English Heritage

Childhood English Heritage

Childhood seems a separate history for most of us, a simple time before the weight of daily life slows our efforts, a time when the moving hands of the clock had little significance for us. Photographs of childhood - especially those sepia toned ones from long ago, elicit a particular response - almost a longing for a return to more innocent times. And indeed, the children photographed in this book seem to be from a time evoked in William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence'. Two tiny children in a country lane stare shyly at the camera; a young boy and his sister paddle in a stream, the boy seems to be wearing a dress - probably his sister's cast-off; gaily attired youngsters dance around a village maypole. It is difficult to look at these charming scenes without feeling wistful for the days when children could roam feral in the countryside, playing games now lost to us. However, this book also shows the flipside of Victorian and Edwardian childhood - the darker side of Blakes 'Songs of Experience'. Children are pictured working in factories and foundries. They are seen ploughing the fields and gathering the harvest. They are photographed in sanatoriums being treated for tuberculosis.
Complementing the photographs are oral testimonies recalling school, work, play and home-life, providing a true picture of 'the way we were'.