When considering either ‘changes within living memory’ for Key Stage 1 or ‘an aspect or theme to develop children’s chronological understanding post 1066’ for Key Stage 2 it is important to focus on a clear observable change. This enables children to draw effective comparisons with their own experiences. Washday, bread making or shopping provide a range of different processes to examine. Another rich seam for exploration is vanished industries. What can be even more exciting is to investigate these lost lives through personal testimony. So much has changed in Britain within living memory, allowing children to become researchers and recorders of modern oral history.

This article focuses on one of those lifestyles that no longer exist, that have disappeared so completely that it is hard to imagine that they ever took place. All around the country we can identify rural and urban heritage that shaped places and people but that has now disappeared. Exploring the near past of your own place may well change your view of what your place was...