1970: VICTORIAN TEENAGERS reminisce | Yesterday's Witness | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

What was it like to be a teenager in the Victorian era? Two women, now in their 90's, talk about their younger days in the 1890s. Frances 'Effy' Jones - one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter, and to take up cycling as a hobby - recalls the life of a young working woman in London. Berta Ruck, a romantic novelist, remembers her formative years at art school, and the culture shock she experienced after moving from her secluded home in rural Wales to the muddy hustle and bustle in the heart of Victorian London.

Together they provide a fascinating oral history of 1890s England.

This clip is from Yesterday's Witness: Two Victorian Girls, originally broadcast 8 June, 1970.

You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.

[b]

I can remember Victorian ladies as a child. I was born in the 1970s and thought nothing of these old ladies who were my neighbours. Now I'm almost 50 years old and it was a privilege to know these women and men. For the younger people reading this.. spend time talking to your elderly neighbours. They were young once...

[ILoveJesusMySavior]

Who else feels like a child, sitting cross-legged on the rug listening to grandma? What a lovely feeling.

[faeriefire]

It's amazing to think of all the rapid change they saw through their lifespan. From Victorian era to cars, the jazz age, electricity, two world wars, airplanes, radio, movies, tv, moon landings, hippies, rock 'n roll -- it's mind blowing really!

[jimjiminy]

“Where there wasn’t mud, there was fog, and in between were us enjoying ourselves”

[philliphamilton]

I remember as a child in 1955 being taken to see my Gt. Gt Grandmother, who was celebrating her 100th birthday. Born 1855. I have never forgotten it.

[Liofa]

I wished they had talked to more people throughout the early 20th century about life in the 1800s. It's fascinating. Voices from the past.

[wamininja]

The ladies singing and adding the hic ups of the drunk men stumbling out of their pubs really made my day

[SarahlabyrinthLHC]

I had an aunt who was alive in the 1890's. She used to tell stories of playing tennis on a grass court, wearing ankle length skirts and huge hats. And cycling for hours to visit friends and stay the night and have dancing until almost dawn. She was engaged to a young man in WWI but he didn't survive the war. She never did marry. She lived with a couple of her sisters and brothers on the farm. She described how every week she would boil up the copper to do the laundry in the little shed just across from the kitchen and she would bake 12 loaves of bread once a week to feed the family. They had an icebox to keep the meat and milk cool.
They purchased the second car to be had in the district. Before then, it was travelling by horse and buggy and if the road was very winding she would get out and walk because she would get "Buggy sick"! Another of her sisters was engaged to a young man but her father made her break off the engagement as he said the young man was not suitable to marry his daughter.
My grandmother as a Victorian, grew her hair long and never cut it, it was long enough for her to sit on (she wore it bunned, of course). My father told me how as a little boy he would sit on her bed and watching her comb her long hair, he found it beautiful.
I never met my grandmother, she died before I was born, but I decided to see if my hair would grow as long as hers and now my hair is calf length (and I also wear it bunned). It's a little like a tribute to her....

[stuartylad]

These are great! I had a drinking buddy when I was in my early 20s who was born in 1899. He died at just a few weeks shy of 106 in his own home, fit, smoking and drinking and living independently 'til the end. He told me once that his own grandfather remembered being a lad and making his way to London to celebrate the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837. I'm still blown away to think that between that event there's only one person between the witness ro the occasion and me.

[KaylaNoelle]

Wonderful how even a Victorian father saw his daughter's talent and knew that she had to be an artist to be happy. The furthest back in history I really ever had access to was from my great grandmother who was a tween and teen in the roaring 20's she remembered a bit of the Edwardian era and she'd pinch the leg of my jeans and say "Thank GOODNESS for rational dress!" wiping mud off your skirt for hours does sound like a nightmare.

[SpiritmanProductions]

What a wonderful line: (paraphrased) "London was full of mud. And where there wasn't mud, there was fog."

[HappyBirdsGlitterNest]

My Grandfather was born in England, in the 1890's. One day, he told me that neither man nor woman would have dared to ask a pregnant woman "How far along are you?" He said you would have been asking for a slap in the face. I asked him why and he said that was the same thing as asking "When did you have sex?" Very interesting!

[womanonabicycle]

'Indolent, feckless gal'
☺ I love it. So authentic.

[Lilimmortem]

The second lady - Berta Ruck - was an author of romance novels such as ‘His Official Fiancée’ (1918), and was married to another author who wrote under the name Oliver Onions who wrote ghost stories! He died in 1961, and she died in 1978.

Love hearing both their stories, especially Effy’s story about being arrested for cycling and the magistrate being so old he was confused as to whether they were riding horses or bicycles!

[paulasimson]

My grandmother was born in 1888 in east London, a true cockney. I loved hearing her stories. She came to Canada on a warship with 2 children during WW1. She claimed the sailors chased her around the ship. She passed away in 1987 at the age of 99, making a pot of jam, still living in her own apartment. Nanny went from having gaslight lighting up the streets, to seeing men walk on the moon. Truly incredible. She was a real character, nothing uptight and Victorian about her. We have this image of women of this era being prissy and prudish, but they were anything but.

[senpaiskidz]

"Sometimes I don't think any of us know", such a juxtaposition of humanity against the rigid nature of life in 1800s England. I don't know why this particular thing hit me so hard.

[vickyalberts]

I love that Berta still has a Victorian hairstyle. People often keep the same style they had in their prime.

[jaymac]

It's sobering to think that we'll never have another first hand interview with anyone from those times.

[DasTubemeister]

I shook hands with a woman aged 103 in 1985. She remembered seeing Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee procession in 1897. She lived long enough to see Prince Harry being born, Live Aid, Space Shuttles and early mobile phones.

[lepotatoes]

I’m Native American, and the stories my grandmother would tell… magical, tragic, compelling. Miss her so much and wish I asked more questions.