The Victorian age was the first in which childhood was recognised as a distinct and precious phase in life. By 1900 there was near-universal literacy, a colossal achievement considering how appalling the situation of poor children had been in the 1830s. To achieve education for all, many new state or ‘board’ schools were established, together with church schools. It was made compulsory up to the age of ten in 1880. LEARN ABOUT LIFE BELOW STAIRS AT AUDLEY ENDĮducation came to be regarded as a universal need, and eventually a universal right. Domestic servants represented the largest class of workers in the country, and country houses like Audley End, Essex, had large service wings to accommodate them. The middle classes needed servants too, and in 1900 almost a third of British women aged between 15 and 20 were in service. What in the 18th century would have been available only to aristocrats was now on show in every smart middle-class home. Keen to display their affluence, and with the leisure to enjoy it, the newly rich required a never-ending supply of novelties from the country’s factories and workshops: new colours for ladies’ clothes (such as mauve), new toys for their children, fine cutlery from Sheffield, silverware from factories like JW Evans in Birmingham, dinner and tea services from the Staffordshire Potteries, and plate glass from Liverpool. The pound was strong and labour was cheap. The tremendous expansion of the middle classes, in both numbers and wealth, created a huge demand for goods and services.
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