On a lovely sunny day we headed into town to see what evidence we could find of Victorian Lerwick.  We walked around Clickimin Loch and we stopped a couple of times.  We looked at the broch and compared it to a photo Mrs Nicholson had shown us with very few houses in the background.  Hayfield House could be seen in the old photo with no houses around it.  We stopped at Hayfield House and considered how much the surrounding area had changed since the old photo.

We stopped at the Gilbertson Park and looked at another photo that showed the opening ceremony.  We spoke about how Burgh Road used to be the edge of the new town.

 

At the flower park we spoke about how Islesburgh and the Town Hall were designed by John Aitken.  We looked closely at the style of both and we could see turrets on both.  They are quite similar.

 

Next we stopped at the Town Hall.  Mrs Nicholson told us about a bottle of coins and a document that was buried under the foundation stone.  We found out that the Town Hall was built facing out to the new town.

 

At the fort we looked over the wall and could see so many huge chimneys.  We had our snack there.

 

On the street we saw more evidence of life from the Victorian times.  We saw glass panels outside Harrys that used to let the light down into the cellars.  We saw a bulge on one wall that stopped horses and carts hitting the walls.  We looked for dates on the front of buildings.  We looked for turrets.  We noticed the buildings were made of stone. Katie and Eve were great at talking photos as we went and recording the evidence.

 

Pupil Voice

“Most of the buildings on the street are from Victorian times and are still there.”

“We saw a lot of turrets and chimneys.”

“A lot of the buildings from Victorian times are still there.”

“It was good having photos to compare.”