16th March 1910

We arrived today at the new house and have settled in. Hannah has been out on an expedition and has not yet unpacked her clothes and toys, but the kitchen, dining room and parlour are all in readiness.

I have run out of black ink and my pen writes very ill, but I shall endeavour to give an accurate account of our lives here, albeit in red ink. At present, it looks as though murder has been committed in my journal.

Since unpacking my own belongings, I have prepared my stock and set it to cookand made dough, currently on its second rising, from which I shall presently make bread. Oh how I envy those fortunate enough to keep a cook. I should like to read or write the letter I have promised to my nephew, who languishes on his sick bed after a most terrible accident. Instead, the joint is roasting and I must go and prepare vegetables.

Later...the joint is cooked, the Yorkshire pudding is in the oven and the vegetables are cooking. All I lack is Hannah. How late she is in coming home.

Hannah finally arrived at half past eight, having dined with her aunt. We are now enjoying a supper of grilled cheese on toast, while the water heats for our basins. We drink a cup of hot cocoa and take our jug ofwater to my bedroom where we wash and retire for the night.

Saturday's Menu:

Roast lamb served with mint jelly,  mashed potato, carrots and Yorkshire pudding

Supper: Grilled cheese on toast, cocoa

Setting the scene

There were some things we just couldn't do genuinely, which included cooking, some lighting and the type of decor/furniture. The house is the right age, but obviously decorated in nice, light, airy and neutral 21st century style. It is also, of course, plentifully supplied with 21st century items like washing machines and dishwashers (we didn't use these), tvs, playstation and a cross trainer. We didn't really use those either, although allowed ourselves to watch the Got to Dance live final on the Sunday night. We did use the range-style cooker, imagining wood instead of electricity and gas. We re-positioned the fridge as some kind of cold storage. My aunt's house, built in the 1930s,retained its pantry and she was able to use it for cold storage very effectively (it was,even in summer, chilly in there and in winter, really cold!). For lighting, we knew that a house of this type would have had gas lights so we lit small lamps where possible to create the effect of dim gas lamps and did not use the overhead lighting except in the dining room, where the bulb was a low-enough wattage to pass muster and the light fitting was a very approriate chandelier. In the kitchen, where the ceiling spotlights could not be anything other than modern electric light, we used candles.

We imagined ourselves as a lower middle class family, not overly wealthy, but not poor. This got me out of doing some of the heavier housework like cleaning floors as we would have had a maid-of-all-work. I suppose she would really have done the cooking as well, but as she didn't exist and we had to eat, I did my own cooking. I wanted to be the kind of woman who had the leisure time for causes and who joined the WSPU.

Anyway, the next few entries are my diary from 1910. Enjoy. 

Today is packing day

So this is my list of things to do and things to pack.

To do:

Find all the things
pack them
buy shopping
decant things like flour into more appropriate storage (actually not flour...just googled McDougalls, they existed in the period!), but sugar, oats etc


So far I have packed:

Marbles

A jigsaw
Teddy bears
The bears' tea-set

 Watercolour paints, sketch book and brushes
Sewing box and linen squares that need hemming
Paper dolls and colouring pencils
Writing paper, pen and ink
Books

The books panned out like this in the end. Hannah wanted to read The Phoenix and the Carpet herself and for me to read The Secret Garden to her (so we decided we could go to 1910 instead...still fits the Edwardian criterion and nothing we have is so fashionable as to have been wrong for 1910). I am taking Great Expectations and The Voyage of the Beagle although I doubt even I will get through both in 4 days.

Now for the household equipment. I decided that as a home like the one we are living in would have been lit by gas, we will put on a few electric lights and light some candles! We do have lamps but I forgot to check they had wicks. They don't and it is too late to sort that out. Also:

A loaf tin
Preserving pan
jug and bowl for washing
milk jug
Bottles for lemonade
Enamel pie dish
Glass jars and bottles of supplies
Food, decanted from inappropriate packaging
Mrs Beeton


We have also got a selection of coins from my auntie's coin collection. One is from 1880 and is worn so thin you can barely see Victoria's head, but we have about 20 pennies and half-pennies from Edward's reign. I think we might do some maths based on money while we're there.  That will be interesting because even I'm not old enough to remember "old" money. I was 5 months old when Britain went decimal!

And clothes, whatever we've got, although  have had to make do quite a bit. Since H refuses to set foot outside the house I think it will be okay!

We have a confirmed date

On the 16th March (which is incidentally my wedding anniversary but let's not let that stop us), we will travel back in time 105 years and spend 3 days in 1908. Although it was meant to be a week, my friend's husband is only vacating  the house for 3 days and I think that will do us!

Apart from underwear, I have all my kit. I need to buy new boots for Hannah because that is one thing she has outgrown. I'm not going to worry too much about a hat for Hannah because I strongly suspect she's going to refuse to set foot outside the house!

We have all our books and games lined up and I'm taking a 1000 piece jigsaw. I think we should be fine for entertainment.

Food is a more pressing issue, although I have now acquired a copy of Mrs  Beeton and will be scouring it for veggie adaptable recipes we can do (another reason 3 days is probably long enough!)

More costume

My blouse I ordered from an ebay shop arrived yesterday. It is lovely...plain white with huge leg o' mutton sleeves. I could easily add some green and purple accessories to go with my suffragette character. I ordered a dress for Hannah which is lovely, but I think it is too short. More research needed to see if it is feasible! Not asked Shaheda if we can borrow anything from Zara, but I think with the dress Kay has offered H will be fine. It's just undies for me now!

Or maybe not!

Change of plans again...friend's travel plans changed so no need to rush as we will now be doing the project in the spring. Which will be better in so many ways....especially as I do not have a coat suitable and no intention of buying one. Less time to be dependent on lamps/candles as well.

However, we have made progress on the costume front anyway. I've ordered a blouse and Hannah has two dresses which should work. Zara was wearing the *perfect* dress yesterday, but whether Shaheda will let me borrow it is another matter altogether. We do have an offer of a loaned dress from a friend though.

So we have a bit more time for research!

It's actually going to happen!

I can't believe it was 2010 when we started this...and still nothing has happened. But now I think it actually is! The project has been on the back-burner for over a year now. It *almost* happened in August 2011, but circumstances intervened. Now a friend who lives in a house that is perfect for us is going away and needs someone to look after her cat! So we're all go!

I have a million lists to make, clothes for me, clothes for Hannah, books, toys and games, household items, food. So far,they look like this:

Clothes for me:

2 x chemises
1 skirt
1 blouse
1 shawl
1 hat
1 coat
boots

I need: 1 more blouse if poss,  stockings and drawers!

Clothes for Hannah:

1 set underwear
1 pr boots
1 pinafore
1 cape

She needs: at least one dress, stockings and a hat

Books:

I've changed my mind about what I want to read and am taking Vanity Fair, Great Expectations and Voyage of the Beagle. I read Cranford recently and really enjoyed it, but decided not to go for any easy options...so no Austen!

I'm looking at a selection of things for Hannah: Wind in the Willows, some Nesbit, either Story of the Amulet or Story of the Treasure Seekers...just possibly Phoenix and the Carpet, which I have read to her before and at least she knows she likes it! I was looking at The Secret Garden but it was annoyingly published just too late and although Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess were both available at the time of our visit to the Edwardian period, I can't see Hannah enjoying those. The Jungle Book and Just So Stories are possibilities that might appeal to her...being animal-related,although she isn;t keen on the idea of Wind in the Willows now! Other things that could work: Black Beauty, What Katy Did, Alice in Wonderland, The Call of the Wild, Treasure Island, Heidi, Adventures of Tom Sawyer,

Toys, Games and other leisure pursuits

Marbles
Paper theatre
Jigsaws
Teddy bears
Doll?
Skipping rope
Whipping top
Art materials
Sewing/embroidery
Paper dolls
Writing paper, pen and ink

Will have to come back to the food question...more research to be done!

Progress

Finally, there is progress to report on the Edwardian project. Hannah's costume is nearly complete. More than 4 months after we ordered it, the underwear set from Cornucopia Costume actually arrived on Thursday and a friend has offered to make a second set for H and some for me with her newly acquired sewing machine. This is great really. she needs to earn some money; I need a dressmaker because I just can't do it myself at all. So I can make a list of what I am going to need and see if I can find patterns for them.

Hannah now has: one set of underwear (bloomers, camisole and petticoat), a pinafore, a cape, a broderie anglaise parasol and a pair of boots.

She needs: at least one more complete set of undies and a 3rd pair of bloomers, 2 dresses, 2 pairs of stockings, a nightdress and a hat.

We have an offer of a knitted tam o' shanter from one friend, have found a supplier who makes stockings and now this dressmaking opportunity. It begins to look as though it is possible to do this!

I have: 2 chemises, a skirt that might possibly work, a shawl and 2 hats.
I need: at least 2 blouses, possibly another skirt or a dress, a corset (I'm trying to close my eyes to that one), at least 2 pairs of bloomers and a petticoat.

Off to look for patterns now!

Frustrations

I feel very thwarted by things outside my control at the moment. Back in December, I mentioned having found a period fancy dress company that sold sets of Edwardian underwear and I note now that I placed an order on 27th December. Now even allowing for some downtime over the holiday period, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect to receive the items before now.

Sadly, I have been very disappointed in the service provided by www.cornucopiacostume.com Not only have I not received my order but they have been reluctant to respond to polite emails requesting information. I have run a web-based business..I know parcels go astray; I know things can get overlooked if there's a rush on, but not communicating and not apologising is unforgivable. I was obliged to resort to threatening legal action and quite frankly, being very rude. Naturally I got a fairly snippy reply to the rude email which suggested they suspect me of lying. Ho hum, have asked for a refund as I am clearly never going to receive the underwear. A shame because I think I might well have ordered more from them.

And to add further injury to this seething mass of insult and injury and sheer disappointment, Hannah wore her Edwardian boots to her swimming lesson and they got stolen from the changing rooms. I had a £10 voucher for Next so have re-ordered them, but am so upset at how much more challenging other people are making this.

Building a costume

Hannah's outfit is getting there. I am so excited. I am awaiting the delivery of one set of underwear as discussed in the previous post and I have bought boots which might come from Next and not be at all actually authentic but they will do. I have sourced stockings which are affordable and authentic. After a conversation with my lovely friend Sarah, who is kindly making Hannah a tam o' shanter, I went back to investigate and it appears that the woman selling them owns an Edwardian sock-knitting machine so it is both machine-made *and* authentic!

So we have underwear, stockings and boots. Then a bit of a blank where dresses will go. For the outer layer, my best friend has lent us a gorgeous tweed cape which was her best "go to sunday School" cape when she was eight and a parasol for me. A straw hat for Hannah should be easy to come by as will a pinafore.

So really, one more set of undies, a nightdress and two dresses and Hannah is sorted.

then I can turn my full attention to the thought of squeezing my substantial curves into a corset....joy!!!

Knickers etc!!

On the odd occasion when I cannot sleep I make mental lists of things we will need. Clothes are preoccupying my mind at the moment, primarily underwear.

I watched the episode of Edwardian Farm again this morning when you see Ruth getting dressed which is really useful. I need to make (probably...ha ha, I cannot make clothes to save my life!) some drawers. Apparently they were often crotchless to make going to the loo easier under layers of petticoats....hmmmm. I can't quite get my head round the concept of crotchless knickers outside of an Anne Summers context! And do I get Hannah to wear crotchless knickers as well???? That just seems so wrong, making crotchless drawers for a small child! In fact when I googled Edwardian children's underwear on my work pc (it *is* for an educational project) it came up blocked as pornography...oops!

Once we sort that out, at least for Hannah it is fairly straight forward, vest, stockings, petticoat, all of which should be easy to make or acquire.

But I need to find a corset somewhere, somehow! It would probably help if I could lose some weight between now and then, whenever then is. If I lost enough, the basque I had for my wedding would fit and although it isn't authentic, it would do, although it needs to fit over a chemise, which women wore under corsets because chemises were easy to wash and corsets were not.

Some intensive googling turned up this site www.cornucopiacostume.com and I have ordered Hannah a girl's underwear set consisting of drawers, chemise and petticoat. I could really use at least 2 of each so I can have one on and one in the wash, but if I have one pair I may be able to get a friend with a sewing machine to run up a couple of extra pairs of drawers. The site also sells chemise and drawers in my size but at £60 the set I am hoping to be able to work something out cheaper. I am sure that a pattern must exist somewhere for drawers and I am planning to ask on our local Freegle site for any old cotton sheets etc and scour charity shops for fabrics. But if we get to the last days and I need stuff, at least this would provide me with undies and a blouse. I have one skirt in my own wardrobe which would work and a petticoat would be easy enough to make.

I have a friend who knits socks so am hoping to commission her to knit us each a pair or more of woollen stockings.

And finally, not at all to do with underwear, but useful, Next have a pair of boots in this season's range which looks exactly like an Edwardian child's lace up boot! Yay. Think I am off to spend the money I have saved so far in Next! Oh I also have hats as the two hats I have bought for weddings over the years, worn once and stuffed in the wardrobe are very Edwardian in style so may as well earn their keep. i can add feathers, fabric and possibly stuffed birds as necessary!

Books

One of the many lists I am compiling is of reading material for the week. Obviously they have to have been published in or before 1908 and since there will not be the 21st century distractions from reading time it seems to be a good time to read some of those things I've had on my reading list for ages and never got round to, or have started and not finished. So far my list includes:

Vanity Fair (started, never finished)
Ruth by Mrs Gaskell. The reason for this novel rather than the better known Cranford which I've also started and not finished despite liking it is that I noticed today that my mum has it in a World Library edition published in 1906, where most of my books are more modern editions.
Persuasion (for if I discover that even with fewer distractions I still can;t finish the above)
Wind in the Willows for Hannah
Then something E Nesbit. We have read The Phoenix and the Carpet so probably Five Children and It, although I love The Story of the Treasure Seekers which was always my favourite. I don't think The Railway Children will appeal to her.

I will be reading to her, I should think. She can read well, but still gets daunted by pages of dense text. I've never read Wind in the Willows so am looking forward to that.

How it started

A week or so ago Hannah watched Edwardian Farm and decided that she would like to "do that too". Now the farm aspect of it is out of my power to organise, not being a major tv company, but I read a blog recently about a family who had a Georgian house and spent some time living as Georgians so I knew it could be done on that sort of scale. It cannot, however, be done in our home which is a mid-30s terrace. And doing it at home will be boring apparently. So this is the plan. At some point in the future, when we can afford it, we will rent (or borrow) a house from an appropriate period and spend a week living in 1908.

We have chosen 1908 for two reasons, other than that it falls between 1901 and 1910. One is that it was a year in which the WSPU became more active in their campaign for women's suffrage and started chaining themselves to railings, breaking windows etc and of course, if I am going to live in the early years of the 20th century, there can be no doubt that I will be a suffragette.

The other is that Wind in the Willows, which has long been on our "books to read" list was published in 1908 so will be our bedtime (and no doubt other times) reading material for the week.

We are very excited planning what we will need to get and doing a lot of research reading, watching and visiting. First up is probably a visit to the Geffreye Museum http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/period-rooms-and-gardens/explore-rooms/drawing-room-1910/ to have a look at what furniture etc we would have had and although we probably can't replicate this in our project, it will be helpful to know. We are also lucky enough to be near the Museum of Childhood  so can look not only at what she would have played with at that time but useful exhibitions like this http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/whats_on/exhibitions_and_displays/food_glorious_food/index.html.

We already have a couple of books from the library and are compiling lists of clothes (arrghhh, corsets!!!), toys (teddy bear, board games, hoop, paper theatre), food etc that we will need. I'm planning to use this blog to help with the planning and (after the event obviously...no internet in 1908!!!) will post the diary of our week in the past.