A Visit from Swansea Archive Service

We have had special visitors - Swansea Archive Service. They came for one lesson and brought things in; they brought in Victorian maps,census,photographs and paintings. They also brought parchment to look at. Most people said that it was different to normal paper.We found out that the stamp at the bottom was made of wax. The sheet went around the class and once it had gone all the way around the lady spoke and said that the paper in the Victorian times was really made of animal skin,  goat, pig and sheep! 

We saw pictures and drawings of the Victorians and the rich and poor. We also saw maps of where the poor and rich were living. We found out that there was more poor people than there is of rich. Rich people lived in big houses with lots of servants and poor people lived in small houses. We found out that you could fit 6 poor people's houses in just the library at Margam Park! 

It must have been a hard life to be poor during the Victorian times.