I went to the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury yesterday, probably the hottest day of the year so far. The Year Six students from Richard Cobden who have been reading A Nest of Vipers, were fabulous, they knew loads about everything and made some brilliant stories of their own after looking round the exhibits.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Foundling Museum, but it is definitely worth a visit. It was originally a children’s home – The Foundling Hospital – for babies whose parents couldn’t afford to keep them. Of course there were many more babies than places in the Foundling Hospital and the spectacle of the poor pleading their case to the governors was a sort of sport for the rich of the time. A bit like watching the audition shows of X factor only more life and death and with a bigger ‘journey’/
If you do go make sure you have a hanky as the letters from mothers (and a few fathers) petitioning to leave their babies and the tokens from those who couldn’t write (buttons, ribbon, beads) will break your heart.
The lucky babies who were taken in could expect to be renamed, (Cloudesley Stemp anyone? John Barbadoes?) taught to read and write and apprenticed to a trade. But they would probably never know their parents or their families ever again.
Jamila Gavin’s book Coram Boy is a good start to finding out about the time and the place, if you want to know more.
One other thing. The visit was on a Monday, a day when the museum is usually closed. There was just me, The education officer, Annette, her helper Alice and the school party. At lunchtime when the school was outside wilting in Coram’s Fields I asked Annette if she ever got scared, in the huge building full of old stuff, almost alone.
“Oh no,” Annette said, “You’re never alone. I see crowds of children every where, just now, up in the court room, and on the stairs up there, there’s an old man,”
I thought she was winding me up. She wasn’t. She said the spirits weren’t evil, they were people without bodies.
I went to the toilet very, very quickly…..
Finally The History Girls! I am in the most starry company I can imagine; Mary Hoffman, Adele Geras, Mary Hooper, Michelle Lovric, Julia Golding, Caroline Lawrence, and that’s just a few of the writers joining forces on a brand new blog. Come and have a look….
Oh! One more thing. I’m going to a book launch on Saturday, my mate, and fellow History Girl N.M. Browne’s new book Wolf Blood is out. I haven’t read it yet, but can’t wait. It’s already been getting rave reviews, and the cover if beautiful, as is, for that matter Mary Hoffman, whose David, is another on my to read list…..