Well off men wore knee length frock coats in silk or velvet, silk waistcoats and shirts with stiffly starched high collars. Underneath they wore vests and long underpants made from woollen cloth. They wore a top hat or perhaps a newly fashionable bowler hat and carried a cane or walking stick. Beards and side-whiskers were also fashionable.
Children in wealthy families wore very formal clothes. Girls wore dresses which were as fancy as the grown ups but slightly shorter. Boys wore dresses until they were about five or six and then were dressed in sailor suits or velvet suits with lace collars and cuffs.
Until Isaac Singer invented the sewing machine in 1851 all clothes were made by hand. Seamstresses worked long hours for low wages, stitching clothes for wealthy people.
In the Victorian period work inside and outside the home took up much more time than it does today and working people had far less leisure time. There was little money to spare and no radio, television, CDs, cinemas or sports centres. People, however, found all sorts of ways of enjoying what free time they had.
In most large towns there were theatres and music halls, which were popular and cheap. Men played or went to watch rugby, football, or cricket. The first football FA Cup final was played in 1871. Cycling was also popular; the Ordinary, or 'Penny Farthing' as we know it was invented in 1870.
People enjoyed listening to music. Many people learnt to play an instrument and held singsongs around the piano. There were newspapers, racing papers, magazines and comics to read.
The Bank Holiday Act in 1871 made certain days throughout the year official holidays. People went to fairs, parks and gardens, or on a daytrip to the country or seaside.
For better-off people there were holidays by train to the seaside and towns such as Blackpool, Southend, Brighton and Ilfracombe in Devon grew into popular holiday resorts.
The coming of the railways changed the lives of everyone in Britain. By 1852 all the main rail routes in Britain had been built. Passengers and goods could now be taken quickly and easily to all parts of the country. Train travel was also much cheaper than other forms of transport.
In towns people travelled in horse-drawn buses. In the country horse-drawn wagons were used for carrying people as well as goods and animals. Wealthy people had their own horse and carriage.
In 1865 the very first petrol driven "horseless carriage" appeared. These were made by hand and only the very wealthy could afford to buy them and were rarely seen until the 1880s and 1890s.
In 1885 the 'safety bicycle', with wheels of equal size, was introduced. It was the cheapest way to travel and anyone who could afford a bike cycled out to the country on Saturdays and holidays.
Like many things in Victorian times keeping clean was hard work. Working people who lived in the country probably had to fetch their drinking water from the village pump and collect rain water (for washing) in a water butt.
Water was piped into towns and each of the factory houses in Tiverton (built by John Heathcoat and his descendants) had its own water supply with a cold water tap in their kitchen. "Privies" (non-flush toilets) were outside in the yard.
Wealthier people would have had a bathroom in their house, but plumbing did not arrive until the 1880s.
