On Thursday, our Year 5 pupils travelled back in time on a trip to Cressing Temple Barns in Essex. The day was run by a fantastic History Education team who put together a series of talks and activities which covered aspects of both this year’s medieval life topics and next year’s Tudor topics with strong links to the learning we have done in school. The location itself is quite special, with impressive buildings dating back to the 1100’s made out of oak beams from trees which would have been mature at the time of the Viking invasions! During an arms and armour demonstration, children learned how armour had developed from linked chain mail to riveted mail and on to plate armour as well as how weapons were developed to overcome the protection the armour offered. Children were able to handle replica weapons and armour and even try some of it on which was super fun. This was followed by an archery activity, where our potential Robin Hoods had to try and knock out a medieval knight.

The Tudor garden provided a really interesting learning walk finding out about some of the medicinal properties and every day uses of various herbs and plants which were so important in the lives of people living during the medieval and Tudor periods. The children also took part in a Tudor court, where the local Justice of the Peace heard and passed judgement on a variety of cases. The cases we re-enacted were genuine, involving local people, and all actually took place some 450 years ago in the very room we were sitting in. The other two sessions of the day involved learning about how wool was processed into yarn, dyed spun and woven and another talk focusing on everyday life and food with the opportunity to get ‘hands-on’ with more artefacts from the period. The children were great ambassadors for the school and have hopefully come away with an enriched understanding of the period as well as some fun memories.