Gruel and graft: museum asks if you could survive a Victorian workhouse

Revamped Ripon attraction reopens as a more immersive experience telling ‘national story’ of poverty and welfare

Visitors to one of Britain’s most complete surviving Victorian workhouses won’t have to strip and bathe in someone else’s bath water. But they might get some gruel, they can sweep the yard and there are “schoolmaster” volunteers happy to tell children how to behave.

“You are literally going to walk in the footsteps of people who have experienced this place,” said the director of the Ripon Museums Trust, Alexa Vernon.