There is a part of England that I regularly visit and most times that I do I see a lady dressed in smart period costume in one of the towns there.
The first time that I saw her I made the assumption that she was perhaps a member of staff from a living history museum who had just popped out on her break. But then I begun to notice that each time I am in this town I may well catch a glance of her bustling down the road in her long Victorian dress and that it was not just one costume that she had but many of different colours. It slowly dawned on me that this was her everyday dress and that she had elected to wear Victorian apparel rather than contemporary clothing.
This week I came across two different websites that made me think of this lady. The first is an American site that features a couple that have decided to live like Victorians, dressing like their ancestors and furnishing their house in the manner of that era.
http://guff.com/these-people-decided-to-live-like-its-the-1800s-they-do-what
The second website belonged to none other than Wall to Wall Media, makers of the hit genealogy series Who Do you Think You Are? This production company are looking for people to take part in an experiment on TV to live like a Victorian East Ender to tell the story of what life was really like for the Victorian poor and how their plight changed our nation for the better. I am pretty sure that the lady I referred to first in this post would not fit in to this programme as her dresses mark her out as aspiring to be a more middle-class Victorian.
Wall to Wall say on their website that they have begun a search for families and individuals to set up home in 1870s East London. The people chosen would aim to live, work and make ends meet exactly as the Victorian poor would have done. They’ll be expected to find work, master old trades and sell their wares in order to put food on the table and to make the weekly rent.
The type of person the company are looking for are strong, determined contributors who think they could survive life on the Victorian bread line. The series is due to be filmed over three weeks in Easter 2016 and the new Victorians will relocate for the duration of the filming to East London.
If you are interested take a look at the link below.
For anyone wanting to do some research on tracing their East End Ancestors then Jane Cox has written this guide for family historians published by Pen & Sword Books.
Paperback £14.99
Kindle edition £ 4.99
ePub edition £ 4.99
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