Summer holiday idea: Take children to visit Yorkshire's Victorian underworlds of Oliver Twist workhouse and prison

Ripon Museums, which incorporates the city’s former workhouse, courthouse and police and prison cells, are running a summer trail connecting nature with history.

Visitors to the Museums are able to follow activities themed around herbs grown in the working Victorian kitchen garden at the workhouse, including making sage tea and solving a crime with herb-based evidence.

Along the way, they will be able to dress up, meet actors re-enacting some of the city’s most nefarious court cases, and learn about the cornerstones of the Victorian welfare state.

Alexa Vernon, the new director of museums, explained: “I think what’s really interesting is there are individuals who were put in the cells, tried at the courthouse and then went to the workhouse. We’re really talking about people who were on the edges of Victorian society, judged, housed and then punished.

“You get to walk in the footsteps of inmates as you tread the floor in these unique heritage buildings.”

Those inmates included the Sinkler brothers of Pateley Bridge. Elijah and John Sinkler were arrested in 1831 for the assault of a gamekeeper, but during the affray John stabbed the Sergeant at Mace for Ripon in the neck.

The brothers went on the run but were caught up a decade later, where John was found guilty of attempted murder and transported to Tasmania.

But his return to Yorkshire ten years later did not mean the turning of a new leaf, and he was was tried again for trespassing in pursuit of game, ending with his imprisonment with hard labour.

Ms Vernon explained that for some, coming to the workhouse meant salvation as well as despair. “There's no doubt, really, that workhouses were a place of last resort. It was austere

"But at the same time, it's also a nuanced picture. It was better than being homeless. The children got an education.”

Children visiting the workhouse today can enjoy a very different sort of education, said Ms Vernon, although they are still encouraged to consider those big social justice questions as well as enjoying the fun of dressing up.

“When children arrive here, they are shocked, particularly to hear that they would be separated from their parents and the family unit. It sparks conversations around fairness, poverty, and punishment.”

The Museums are also constantly recruiting for new volunteers to bring the past alive to visitors. Anyone interested should visit riponmuseums.co.uk