VICTORIAN life - both above and below stairs - will be recreated for hundreds of North Yorkshire children thanks to an education grant.

Kiplin Hall, a 17th Century stately home at Scorton, near Richmond, has been awarded £5,000 from the Yorkshire Museums Council's education programme.

The money will provide activity sessions at the hall and a set of Victorian loan boxes for use by primary schools in the area.

The boxes will be filled with items to illustrate how people lived more than 100 years ago. They will include everyday objects, as well as children's books of the day.

Organiser Katherine Carey said: "Schools will borrow the boxes for six to eight weeks, so children can look at and handle the objects and learn something about the Victorians."

Local people would be invited to loan items for the boxes, along with taped reminiscences about a grandparent or other relative who used the objects, and stories about Victorian life.

Teachers from eight primary schools in the area have agreed to work with Kiplin Hall staff to write material for the programme and pilot sessions in their classrooms. Schools involved are Bolton-on-Swale, Brompton, Ingleby Arncliffe, Kirby Fleetham, Middleton Tyas and Richmond, as well as Applegarth and Sacred Heart, in Northallerton.

Once the programme has been evaluated, it will be available to all schools in North Yorkshire and south Durham.