Our Devonport Museum experience
After a power walk from the library we were greeted by Alistair and Gail at the Devonport Museum, on Mt Cambria. We soon realised that the museum was all about Devonport history.
“That was the best museum I’ve been in because there were interesting things from Devonport to look at,” said Alana.
There were some old house displays. The interesting details to them were the windows, the chimney, the doors and also the materials they were made from. Did you know that most villas in Devonport were made from wood?
We saw a model of an old cottage and a model of a villa. There was even a photgraph of the oldest cottage in Devonport.
We also learnt that a long
time ago there were different computers. In the museum we saw a completely different computer. We learnt how early settlers of Devonport typed their stories and letters. Now we use computers but they typed with old-fashioned ink type writers. They didn’t have screens but they had a typing section with paper at the top.
During the Victorian times they did not have video games so families played the piano, recited poetry and played games.
Inside, there was an old piano. Maia thought the piano had a nice sound.
Jaylan said, “I enjoyed playing the piano because I like playing with my fingers.” We can now imagine what it would be like to be a child in the Victorian times.
We learnt that, although children in the 1800’s did lots of chores, they also played with toys.
“My favourite thing inside the museum was the washing machine because you wash the clothes by hand,” said Zara.
They had to crank the handle and when they turned it, the mangle would turn around and then all the water from the clothes would run down into a tub.
Do you think Zara’s mum would like to do her washing this way?
At the museum our favourite activity was playing with the outside toys. The toys were made out of iron or wood because they hadn’t invented plastic yet. There were amazing games like tenpin bowling.
Some of us really enjoyed the stilts because they were hard to use and you had to learn to balance, while other children enjoyed games like crochet and stick bowling. It was like we went back in time to the olden days.
Perry said, “Some of the toys I liked better than my toys.”
As we walked slowly down Church Street and May Street looking at heritage homes we noticed that lots of the houses had two chimneys. All the houses were different because we saw that none of the houses were exactly the same. Robert even noticed that one house was half villa and half bungalow because it looked like a bungalow but it had sash windows like a villa and it had 2 stories like some villas that we saw.
Isaac was fascinated by the house where a lady, who lived in it about a hundred years ago, lived on raw eggs. Can you imagine that?
The is the oldest house in May Street.
If you visit Devonport you would be fascinated in the history like we were.