Gaythorne Row, a terrace of Victorian back-to-back houses in Great Horton, was earmarked for demolition when, in 1986, Bradford Industrial Museum took possession of the three cottages and transported them, brick by brick, to the museum site four miles away. The houses were built in 1876, a year later than the old worsted spinning mill in which the museum is based. The museum wanted one of the houses to capture, as exactly as possible, life as it was lived by working-class people in Bradford in the 1870s, complete with period furniture and the plumbing and fittings of the time, and had plans for the other two houses to reflect life in the 1940s and 1960s respectively. The end result would be, in effect, a study of a form of housing which, in the words of local historian Kenneth Kenzie, symbolised the working class in Bradford for over a century. The museum, however, realised that such an intensive project would be impossible for existing staff to undertake alongside their other duties. The 1875 Group was formed by volunteers in 2007 to restore and reinterpret a back-to-back house at Bradford Industrial Museum. The project has provided the museum with a wealth of new research material, objects for display and written and audio information for visitors, as well as inspiring a passionate interest among the volunteers. The author found out what motivates a remarkable group of learners.