Trevor May – författare

There was a tremendous expansion of education in England and Wales during the nineteenth century. A combination of voluntary effort and government action led to the introduction of a system of elementary education for the working class. This book describes the development of Victorian schools and looks at the evolving role and status of the teacher. The emphasis, however, is on the schoolroom itself. Using contemporary sources, this book looks at what went on in the schoolrooms of Victorian England and Wales, at the way lessons were planned and taught, and at the equipment and teaching resources that were employed.

The Victorians were, were relatively at ease with death and there is much in this book to interest social historians, those interested in historical costume and transport enthusiasts, as there is a section on the development of the horse-drawn hearse.

Whether it was 'the batille', 'the spike', 'the work'us' or simply 'the house', the Victorian workhouse was the cause of dread and shame for thousands of men, women and children. The workhouse was the last resort, and the authorities intended that it should be seen as such. This book looks at the principles that lay beind the New Poor Law of 1834, at the design and construction of workhouses, and at the lives of those who entered them, either as officers or as paupers.

In 1851 there were over one million servants in Britain, making domestic service the second largest occupational group after agriculture. The range of people who kept servants was vast, from aristocrats to the lower middle class families who employed a single 'maid of all work'. This book covers the whole range of domestic service in the nineteenth century, describing the work and conditions of servants and giving an insight into the strict social hierarchy, which was strong 'below stairs' as above.

The Hansom cab is one of the most striking images of the Victorian city, but it was not the only type of cab in use during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Much of the work was done by the 'growler', a four-wheeled cab that rattled through the streets, laden with luggage and with families eager to catch a train. Trevor May travels through the streets of Victorian and Edwardian England to trace the origins of the horse cab and the improvements in its design throughout the period, and to celebrate the cab drivers themselves, who had a reputation for quick-wittedness and repartee equal to that enjoyed by today's taxi-driver.

Thousands of Victorians were employed by railway companies, from the locomotive driver on the footplate to the booking clerk in the station. The companies provided work for navvies, signalmen, telegraph operators, station masters, hotel workers, and many other people, including those who worked the fleets of railway-owned ships and horse-drawn vehicles. Trevor May gives a fascinating overview of everyday life for the characters that worked in such varied railway occupations, and the often stringent discipline and hierarchies that meant, for instance, that firemen had to drink in separate bars from engine drivers. Interesting cameos are provided of the men who worked in the great railway factories in places like Crewe, Swindon and Derby, the wheel-tappers who checked the integrity of locomotive and carriage wheels to ensure their safety, the women who worked in the company laundries, and those who worked in scores of other occupations.

Military barracks played an important part in the social as well as the military history of Britain. They have served many purposes, being homes, training establishments and recruitment depots, and were meant to impress (and, at times, overawe) the local population as well as foreign enemies. Some towns, such as Aldershot and Colchester, were almost defined by their barracks. This book looks at the buildings themselves, from early times to the twentieth century, and describes the life that was led in the barracks by the soldiers and their wives.

Although they have existed in Britain for over a thousand years, it was not until the nineteenth century that prisons became the cornerstone of the penal system. This book looks at the development of prison buildings, life and labour of prisoners, and the position of prison officers.

The Victorian clergyman is a familiar character in the fiction of the period, especially in the novels of Anthony Trollope and George Eliot. Through text and pictures, this book sets out to tell their story and to set them firmly in the context of the nineteenth-century Church of England, revealing how they differed from the clergy of the present day

Public schools were in the business of producing leaders - in national government, in the Empire, and in the armed forces. Their impact on society was immense, and they provided the vehicle by which the sons of the middle classes could be assimilated into the gentry. Historian Trevor May examines the development of the Victorian and Edwardian public school, covering their defining characteristics, their slowly evolving curriculum, and the often-notable headmasters. The spartan, and often brutal, life of the schoolboy is examined, and account is taken of the role of fagging and the prefect system.

In 1851 an event was organised in London that changed the world: The Great Exhibition. It was a spectacular showcase of technology manufacture and design from all over the world. In just a few months over six million people attended the exhibition in Joseph Paxton's famous Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. This was a landmark moment that characterised Victoria's reign, and became the model for other famous exhibitions in Chicago and Paris. Chronicling the first exciting spectacles, through to the much-maligned Millennium Dome, the details and stories behind the great exhibitions are brought together in this fascinating read.

Victorian Factory Life explores the lives of the men, women and children who toiled in the factories of Victorian Britain, manufacturing everything from hats, cloth and dinner-plates to beer and locomotives. It was a grim and often perilous existence of long hours, of meager pay and of exhausting labour and one into which many children were plunged at a young age. Generously illustrated with old photographs, artwork and pieces of ephemera, this book is a powerful evocation of the social iniquities that enabled the prodigious growth of British industry, a historical account of the great injustices with which many are familiar only through the works of Charles Dickens.