The garden acts as a waiting room for timed-ticket visits to the Apprentice House, and is also used as part of the living history days laid on for visiting schools. On these days, members of staff take on the roles of the superintendent and his wife, and children sample the apprentice's domestic life, including the basic food and education. They also work in the garden, either in the main plots or in the apprentice's own plots. These plots were mentioned in inspectors' reports as being available for boys (gardening wasn't girls' work then) to grow what they liked, although in between mill-work, Apprentice House chores, school and church, it's difficult to imagine when they could have tended their own plots.