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In 1888 people were asked what they thought England would be like in 100 years - their predictions were both hilarious and scarily accurate

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What were you doing in 1988?

If you were like this writer, you were only a one-year-old and didn't have the foggiest what was going on.

If you were slightly older, you may have enjoyed the music of Rick Astley, Steve Winwood and Salt N Pepa, and maybe made a trip to the cinema to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Die Hard and Beaches starring Bette Midler.

It's likely that you might have used a lot of hairspray and clambered to buy a pair of Nikes after they launched their now iconic 'Just Do It' slogan.

Back in 1888, nobody would have been able to predict that any of those things would happen, but it didn't stop them having some ideas about what the future would be like in 100 years time.

An unearthed article by Dr Bob Nicholson from Answers magazine saw readers offer their thoughts to the following question.

What England will be like a hundred years hence?

As you can imagine, those Victorians had some pretty incredible ideas about what the future might be like, so join us now for a trip back 130 years in time to see what they thought England would be like 30 years ago.

No gas, vehicles and homes made of paper, magneto-petrolo fires and intellectual, self-acting pyro-aqua vengeance bombs.

An eerie prediction of Brexit.

Lazy people being replaced by robots.

'The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.'

A 'mysterious island city' containing large gardens where heat is drawn from the clouds.

This clever clogs laid on the sarcasm.

The House of Lords abolished, a female parliament and three Channel Tunnels.

More paper houses.

Flights to Australia... by balloon?

The postal service would be 'phonographic'?

This suggestion apparently won the competition.

Here are a few other examples of what Victorians thought the world would be like in the future that Dr Nicholson found.

HT The Poke

More: This Rik Mayall sketch from the 80s is an eerie prediction of Brexit campaigners

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