansion of the railways affect our area?
  • To communicate their understanding of benefits and disadvantages of railways.

Resources

Vocabulary census, locality, tithe, industrialisation, occupation, household, railway, database, graph etc.

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Preparatory work

This unit is based on the town of the Didcot, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire) which became an important railway junction in the 1850s. You could find similar resources for your own local area either online (www.old-maps.co.uk and www.multimap.com and/or www.ordsvy.gov.uk) or in your local history library.

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The Lesson

Whole Class Teaching

Teacher shows pupils the PowerPoint - How the railways affected Didcot.ppt

Slide 2 - 1841 Tithe Map

Produced as a 'one off' as a result of the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836, tithe maps are the second most important category of map we hold. Most parishes in the county have one, and very often they are the earliest large scale map to survive. Their scale is sufficient to show most topographical features, including individual buildings. They come with an accompanying text which records the name of the owner and occupier of each numbered plot shown on the map, acreage and land use.

Q What can you see on the map?

Carriage roads, Great Western Railway, Manor Farm, homes - but not many, no railway station and no obvious connection between the railway and the town etc.

Slide 3 - 1884 Ordnance Survey Map

Q What can you see on this map? Teacher to draw attention to similarities on the two maps as a starting point e.g. Manor Farm, the main railway line etc.
Differences - the railway is much expanded and is now a junction (this is the line coming from Oxford), a number of hotels, post office, carriage shed, signal posts and apparatus, reservoir etc.

Q Why have these hotels been built?

Q Why would they need a reservoir?

Slide 4 - 2003 Ordnance Survey Map

The teacher needs to help pupils orient themselves on this current map. The orange road running north/south in the top centre of the map is Vauxhall Road (now called Foxhall Road). The church just to the East of Vauxhall Road is where the Rectory was on the earlier maps.

Q What changes can you see on this map?

Much greater road infrastructure including many roundabouts, many more houses, schools, hospitals. The town has expanded on both sides of the railway and the reservoir is no longer there.

Slide 5 - a page from the 1841 Census Return

The teacher will need to explain that a census was carried out every 10 years since 1801, although detailed records only exist from 1841 to 1901. Details of the census are kept secret for 100 years to ensure confidentiality.
Teachers should encourage pupils to read the headings and any data that they can decipher. Show slide 6 which is a transcript of the same page from the 1841 Census Return.

Q What are the occupations?

There are only two on this page: curate and ag lab - agricultural labourer

Q How do you know where they were born?

You will need to return to Slide 5 to see the heading, Where Born, on the original census return. This column has the letter "y" indicating that they were all born in Berkshire. None were born Scotland, Ireland or foreign parts and none were born in neighbouring counties.

Q Why do you think this was?

Slide 7 - a page from the 1881 Census Return.

Teacher should encourage pupils to read the headings and any data that they can decipher. Show slide 8 which is a transcript of the same page from 1881 Census Return. Explain that "do" means ditto or the same as above.

Q What are the occupations of those on this page?

A much greater variety of occupation, several of which are directly related to the railway.

Q Where were these people born?

Pupils may notice that while many people still were born in Berkshire several have come from some considerable distance to live and work in Didcot, including one from Montreal.

Q Why would this be so?

Transport was just much easier and people could travel looking for opportunities for work.

Main Activity

Working in pairs, at the computer, pupils load their data handling software and open the file Didcot41. Pupils use the software to produce graphs of occupation and where born. Pupils should make notes of their observations, more able pupils would be expected to copy the graphs, paste them into word processing software and bullet point their observations.
Pupils repeat this activity with the Didcot81 file. Finally bullet point, either on screen or paper, the main differences that they have discovered and why they think these changes have occurred.

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Plenary

The teacher draws from the pupils the main changes that they have observed and the reasons for these changes.

Now show slide 9 which shows the heads of household from the Didcot Census for 1841. Remind pupils that this was before the railways were fully developed in Didcot. Choose one of the heads of household highlighted in yellow e.g. George Woodley the Blacksmith and brainstorm a list of benefits and drawbacks to his occupation which the development of the railway might bring.

Pupils might suggest:
benefits - more cheap coal, iron, transport his goods more cheaply to a wider market
drawbacks - he may face competition from cheap manufactured products from the growing industrial towns

If time permits allow pupils to choose one of the other highlighted occupations and, with their response partners, draw up a similar list.

This lesson could be followed with a further session where pupils brainstorm the benefits and drawbacks of the arrival of the railway to other occupations on this list. This could lead to the pupils preparing arguments for a role play debate as outlined in QCA Unit 12.

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Why use ICT

The use of ICT allows the comparison of data from the census returns for 1841 and 1881 to be compared quickly and easily by all pupils simultaneously. This would not be possible without the use of ICT.

Local maps for 1880s and present day maps are readily available online.

The presentation gives the teacher a reusable resource which introduces the topic in an interesting way using historical evidence. It allows teachers to focus the pupils' attention and to raise important issues for the whole class.


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