History - the Victorians

School Radio History - The Victorians 6. THE RAILWAYS 2. Without Equal (approx 6 mins) Before listening: one key fact to discuss There are three separate episodes focusingon Rainhill Trials 1829. When new tracks the theme of ‘railways’. These can be listened to were being laid down between Liverpool and one after the other or individually as required. A Manchester there were several ideas about how synopsis of each episode is below. locomotives should be built. A contest was held between different inventors to determine who could build the best locomotive. Discussion Lesson plan: question, ‘What would you have to keep the same to make a fair test between railway engines?’ Learning intention ‘We are learning to…’ (Same track, same amount of coal, same weight of train, same load to be pulled, etc.) We are learning to understand the important developments in rail transport that took place During listening: one question to focus on throughout the Victorian era. Key question: ‘Why did George Stevenson’s locomotive ‘Rocket’ win the contest?’ Assessment criteria ‘What I’m looking for…’ Instruction: ‘Sketch what you imagine a steam locomotive might look like.’ As an outcome I am looking for a labelled picture (Answers: Show a picture of any steam engine, that shows a length of railway line featuring a point out how some of the wheels are connected locomotive, carriages and a bridge. Features of to metal bars which lead to ‘cylinders’ that fi ll the picture should be labelled accurately. with steam to turn the wheels.) Share and discuss a listening focus for each episode 3. The Tay Bridge disaster (approx 7 mins) by asking the key question and instructing the children to make the following notes. Before listening: one key fact to discuss Resources needed: Note-making paper and pencil. Bridges. As the railway network grew bridges were needed to carry the railway lines across 1. Iron Horses (approx 6 mins) rivers and valleys. Discussion question, ‘If you were designing a Before listening: one key fact to discuss bridge today, how would you be sure your bridge Railways. Just before the start of the Victorian was safe?’ (Make models, test the models, era railways were developed and tracks were talk to experts, use computers to check the built all over the country. measurements.’) Discussion question: ‘Where is the nearest station to our school and where can you catch a During listening: one question to focus on train to?’ Key question: ‘What do you think went wrong?’ Instruction: ‘Imagine and sketch a During listening: one question to focus on bridge that you think could carry a Key question: ‘What are the most important railway line.’ achievements of George Stevenson?’ (Answers: A twisted girder was Instruction: ‘Make a note of all the things George dropped into the river during Stevenson achieved.’ the build, which may have been (Answers: Engineer, inventor, ‘father’ of the responsible for weakening the locomotive, lamps that work underwater, iron bridge. The design was perhaps horses - trains.) insuffi ciently strong to withstand the force of such a storm.) School Radio www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio © BBC 2010 After listening – Follow up and Planning and Curriculum Links: extension activity: National Curriculum Programme of Study for (A photograph of any steam locomotive and a History Key Stage 2: bridge built during the Victorian era would be useful to support this activity.) Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past Activity: Draw a railway locomotive and some 2 Pupils should be taught: carriages being pulled along a section of c to identify and describe reasons for, and results track. Write labels on your drawing to point of, historical events, situations, and changes in the out three features: periods studied The Locomotive or Engine – The part of the d to describe and make links between the main train that pulls the carriages along. Its wheels events, situations and changes within and across are connected to ‘cylinders’ that are fi lled with the different periods and societies studied. steam to power the train. Carriages – The parts of the train that carry Historical interpretation passengers. 3 Pupils should be taught to recognise that the past A bridge – Bridges were mostly built out of is represented and interpreted in different ways, iron bars or girders. The part of the bridge that and to give reasons for this. carries a train track or road is called the ‘span.’ The bridge will be supported by stone or iron Historical enquiry towers called ‘pylons.’ 4 Pupils should be taught: a how to fi nd out about the events, people and Differentiation and teacher support for S.E.N. / changes studied from an appropriate range of Focus group / Whole class sources of information, including ICT-based sources Teacher to demonstrate drawing a version of a b to ask and answer questions, and to select and section of railway track and a train on a piece of record information relevant to the focus of the paper or whiteboard to provide hints and starting enquiry. points for children’s own drawings. Organisation and communication Challenge for gifted and talented learners 5 Pupils should be taught to: Bridges were built in many ways during the Victorian a recall, select and organise historical information era. The span of the bridge could be supported b use dates and historical vocabulary to describe by a box of steel girders or hung on strong cables the periods studied from pylons or an arch of supporting girders. Can c communicate their knowledge and understanding you look in books to fi nd examples of suspension of history in a variety of ways. bridges? Draw a suspension bridge of your own and label the pylons, the span and the arch, if your QCA Schemes of Work: bridge uses one. Unit 11 What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain? Plenary and Assessment Unit 12 How did life change in our locality in In table groups or as a class, share and comparing Victorian times? drawings of the bridges. Give the children an opportunity to improve their drawings after making comparisons. Episode synopses: For the fi rst few days of the trials, the ‘Sans Pareil’ proves to be the equal of the ‘Rocket’, but on the 1. Iron Horses seventh day disaster strikes when a cylinder blows on the ‘Sans Pareil’ and the ‘Rocket’ is hailed the It is the 1820s in North East England and three winner. Hackworth believes Stephenson to be servants are discussing the arrival of a surprise guilty of sabotage, although Douglas doesn’t think visitor, who has come to see their master, Mr so. However, after the trials are over, the directors Hindmarsh. The visitor is George Stephenson, of the Liverpool-Manchester railroad also buy the who, twenty years previously had worked as a coal ‘Sans Pareil’ to work alongside the ‘Rocket’. boy, and had courted Mr Hindmarsh’s daughter, Elizabeth. At that time he had been sent packing 3. The Tay Bridge Disaster by Mr Hindmarsh, but in the meantime he has become a successful engineer and inventor, and George tells his granddaughter about an accident has returned to ask for permission to marry her. that happened in 1879 on the bridge that used to span the River Tay. At that time he was a young While Nancy, the youngest servant, is sent to man working in the foundry that made the bolts for eavesdrop on the master’s conversation with his the new bridge over the river, which at two miles visitor, Betty reveals that she has secretly been long was the longest bridge in the world and was reading Miss Elizabeth’s diary account of George’s situated right beneath his cottage. However, his achievements, including the invention of ‘iron wife, Nessie, never trusted the bridge, particularly horses’ that are used to pull huge weights of coal in as one of the girders supporting the bridge had Hetton Colliery, and which in years to come will be been damaged after an accident and had been bent used to transport not only coal, but people as well. back into shape rather than being recast. Alfred is shocked at this vision of a mechanical future, regarding it as devilish and unnatural. One day as they were travelling across the bridge However, then Nancy returns with the good news on the train, they heard an ominous noise. When that Elizabeth and George are to marry and that they reached St Fort, on the other side of the the master has called for wine to toast the future. bridge, they warned the stationmaster, who calmed their fears. However, that evening there was a 2. The Rainhill Trials storm and, from their cottage, they could hear the girders of the bridge straining. They hoped that the Douglas McCrae, an engineer, is writing to evening mail train would have been stopped, but the Museum of Science, offering an old steam then they heard it approaching the bridge. They locomotive, the ‘Sans Pareil’ (or ‘Without Equal’ strained to hear what happened to it, but couldn’t in English) for exhibition. He goes on to relate hear much above the howling wind. how, in 1829, he worked on the locomotive in the workshop of Timothy Hackworth. The next morning they discovered that there had been a terrible accident; the bridge had collapsed One day, Hackworth informs Douglas of a public and the train had fallen into the river with the loss trial of locomotives at Rainhill, with a prize for the of all 70 or so passengers on board. best engine over 35 miles of £500 and a contract to supply engines for the new Liverpool-Manchester railroad.

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