Children will get the chance to learn all about the hardships that were facing kids their age in the Victorian age at a museum club.

Bourne Hall will be welcoming the Ragged Victorian Living History Group to talk about children in the 1850s including beggars, chimney sweeps, those working from dawn to dusk in the fields, and the luckier children of the upper classes.

David Brooks, museum assistant, says: "For the poor Victorian child there was no childhood just hard and dangerous work without any protection services.

"They went down the mines, because they were small and could manoeuvre in tight spaces, up chimneys working in factories and laundry.

"They worked making matches, pottery and scared birds from the fields also as domestic servants.

"Many were forced outside the law as pick pockets and sailed close to the wind as rat catchers and street sellers.

"How would you manage living on the streets, cold, hungry and often ill?"

Those attending will also be able to play with toys from the Victorian period.

Vile Victorian Children, Bourne Hall Museum Kids Club, Spring Street, Ewell; March 7, 1pm to 2.30pm; £5 per child; call 0208 394 1734; email dbrooks@epsom-ewell.gov.uk