Did you know that odd items of bone china such as cups and saucers would take pride of place in homes of local mining families.

In the miner’s cottage in Radstock Museum, there are some beautiful bone china cups and saucers on the shelves beside the range.

These lovely items took pride of place within the homes of miners’ families with the miner’s wife showing them off to extended family, friends and neighbours as being a gift from the local “well to do” family.

A museum spokeswoman said: "How did the cups come to be given to a poor mining family?

"Well mining families would often have many children, the boys would usually follow their fathers down the mines from five-years-old in early Victorian times.

"Young girls would help their mothers in the home with laundry, cleaning, cooking and nursing any infants. The older girls would usually go into domestic service as maids to wealthier families, some of whom owned grand houses with land. Domestic service of all kinds was the single largest employer of women at this time (40 per cent of female occupations stated in the census of 1851 in provincial cities and 50 per cent in London).

"The lady of a wealthy household would have bone china tea and dinner services, over time, items would become chipped or broken.

"The lady of the house would have the entire service replaced and would allow odd cups, saucers or other items from the damaged sets to be given to her domestic servants as gifts. These items would be very precious to the families who now owned them. The miner’s wife would be able to boast that her piece of bone china had been given as a gift to her daughter from the local Lord and Lady in the grand house.

"And so these lovely items, which were especially placed on a shelf by the fire, have a story behind them."

You can find out more stories behind the objects at Radstock Museum.
Annual tickets cost £6 adults, £5 concessions, £2.50 children, £13 family, (2 adults and up to 3 children) for more information visit www.radstockmuseum.co.uk .