Comments from the schoolchildren on their visits to our barge:-

What I liked

The inside because it looked bigger than the outside.

The model because it worked with water

The model of the lock

The friends of NHB were funny and kind

How to work the locks and using the model

Dressing up and doing a play

Seeing pictures of the olden days

Role play, acting out stories

Everything

The living area

Using coins to represent cargo

Being in the bedroom

The authenticity

The suitcase being used to hold the model

Filling in a visitor’s book

What I learned

How a pulley can be used to lift a heavy weight

What it is like to live on a barge

The layout of the living quarters

How much cargo the barge could hold

Salt water makes things float

How the barge sunk when full with cargo

Horses, Shetland ponies  were used to pull barges

People lived on barges

Barges carried cargo

Two families lived on the barge with one family per room

Up to 12 people had a bedroom

A small family is better on a barge than a large family

Cargo could be coal or wheat

Overloading with cargo can sink a barge (53 1p coins sank the model)

Children worked on barges

Bolts in metal is part of the barge construction

The history of the barge

There were bed upboards

The barge did not have engines

How to tie a knot

People slept in the cupboards

Clothing of the time

What I would change

Would like to experience the boat moving

To have the toilet being able to flush (fix the toilet)

To be warmer

Less steep steps

Change small rooms into big ones, I would not like to share a room with my brother

The colour and make the barge bigger so more people can fit inside

More activities needed (there were only 2)

To make it more homely to show what would have been in the rooms

To go on the deck