This 19th-century cross of Saxon design marks what is traditionally thought to have been the site of St Augustine's landing on the shores of England in AD 597. Accompanied by 30 followers, Augustine is said to have held a mass here before moving on.
History
History
History tells stories about people, places and things to help explain to young people of any age why the world is as it is as they grow up and begin to question it.
Schools will choose different periods and settings and topics to cove during different Key Stages, but all of them are pretty well guaranteed to be rooted in actual places that can be visited, explored and enjoyed.
It has been a curious fact that for many years primary classes have studied the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, while secondary school syllabuses have been more engaged in post-medieval periods. For a while secondary courses involved a great deal of ‘topic work’. While this discipline still exists, the recent examination syllabuses have returned to an emphasis on historical periods and links.
But all periods and topics provide fantastic opportunities for school visits. We are so lucky that so many general and specialist museums and visitor centres exist in the UK. The problem is not a shortage of possibilities but how one sifts through the available opportunities to make choices.
The Historical Association website carries information about course, conferences, study tours, and the Association has published ‘The Historian’ magazine for many years. Handsam is also happy to help, please contact us on 03332 070737 or email [email protected].
Most venues will have teaching materials and activities geared to students’ different ages and aptitudes whether at primary or secondary level. All of them will set out to develop students’ ability to understand, analyse and evaluate key features and characteristics of historical periods and events studied.
Some venues will be easy to identify because they fit neatly with the period and topic being studied but others may offer new possibilities, not least to the teachers themselves. Teachers need and deserve their own stimulation.
Over the next four years there will be an upsurge in visits to the First World War battlefields. Because of this there will be an increase in companies offering visits and requirement for battlefield guides, especially in northern France and Belgium. There are bound to be discrepancies in guides’ knowledge and experience. Close research into the credentials of the company you are contracting with, and the company’s guarantees about guides, will ensure that your group will not be disappointed.
Main organisations:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Inclusion: NASEN
Thought of visiting?
Roman Vindolanda and Roman Army Museum at Hadrian’s Wall
Viriconium, Wroxeter, Shropshire
The Jorvik Viking Centre, York
Offa’s Dyke Trail and Chirk Castle
The National Trust for Scotland
Clan Donald Visitor Centre, Isle of Skye
Bosworth Battlefield Visitor Centre
Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin
Exeter Cathedral Education Centre
The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth
East Anglia Railway Museum, Colchester
The National Tramway Museum, Matlock
Venues for this Curriculum
The extensive remains of one of the wealthiest and most powerful Benedictine monasteries in England, shrine of St Edmund.
They include the complete 14th century Great Gate and Norman Tower, and the impressive ruins and altered west front of the immense church.
This pinnacled gatehouse, elaborately decorated in East Anglian 'flushwork', is the sole survivor of the wealthy Benedictine abbey of St John. It was built c.1400 to strengthen the abbey's defences following the Peasants' Revolt. Later part of the mansion of the Royalist Lucas family, the gatehouse was bombarded and stormed by Parliamentarian soldiers during the Civil War siege.
A modest but complete and attractive 14th century chantry chapel, perhaps originally a hospital.
The modest flint and cobble chapel retains some attractive medieval features and, despite uncertainties over its origin, the rarity of medieval hospitals lends added interest.
The impressive remains of an abbey founded by Stephen, later King of England, including much of the east end and west tower of the church, the ornately decorated chapter house and the cloister buildings.
Easby Abbey is one of the most picturesque monastic sites in Yorkshire. It is also one of the best-preserved examples in the British Isles of a monastery belonging to the Premonstratensian order, founded in France by St Norbert in 1120.
The delightful village of Castle Acre boasts an extraordinary wealth of history and is a very rare and complete survival of a Norman planned settlement, including a castle, town, parish church and associated monastery. All this is the work of a great Norman baronial family, the Warennes, mainly during the 11th and 12th centuries.
Substantial remains of an early Tudor friary church of Franciscan 'grey friars'.
The Grey Friars, or Franciscans, were followers of St Francis of Assisi and founded many religious houses across Europe.
They earned their name from the grey habits that were worn as a symbol of their vow of poverty.
Thornton Abbey's enormous and ornate fortified gatehouse is the largest and amongst the finest in England. This North Lincolnshire tourist attraction is the ideal way to spend a day.
Victorian writers' shrine in Chelsea
Hidden in the quiet back streets of Chelsea is the home of Thomas and Jane Carlyle.
A twist of fate turned Carlyle into a star of the 19th-century literary world. Suddenly this was the place to be.
When you pull the bell to enter you will follow in the footsteps of Dickens, Ruskin, Tennyson and many more.
The museum and art gallery at the birthplace of artist Thomas Gainsborough in Sudbury.
"Something for everyone of all ages" is the motto of Sidmouth Museum through its interpretation of Natural History and the Jurassic Coast.
See Scottish literature come to life in this 18th-century thatched cottage in the heart of Kirkoswald, Ayr. The former home of cobbler – or souter – John Davidson, the real-life Souter Johnnie immortalised in the Robert Burns poem Tam o’ Shanter, it features a thatched tavern in the garden, complete with life-sized sandstone statues of the poem’s main characters.
Castle Donington Museum Trust was founded in 1994 to provide and maintain a Local History Museum, reflecting the long and interesting history of this community overlooking the River Trent, which brought, in their turn, Saxons, Romans, Vikings and Normans to the heart of England.
The most complete surviving Cistercian monastery in southern England, with almost all the walls of its 13th-century church still standing, along with many monastic buildings. After the Dissolution, the buildings were converted into the mansion house of Sir William Paulet.
Atmospheric Victorian home designed by Thomas Hardy
Max Gate, an austere but sophisticated town house a short walk from the town centre of Dorchester, was the home of Dorset's most famous author and poet Thomas Hardy. Hardy, who designed the house in 1885, wanted to show that he was part of the wealthy middle classes of the area, to reflect his position as a successful writer, and to enable him to enter polite society.
A small museum packed with fascinating information, and full of fun things to do and see. Dress up as a monk, build a castle, see an observation beehive and more. Free audio guide available.
School and Group Visits
Access our catalogues to search the collections available at the Archive and Archaeology Service.
The world's most famous address and the official home of Sherlock Holmes!
Step back in time, and when you visit London, remember to visit The World's Most Famous Address - 221b Baker Street - the Official Home of Sherlock Holmes!
Download our FREE Sherlock Holmes's London Walking Tour HERE.
This award winning museum is situated right in the heart of the historic town of Stratford upon Avon within a Grade 2* listed historic building.
Working watermill and workshops
This working mill next to the Morden Stream is an atmospheric reminder of the recent past when corn was ground here for the local community. It’s believed that mills have worked in the Tamar valley since medieval times and this watermill dates back to the 19th century. The buildings surrounding the mill were used as stables, cowsheds, a hayloft and a ‘cherry house’ for storing cherries.
Evocative cob and thatch cottage - birthplace of Thomas Hardy
Few authors have such strong associations with the natural and cultural heritage of their local area as Thomas Hardy. This cottage, where Hardy was born in 1840, was built of cob and thatch by his grandfather and has been little altered since the family left.
The best-preserved remains of a Cistercian abbey west cloister range in England, dating mainly from around 1170. Incorporated into part of a 17th century and later mansion, set in Rufford Country Park.
Explore the landscape and childhood home of famed local author Thomas Hardy.
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