In the Victorian Era

Finding a place as an apprentice in a trade like Taxidermy in the Victorian Era or becoming a Taxidermist was the equivalent of holding a golden ticket, but to understand why, we have first to consider the social, economic and political background in the Victorian era.

The Industrial Revolution was the transition from creating goods by hand to using machines. Its start and end are widely debated by scholars, but the period generally spanned from about 1760 to 1840.

In 1837 Queen Victoria came to the throne.  The Victorian era ended in 1901 upon her death.

By 1830 the Industrial Revolution had ensured that first world countries were powered by steam and built with iron. There were engines, bridges, trains and drains.

During this period factory owners became wealthier, while the working classes were stricken with poverty and sickness.

Life expectancy at birth for the average Victorian was about 42, and more than 25 per cent of children died before their fifth birthday. Disease was rife – there were four major outbreaks of cholera between 1832 and 1866. And although, in general, standards of living did improve over the period, a third of the population was still living in poverty at the end of the 19th century.

In the Victorian Era the test of wealth in Victorian Britain, and therefore class, of a child’s parents was whether that child was sent to school. If they were, then the family was middle class or above.

The trade of being a taxidermist, furrier or naturalist in the Victorian Era were most certainly “middle class” crafts. For a child to be an official scholar was a ticket to a golden future.  In the mid to late 1800s families like those of leading taxidermists like Edward Gerrard or James Gardner could claim a heritage of good fortune.

During the Industrial Revolution of the Victorian Era all working class children were illiterate. Without education these children had no hope of finding a better job as they became adults, and they were condemned to a life of hard labour. Compulsory education would not arrive for children until the end of the 19^th century.

With many children employed in factories and the most dangerous roles like matchstick making, chimney sweeping and coal mining, the lucky ones avoided a dreariest of existences if they were apprenticed to craftsmen, and while the work was better the hours were just as long and the pay was just as bad.

The Industrial Revolution had dragged a huge influx of people from the countryside to the towns and cities. They demanded affordable housing which was in scarce supply.  Sanitation was next to absent and living conditions for the masses were awful.

Quickly built, poor quality back-to-back houses in terraced rows appeared almost overnight. Small, terraced homes housed on average ten people; there was very poor drainage and damp was everywhere.  The worst place to live was in the basement, but many did; unmanaged sewage from the upper floors inevitably seeped downwards and basements were often flooded with human waste.

These back-to-back houses sometimes shared outside toilets and usually sixty people from the terraced row shared just one toilet.

Beds in attics were often rented out to single workers but sometimes more than one family crammed themselves into these cheap-to-rent attics where at least two or three children would share a single bed, and girls and boys as young as three or four would be sent out to work.

There would be one room in the entire house that served as a kitchen, living and dining room and multiple families and workers would share the space, usually eating bread and gruel. There was no drinking water; rainwater was collected from a bucket left outside. The walls were thin, and everyone was a witness to any conversation or human activity.  There was no privacy.

Life was grim. Most working-class people had to fight for their survival in the slums. Disease and desperation were everywhere.

From 1832 to 1866 when London’s basic sewage system was introduced a major Cholera outbreak killed thousands. In just one week in 1848 over two thousand people died from Cholera, which starts with dirty drinking water and sewage contamination. Anyone who caught Cholera died within hours. 400,000 litres of stinking sewage was being released into the Thames every day, so it’s hardly surprising that water was the source of Cholera.

Between 1837 – 1841 Deadly Typhus was raging at an approximate rate of 16,000 new cases every year. The sharing of water in overcrowded areas meant that just one person with a case of Typhus could infect the whole area.

In 1864, one in three Servicemen who was tested under the Contagious Diseases Act was found to be suffering from Syphilis, for which there was no cure.