Croxteth Hall & Country Park Web site

Victorian Christmas 1892

Step back in time to 1892 in this half-day role-play of a Victorian country house estate in the run up to the festive period.

Lord and Lady Sefton are looking forward to enjoying Christmas with family and guests, whilst the servants and estate workers prepare for the festive season.

Everyone takes a role - some children are invited as guests, whilst others apply for various positions within the household staff. Croxteth and volunteer staff in period costume lead each group as they experience the sights and sounds, the hardships and the pleasures of Victorian life. All participants must dress in appropriate costume.

Victorian Christmas 1892 teachers notes, supporting printed resources and Croxteth Risk Assessment for this visit will be given out at the free teachers briefing session (dates to be confirmed). Electronic copies to download are available by visiting our Printed Resources page.

Victorian Christmas is one of our most popular programmes. In order for us to allocate places on the programme effectively, all schools MUST follow our Victorian Christmas booking procedure. Bookings will start to be taken as soon as schools return after the summer break.

Please e-mail,  telephone (0151 233 6915), fax (0151 233 6906) or write a letter of application and send to: Senior Ranger, Croxteth Hall and Country Park, Liverpool L12 0HB, marking your envelope 'Victorian Christmas'. Please enclose the following details:

The name of school and contact name, address, phone and fax number and e-mail address if available

• The number of children you are bringing (from this we will work out your charge -  see charges below).
• Preferred dates, (am or pm) but please indicate alternative dates to give us more chance of accommodating you.
• Please indicate dates which are impossible for you to come.
• Please indicate if you would need to book a space for lunch (we cannot guarantee to accommodate this requirement).
• The year group or age range of the children (VC is not suitable for under 8s)            

Available: dates to be confirmed (usually last 2 weeks in November, first 2 weeks in December
Session times: mornings 10.00am to 12.15pm and afternoons 1.00pm to 3.15pm.
Duration: 2 hours 15 mins.
Charges: £8.50 per child
Please note advance payment will be required by (date to be confirmed) 
Maximum group size: 82 children.
Rooms for lunch cost of 50p per child (we cannot guarantee to accommodate this requirement).

Please note: it is a Health and Safety requirement to have one adult from school with each group. Twinned schools need to organise this level of cover between them. One additional person from each school attending may accompany the groups to take photographs. Schools may bring additional adults, but extra adults will be charged the session price of £8.50. If schools fail to meet these minimum staffing requirements, we will use additional Croxteth staff. The cost of this is £90 per additional staff member per session.

FREE Victorian Christmas teachers Health and Safety briefing session Date to be confirmed. Held at Croxteth Hall, this is designed to provide as much information as possible about the visit; Health and Safety considerations, group sizes, safety, costume details, background information etc. It is a condition of booking that this session is attended.  A teachers' resource pack (CD ROM) will be available on the day with all the relevant information, background notes and two very useful slide shows to introduce the topic and stimulate class discussion. The Croxteth Risk Assessment for the visit will be made available.  

"Superb. From an educational point of view the history learning outcomes are endless. For the children to have this unique opportunity to actually experience these settings provide benefits that are second to none."

   St Laurence's Primary Catholic School, Knowlsey.

To give an idea of activities in Victorian Christmas, browse the images of Victorian Christmas at Croxteth Hall from previous years - please be patient while the images load.

Kichen maids hard at work 
Kitchen maids busy with party preparations
Housemaids clean the large copper pans
The Butler prepares the wine
Stablehands clean the carriage
Stablehands groom the pony
Woodboys chop wood for the fires
Lord and Lady Seftons guests
Party food
Party games
Lady Sefton receives a gift from the servants

Many thanks to Norman Pannell school for permission to use the photographs by Neil Lloyd Photography.

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