Wednesday 8 June 2011

Florence Nightingale and William Shaw

Monday, we had a fantastic day out at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet. We spent the day with Florence Nightingale and her grandfather, William Shaw. It was a very informative session, both for the children and adults. It wasn't until Monday that I realised that there was a connection with Florence Nightingale and Sheffield. Her grandfather, William Shaw lived at Tapton Hall, and at the age of six, Florence came to live with him.


Grandfather William Shaw-(absolutely fantastic)

Florence Nightingale-(scary)

Reenacting the Crimean War

Complete with amputated leg.  Young nurses to clean up the hospital building and to provide clean dressings for the wounded

Trying to write with ink pens

Quite often, being left handed, Jonathan struggles with the ink pens, but this time, it was a very successful attempt

Nose to the grindstone

Daniel in Mr Shaws coat and top hat

Florence Nightingale

The afternoon session was with William Shaw talking about Victorian remedies, those that worked, and more often, those that didn't.  The children made lavender water and then went to "cure" a baby with cholera.  This was the hardest part for the mothers in the group, to think of what was inflicted on babies in the belief it was making them better!

All in all, a wonderful day, and a great stepping stone to go back and do some more research.

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