Museum-goers in West Leeds are in for a history lesson with a difference this weekend as they head back to school in an authentic Victorian classroom.
The atmospheric attraction at Leeds Industrial Museum in Armley will be open to the public this Sunday as part of the national Heritage Open Days programme, when entry to the museum will also be free.
Normally only open for school visits, the classroom will give people the chance to see what life was like for children in the 1890s, with banks of rigid wooden desks, writing slates, inkwells and a vintage piano used for music lessons.
They will also get to meet a Victorian schoolmaster played by Coullin Meikle from 2pm until 4pm. Mr Meikle said:
“The classroom is, in itself, already part of Leeds’s heritage. I meet adults who visited as a school child and can still recall their Victorian name. It really is like stepping back in time as soon as you walk through the door.”
As well as opening up the classroom, Leeds Industrial Museum will also be hosting a curator tour of the Women, Work and War exhibition on Thursday, September 7, which examines the role women in Leeds played in the First World War.
On Friday, September 8 at 11am there will be a special tour of the currently closed locomotive collection and a chance to talk to the curator.
Then on Saturday, September 9 from 11am to 4pm visitors can see the museum’s Mill Engine at work as well as seeing the locomotive gallery between 11.30am and 12pm and again from 2.30pm to 3pm.
Tours of the textile gallery will also take place throughout the week.
