The Edwardian Period 1901 – 1910

The Edwardian Period 1901 – 1910 King Edward VII

Welcome to 5th June, 1909. You are lucky enough to be attending Church Road School, Yardley. Let’s find out a bit more about the time you are living in….

The Edwardian Period is the time following the Victorian era, and covering the reign of King Edward VII, from 1901 to 1910. Click on picture to watch Edward VII Coronation procession through Bradford

You may be surprised to find that you may already know many people and works from the Edwardian Period… Click on picture to watch the busy Edwardian streets of London!

100 years ago you could have been reading Kenneth Grahame’s famous book, The Wind in the Willows (1908) or H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898)!

Or perhaps you would have been reading Beatrix Potter… 1902 1905 1909

… Edith Nesbit … 1902 1904 1906

… and Frances Hodgson Burnett! 1905 1911

If you were lucky enough to have had a phonograph…

… you may have listened to the music of Edward Elgar, such as Pomp and Circumstance (1901), also known as Land of Hope and Glory! Click on picture to watch Elgar!

You could have visited a music hall to watch a film, and watched a performer such as Little Tich! Click on picture to watch Little Tich!

Or perhaps you’d have preferred the acrobatic Deonzo Brothers! Click on picture to watch The Deonzo Brothers

You could also have enjoyed the famous architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh around the city of Glasgow.

In your free time, you may have attended the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, won by Great Britain! The Steeplechase event!

22 countries competed in events including tug-of-war, rackets and lacrosse, as well as sports still played today, such as rugby, football, wrestling and cycling! Italian Dorando Pietri finishes the marathon after collapsing twice and running the wrong way!

You could have played a tennis match with your friends!

You could even have gone to watch a football match! Take a look at the crowd at this match between Newcastle United and Liverpool in 1901! Click the picture to watch the clip!

Edwardian children would have played with toys and games just like you, including dolls, boats, puzzles, trains, dolls' houses, toy animals and rocking horses.

Other toys were invented in the Edwardian era too, including Meccano and the teddy bear! Meccano made in about 1920 Teddy Bear made in about 1911

Ideas about food and drink were very different to today. Children had meals high in carbohydrate and low in fruit and meat, in fact many people were scared to give their children fresh fruit!

Children in wealthy families would have eaten a portion of hot or cold meat with potatoes and gravy, and a vegetable such as cabbage; and steamed pudding and custard, or milk pudding and jam to follow. Children in poorer families would often have kept going on bread and margarine or bread and jam, with the occasional catch-all stew or soup.

They did have sweets though…! In the sweet shop were peppermint lumps, boiled lemon sweets, liquorice allsorts, sherbert, caramel, toffee and cinder toffee (better known as Crunchie!!).

Life at school in the Edwardian era was very different to how it is now.

The children that went to school were in fact quite lucky, as they were at school and not working. It was legal for children over 9 years old to work for a living until 1918, when the age was raised to 12.

Edwardian schools were similar in a lot of ways to modern ones. Classes were taken in the 3 R's (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) and there were also physical education lessons.

Girls were generally also taught how to cook, clean and run a house properly.

In addition to their normal lessons, young people also usually attended Sunday School, which was often taught by their classroom teachers.

If you were disobedient at school, you would have been punished. Teachers used the birch, cane or tawse (the leather strap which could be soaked in water to make it heavier) particularly on boys. Other punishment involved humiliation (the wearing of a dunce's cap or label, or standing in front of the class, boredom (isolation, menial tasks, lines), or the withdrawal of sweets, pocket money or other privileges.

School meal menu, 1906

Wow, now you are an Edwardian expert, you are ready to travel back in time! Enjoy your day!

The Edwardian Period 1901 – 1910