Shropshire Routes to Roots

7. Resources for teachers

National Curriculum

The Trade directories collection provides resources to support teaching of Key Stage 2, Unit 12: 'How did life change in our locality in Victorian times?', Key Stage 2, Unit 18: 'What was it like to live here in the past?' and Key Stage 3, Unit 11: 'Industrial changes action and reaction'.

Key Stage 3 pupils should be able to use the theme online; Key Stage 2 pupils may require more assistance, perhaps through the worksheets and approaches suggested below.

Worksheets for Key Stage Two

The questions beside each image are designed to help an older audience interpret the material. At Key Stage 2, pupils may find these distracting, and may find studying the theme online too challenging. However, the theme can be simplified and used in a classroom through the following worksheets. You will need to print off one trade directory extract for one place in 1850, and a second extract for the same place in 1895:

• 1850 list of trades for Shrewsbury or Oswestry or Drayton or Broseley (Images open in a new window)
• 1895 list of trades for Shrewsbury or Oswestry or Drayton or Broseley (Images open in a new window)

By examining these extracts from the directories, pupils can answer the questions on these worksheets. As with all worksheets on Routes to Roots, these are 'printer-friendly':

• Shopping in 1850 (Opens in a new window). Pupils imagine that they are going shopping in 1850. They must find the people from whom they could have bought different types of produce.
• Shopping in 1895 (Opens in a new window). The first question is identical to the above. Then the worksheet requires pupils to compare the products and people present in 1895 with those available in 1850 and those they might find today.

Worksheets for Key Stage Three

At Key Stage 3, pupils should be able to read and interpret the the theme as it is presented online, using the questions beside each image as basic prompts for what to look for in each source.

At Key Stage 3 you may be looking at the industrial changes more generally, not confined to a single locality. If doing this, you could give each pupil, or a group of pupils, a specific area to examine. Each group or pupil could compile a report or presentation on their chosen area to deliver to the rest of the class. Once a good picture of the industrial changes in Shropshire has emerged, these changes could be projected onto what happened on a national level.

To help with their gathering of information, pupils could complete the following blank tables:

• Shropshire (Opens in a new window). Pupils look at the trade directory entries for Shropshire and record the changes for the county generally, looking at manufacturing, transport and population changes.
• Shrewsbury (Opens in a new window). Pupils look at the trade directory entries for Shrewsbury and record the changes for the parish, looking at trades, transport and topographical changes.
• Oswestry (Opens in a new window). Pupils look at the trade directory entries for Oswestry and record the changes for the parish, looking at trades, transport and topographical changes.
• Drayton (Opens in a new window). Pupils look at the trade directory entries for Drayton and record the changes for the parish, looking at trades, transport and topographical changes.
• Broseley (Opens in a new window). Pupils look at the trade directory entries for Broseley and record the changes for the parish, looking at trades, transport and topographical changes.

Expanding the study

Having learnt about the historical changes in an area, the study could be brought up to date. Pupils could visit the area and record the changes since 1895 or, if you are studying Shrewsbury or Oswestry, try doing the 'virtual tour' in the Changes in people and landscape: A tale of two towns theme. Pupils could also use online resources, such as:

• Modern OS maps, which are also available on the web, especially those for Shrewsbury (SJ508128), Oswestry (SJ300293), Drayton (SJ674341) and Broseley (SJ673016) (Links courtesy of Streetmap.co.uk. Opens in a new window.)
• The website of the Office of National Statistics (opens in a new window), which holds details of the 2001 census.
• Tourism guides such as Virtual Shropshire (Opens in a new window).
• The Yellow Pages (opens in a new window) for lists of modern 'trades' in an area.
• Related themes on this website; use the index of Resources for teachers to find the many themes which relate to Key Stage 2, Unit 12 and to Key Stage 3, Unit 11.

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