History Section -Teachers' Support Notes

VICTORIAN PASTIMES

With so many servants, Victorian ladies had plenty of free time! Whilst the head of the household (like Mr Gillow) would be kept very occupied with estate business, the ladies were expected to occupy themselves in a fitting manner!

Pastimes for ladies included needlework, drying and pressing flowers, reading, keeping a diary or journal and music. Young girls were also expected to embroider to a high standard.

Leighton Hall's drawing room has plenty of furniture and objects that members of the family might have used for recreational purposes in this room, before the days of television and computer games. There is an intriguing writing desk disguised as a fire screen, a games table which can be used for chess, draughts and backgammon and a ladies workbox containing a handwritten recipe book and needlepoint sampler.

Gentlemen often enjoyed billiards as well as country estate, sporting activities like hunting and shooting.
Leighton's dining room was originally a billiard room, hence the central skylight which lit the table before electricity.

Leighton's music room is extremely large and houses a magnificent concert Steinway piano, an addition to the house in l930 when it was given as a wedding present to Mr. Reynolds's mother and father. Many concerts and recitals have been held in the room.

Unfortunately none of the family are pianists, so we always encourage musical visitors, young and old, to
exercise the piano if they would like to. In the case of school parties, this often means we end our tour of the hall with one or two of the children's favourite songs!

Click here to download a larger versions of the piano advert on this page (468k) which you can print off.