SCORES of people have discovered just what the food was like in a Victorian-era workhouse, as part of an art installation project illustrating the past meeting the present.

Contemporary artist Pippa Hale used Ripon’s Workhouse Museum as the setting for a film featuring the preparation, cooking and eating a typical 1860s workhouse meal.

Her work, Consumption, will be screened in the original Workhouse Dining Hall when it opens to visitors from July 19.

The action took place in the original kitchen and dining hall, part of the newly-acquired block which will more than double the size of the museum, where a workhouse was established in 1776, which remains one of the best preserved poorhouse sites in England.

“A real highlight for me of creating Consumption has been to gain a sense of what life was like here for people in the past,” said Ms Hale.

“One of the main challenges of creating this piece was working with such a large group of people, 54 in total, whilst trying to keep it natural.”

She added: “I remember visiting the museum for the first time and being overwhelmed by the hardship faced by the poor who were interred here - the mindless work and long hours, the paltry food portions, the splitting up of families.

“I hope I’ve achieved what I set out to do. The inmates would have eaten in this dining hall every day. By creating this experience within the same space and also by screening Consumption in here, the past really will meet the present.”

Historians have found workhouse meals were often kept as boring and tasteless as possible.

Ms Hale's research helped ensure an accurate representation of a Victorian pauper’s meal in 1861, with ingredients, recipes and preparation techniques as well as etiquette and seating plans all drawn from historic sources.

Cook Gaynor Eden created the meat pie from a Victorian recipe, with beef “stickings” supplied by the same family of Ripon butchers who originally supplied the workhouse and topped with pastry made with dripping.

She said: “I researched the meat pie previously and was surprised that it didn’t taste that bad, despite the fact that it had no additional flavouring and the meat wasn’t browned.

“It must have been hard for people to work manually day in day out on this diet

Consumption will be available for visitors to see in the original dining hall when the new block opens to the public from July 19.

For more information, visit riponmuseums.co.uk or call 01765-690799.