Ok, so I was looking through my travel journal and realized that I had actually written about my first field trip to Lincoln in there and it turns out I wrote about it on here too, so I figured I should write about my second British Studies field trip as well! This field trip was to Harlaxton Manor (yes, where I live) and Southwell Workhouse (this should go directly before the post about Barcelona).
We started off the day (well, half of us did, then we switched) at Harlaxton in our seminar classes. There, we spent half an hour learning about the different places that inspired Gregory Gregory when he built this manor. They ranged from houses in England to houses on the Continent, since he collected much of the marble and other items that he put in his house there. Then we had several hours to do a self-guided tour of the manor. Four professors were stationed around the manor to tell us about the different parts and to answer any questions we might have. Dr. Snow was in the library. There she told us about how it used to be the kitchen and how it was run and the food got from there across the manor to the State Dining Room and about the other work rooms on that half of the manor. Next we meandered over to Dr. Green in the Stone Corridor. He told us about the different levels of servants and how to distinguish between the servants quarter and the parts of the house where the family lived (ornamentation and wood floors). He also took us to the butler's room (what's now the Music Room) and showed us the staircase leading from there to the Long Gallery directly above it and the safe where the silver was kept. He also had a view of the drive so he could see people coming, and he had wooden floors and a marble fireplace, meaning that he was the highest servant. Next we went to Dr. Taylor up in the Blue Corridor. There, we got to see Gregory Gregory's room, which is one of the bay windows in the front of the house and is very nice and elaborate. We also got to see where the Governess' room was and how she got from her room down to the classroom and nursery without being seen by the family (another secret staircase). Lastly we got to see the sitting room upstairs, what is now the Senior Common Room for faculty and it is absolutely gorgeous! Lots of bookcases full of books and ornamentation. Then we went back downstairs to Dr. Bujak in the State Rooms. He showed us the various ways that servants got around without being seen and pictures of how the rooms used to look (with actual furniture in them and everything) and the heating system that was put in (a series of vents). After our tour, it was back to the seminar rooms to go over what we learned, then lunch in the Refectory.
After lunch we got on a coach and headed to Southwell Workhouse, about 45 minutes away. I was really excited to see this, because I had learned about the workhouses that the English tried to put into place in Ireland during the Great Famine and really wanted to see one. Turns out that this workhouse is the one that all other workhouses were based on! The workhouse is split, with one half being women and the other half men. The Master and Mistress of the workhouse and the children living in the workhouse lived in the center area. Men, Women, and Children weren't allowed to see each other except on Sundays, where families could meet in the Meeting Room if all of them had behaved that week. They got clothes upon entry and the women cleaned the workhouse and cooked and dealt with the food in the cellars, the men worked in the gardens and did pointless work, just to make sure they were always working. The point of the workhouses was to make them do repetitive, boring labor and reform their morals so that they would go out and get a job and become productive members of society (they also helped them find jobs, especially the orphans). We got to see the work yards, the cellars, the kitchen (on the women's side, bread making was on the men's), the meeting room in the center, the schoolroom, the children's dormitory, the Master's living rooms, the women's dormitory, the Master's study, the inside work/lounge rooms, and the exercise yard (which was actually where they went after dinner to relax. the privy was also out there). It was really interesting to see all of it! The workhouses also were where those unable to work (the poor elderly, injured, etc.) went. They didn't have to do any labor, because they couldn't, and each half of the workhouse was further separated in that way as well. The majority of the half of the building was for the innocent/deserving poor (aka those unable to work) and 1/4 to 1/3 of the half (on the outside) was for the poor that were able to work (their side was smaller because there were less of them and they moved in and out more frequently). The workhouse was very clean when it was run (because the women were always cleaning) and they were fed well, if it was a bit repetitive (they got meat every other day). After visiting the workhouse, it was back to the manor for dinner.
Ok, now that I've written this, I promise the next one will be about my trip to London tomorrow!
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