Britain 1815-1851

The story recipe below is taken from the textbook Britain 1815-1851 by Dave Martin, (John Murray, 2000).

Why not try it out with your students. Within the book students are provided with contextual information on the town of Kidderminster, the people within it and the lives of navvies. You could transfer the action to a different location that your students know about.  

Saturday Night in Kiddy!

You are going to write a short historical story set in Kidderminster in 1851. The construction gangs for the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway have almost reached town. You already know a lot about the town and about living conditions from your work in Chapter 4. You now also know a lot about the building of the railways and the lives of navvies from this chapter. Discuss with your partner what sort of people might be in the town over the weekend and what they might do.

For your short story you must follow this recipe.

  • The year is 1851. It is Friday night and the navvies building the railway have been paid.
  • Your story can cover a period of no more than two days.
  • Your story can have no more than three main characters, one of whom must be female. These can be real people from the trade directory (Source 13), or they can be fictional. You might like to use some of the navvies names listed in Source 12.
  • The events in your story can happen in only two places, the railway construction site and the town centre.