I don’t think that’s always true. If you visit the Welsh National Museum at St Fagans or the similar one at Beamish in the North East, it certainly reflects and illustrates life across a wide breadth of society. Even many stately home visits these days turn a spotlight on the lives of the domestic staff , gardeners and the like.

History is walking around the many preserved poor houses, the jails, walking the streets of Victorian London, going to see a trades Union museum, or an industrial museum, visiting the museums – of which there are many – that focus on everyday life. We are almost literally awash with the history of the every day people. You don’t even have to search for it – it’s all out there!

A visit to the 17th century village in Gosport gives a view of life for the poor. Well worth a visit.

I’d recommend the workhouse at Southwell in Nottinghamshire. Gives a chilling insight into the treatment of the poor in the past.
I found it almost overwhelmingly moving.
But I know what you mean about the big houses though.

the Black Country Living Museum near Dudley shows how the ordinary folk lived , it’s a real eye-opener 😀

All of the above, Jorvik in York – they even replicate the stench for you. Pompeii, all the Roman ruins on Hadrian’s wall, Ephesus in Turkey, hutongs in Beijing. Big houses and buildings are obviously the most visible, but they aren’t any where near representative of everything that’s there. There’s a lot more about than what is easy to see just in front of you.

Beamish in the NE is similar to The Black Country Museum. You can go down a real coal mine part of the way and there are several ‘villages’. I’d agree with Gary K there’s far more than is generally known.

You’ll be pleased to know that historians have become very interested in the lives of ordinary people and use a myriad of documents and pictures to do their research. It’s more difficult the further you go back but pictures of agricultural workers etc. do exist.

I thought of Beamish too or the workhouse museum in Ripon Yorkshire. Also Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, which is just round the corner from me tells the story of life here from the 1700s, although I am not sure it’s re opened yet.

The ghost walks in Edinburgh tell the story of the city centre and its inhabitants.
The Jack the Ripper walks in London details the shocking housing conditions of a number of his victims.

Have you seen the Vile Victorians group on Facebook? They are historical reenactors specialising in the Victorian poor.