For Victorians fallen on hard times, the workhouse was often the only chance of survival. Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse is based in a former workhouse, originally opened in 1777 as a ‘House of Industry’. So was the regimented life here as harsh as Oliver Twist might lead you to imagine or was the strict regime a small price to pay for food and shelter? Visit this evocative museum to find out.

At Gressenhall you come face to face with projections of staff and inmates, and listen to the first-hand stories of real people like Harriet Kettle and Christopher High who once walked these whitewashed corridors. This is the largest workhouse collection in the country and testimonies, many heart-breaking, others inspirational, bring it movingly to life. You’ll gain a vivid insight into the workhouse community, where some inmates were more equal than others. For example unmarried mothers were marked out as ‘jacket women’, forced to wear a distinctive jacket as a sign of their disgrace.

Learn about the work done by inmates and visit the refractory cell (known as ‘the dungeon’) where rule-breakers were sent. See the laundry, chapel and children’s school room and search for names scratched into the yard walls. Were they a sign of defiance, boredom or the profound human impulse to state ‘I exist’.

Gressenhall is set in 50 across of beautiful countryside, so make a day of it and explore the farm, complete with shire horses and a fascinating heritage cottage.