According to Monty Python’s view of the Romans, they didn’t do an awful lot for anyone – except, of course:
– Aquaducts
– Sanitation
– Roads
– Irrigation
– Medicine
– Education
– Wine
– Public Baths
– Safe to walk in the streets at night
– Keeping order
– Brought Peace

Whilst our School Trip Friday to Hadrian’s Wall and its surrounding forts didn’t let us confirm or disprove all of Monty Python’s suggestions listed above, we were able to consider some.  So here are our final batch of photos from our trip to Hadrian’s Wall which we visited as part of my son’s programme of home education.  And here is our view of What did the Romans ever do for us?

Sanitation and latrines

Housesteads Roman Fort latrines in 2012

The latrines in use by the Roman soldiers.  Wooden boards with holes in them were placed over the gullies.  In the centre were stone water-troughs and sponges for the soldiers to use to clean themselves.  This looks to be very much a communal manly event!

Roman Baths

The bath-house at Chesters Roman Fort

The Romans placed their bath-house well-away from the main fort because it had to have furnaces capable of producing the high temperatures required for the baths, saunas and hot rooms.   Therefore the risk of fire was great and so the bath-house was built separate from the fort.

Chesters’ bath-house is on the river-bank alongside the River Tyne.  Hadrian’s Wall continues to snake through the countryside on the other-side of the river.  There was a Roman bridge across the river, but this was washed away during the Roman times and not rebuilt.

The waiting/relaxing area in the baths.  Statues of various Roman gods and godesses were probably in each of the alcoves.

How many sandalled Roman soldiers walked on this step into the next room whilst relaxing and enjoying their baths?  Although they were naked in the baths, it is very likely that they had wear sandals because of the heat and high temperatures pouring from the floors.

What else did the Romans do for us?
I could show you many more photos from our time at Hadrian’s Wall and the Roman Forts – including all the underfloor heating systems, the large stores built to hold all the grain in the fort, and the Roman town of Corbridge.  However, so I don’t bore you, instead I’ll show you what else we learnt during our trip.  Now, strictly speaking the Romans didn’t do this for us, but during our trip we had a maths lesson and so learnt the complex calculations needed for flying a kite.  Easy-peasy, you may think, but flying a kite is very mathematical with factors such as wind speed, length of the kite’s tail, thickness of the material and weight of the kite.  At the end of our kite-flying session, we wrote a report about our experiences.

Birdoswald Roman Fort – Hadrian’s Wall is the stone-work on the right side of the photo

Flying high!

Our second kite – this one was too small and too light.  This was the highest we got it.

Once we got home, our learning about the Romans continued by making a Roman mosaic.  We cheated and didn’t do it the good old-fashioned Roman way of individually cutting each piece but, instead, bought a kit from Vindolanda’s wonderful gift-shop.

Mosaic half finished.  This is more difficult than it looks!  The tiles were already pre-cut into small squares but then we had to trim them into shape.  Not easy for a child with severe developmental coordination disorder!  Because of the risk of him losing fingers, the task of cutting and shaping the tiles fell to me.  This is still work-in-progress and will hopefully be completed over Christmas.

We also bought a (modern-day) Roman dice game ‘Quinquereme‘ – an ideal introduction into the complexities of calculating with Roman numerals.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our School Trip Friday to Hadrian’s Wall
and here is a photo of your guides,
taken when we were at Housesteads Roman Fort.
Venimus Vidimus Vicimus

All photos are © Essex Voices Past 2012 and
may not be reproduced without permission.

You may also be interested in
– School Trip Friday – Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
– School Trip Friday – Chapel of St Peter’s on the Wall, Bradwell
– School Trip Friday – Imperial War Museum Duxford
– School Trip Friday – Of Cabbages and Kings
– School Trip Friday – Hadrian’s Wall
– School Trip Friday – Messages from England’s Roman Past

Tonight (5th December) and tomorrow (6th December) are times of much celebration for the excited children (and parents!) of many countries within continental Europe. For Saint Nicholas is due to make his arrival and give presents to the children of Europe.  Parts of France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland all celebrate, in different ways, this saint – known as the protector of children.  However, in England, as a consequence of Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the English Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, it is no-longer the modern-day English custom to celebrate Saint Nicholas.  But in the pre-Reformation medieval/early Tudor period, the feast of Saint Nicholas was celebrated in many towns and villages of England (including the North Essex town of Great Dunmow) as part of the Catholic festivities of Yuletide and Christmas.

The stories and legends of St Nicholas made their way into the exquisite and breath-taking illuminated manuscripts of the medieval England.  One such legend is the tale of three children who had wandered away from their homes and got lost.  A wicked butcher lured the children, by now cold and hungry, into his shop where he attacked and murdered them, then pickled them in a large tub.  Fortunately Saint Nicholas saved them and brought them back to life – thus forever taking his place in legends as the protector of children.

For your delight, below is a selection of images of Saint Nicholas, the saviour of pickled children and storm-lashed boats, from the British Library’s Illuminated Manuscripts collection.

Consecration of Nicholas as a bishop of Myra from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia), between 1310 and 1320), shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.317, © British Library Board.

Nicholas stilling a storm and saving a boat from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia), between 1310 and 1320), shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.318, © British Library Board.

Nicholas as a bishop addressing three children in a tub from The Queen Mary Psalter (England (London/Westminster or East Anglia), between 1310 and 1320), shelfmark Royal 2 B VII f.317v, © British Library Board.

Bishop saint Nicholas of Bari resurrecting three murdered children from a pickling vat, at the beginning of the reading for 6 December from The Stowe Breviary (Norwich, England, between 1322 and 1325), shelfmark Stowe 12 f.225, © British Library Board.

Of course, over the centuries the tale of Saint Nicholas has morphed from a saintly bishop in clerical vestments, into the Father Christmas/Santa Claus we know today. And, thanks to a well-known gigantic soft-drinks company, is now a little fat fella with white hair and full beard, resplendent in his red clothes trimmed with white fur.
Nicholas of Bari (or Myra) enthroned and dressed as a bishop, holding a crozier and three golden balls, his hand raised in benediction (Italy, N. (?Lombardy), 2nd half of the 15th century), shelfmark Additional 61734, © British Library Board.

Nicholas of Bari (Italy, N. (?Lombardy), 1st decade of the 16th century), shelfmark Additional 39636 f.49, © British Library Board.

Coca-Cola^® Santa December 1940. Artist Haddon Sundblom had first created this very familiar image of Santa in the 1930s.  Above is “Somebody Knew I Was Coming” and the basis for advertising material during Christmas 1940.  Looking at this image and the ones above, it occurred to me that six hundred years after the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages, Santa’s right hand is still raised in a form of benediction.

A future post, to be published over this Christmas, will retell the
story of Great Dunmow’s 1530s festivities of Saint Nicholas.

Note on the British Library’s copyright
Nearly a year ago, I first started to use on my blog digital images from the British Library’s catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.  As all the images were in copyright, I (quite rightly) had to request permission to use these images.  This permission the British Library very willingly and quickly granted me, as my blog is a non-profit hobby blog. However, just recently the British Library has marked all their images from their catalogue of illuminated manuscripts as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions.  This is fantastic news for both professional and amateur historians alike.  I have gained much pleasure from sharing my ‘finds’ from their catalogue with you.  The decision to remove their copyright will hopefully encourage more people to use some of the most exquisite images in existence, thereby giving us modern sophisticated(?) digital-age folk a fleeting glimpse into the medieval world.

You may also be interested in the following posts
– Christmas in a Tudor town
– Medieval Christmas Stories

I am looking for amateur historians to share their passion for history and contribute guest posts to my blog. I am open to anything as long as it sort-of-fits with the posts already on my blog. If you would like to submit something, here are some (very loose) ideas.  I have put links to my own posts alongside each idea to help you decide if you can contribute:-

• The local history of a village or town within Essex and its Medieval and/or Tudor past
  The pre-Reformation Catholic ritual year

• The Great War and its impact on a town/village/family within Essex
  Memorial Tablet – I died in Hell

• The impact of the Reformation on any town/village in England
  Thomas Bowyer, weaver and martyr of Great Dunmow d.1556

• Witchcraft in early modern England (any county)
  Witches, witchcraft and bewitchment

• Research techniques for being a historian
  Interpreting Primary Sources

• Tudor trades
  Medieval and early Tudor Trades

• An English custom celebrated today which originates from our medieval/Tudor past
  The Dunmow Flitch Trials 2012

Please email me at thenarrator[at]essexvoicespast.com with your ideas/posts.  The pay is lousy (none!) but the reward is sharing your historical knowledge with readers from all over the world.

Last week’s School Trip Friday post told the story of our visit to Hadrian’s Wall – a trip to help my son, who has special educational needs, learn about the Romans.  This week’s School Trip Friday post continues that story and tells of our visits to the multitude of Roman remains which are nearby the Hexham section of the Wall.

This large boulder is by Hadrian’s Wall on the Steel Rigg to Sycamore Gap section.  The boulder has a perfectly smooth Roman-bottom shaped indentation. How many poor frozen Roman soldiers stole a few minutes rest on this stone?

Vindolanda Roman Fort
Vindolanda pre-dates Hadrian’s Wall by  a few years – the first wooden fort was built at Vinolanda in c.85 AD, whereas the Wall was built c.122 AD.  The fort was an auxiliary frontier fort built to guard Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne in the east to the Solway Firth in the west.  It was occupied for some three hundred years and was inhabited by various units of soldiers (known as cohorts).

The view of Vindolanda Roman Fort from the nearby hilltops. The fortification is a modern-day reconstruction of one of Hadrian’s Wall milecastles.

Modern-day memorial to the various cohorts of Roman soldiers who lived, fought and died at Vindolanda between 85AD and 400AD.  The S.P.Q.R. means Senātus Populusque Rōmānus (“The Senate and People of Rome”).

From exploring this fort, my son (and I!) learnt that the soldiers lived in barracks – all built in strict straight lines with typical Roman efficiency.  The site’s archaeologist told us how on one of the excavations, they found under the Roman floor level in one of the barracks , the remains of a female thought to be about 10 years old.  We can only guess at the horrors of why and how her life ended and her body then concealed.

Vindolanda’s modern day reconstructions of a milecastle and fortification from Hadrian’s Wall.  The building on the left is wooden, whilst the one of the right is stone.  Archaeologists are using these reconstructions to help them analyse and understand how environmental factors influenced the longevity and durability of the various structures built in this area during Roman times.

The view from the top of the stone reconstructed fort.  The mid-day sun casting the shadow of the wooden fort across the landscape of Vindolanda. Our visit took place the weekend before all the November storms that have recently lashed across Britain – we were lucky and had bright sunshine with no rain at all during the entire weekend.

Vindolanda and their messages from the past
The museum at Vindolanda is a treasure trove of the Romans’ time on our shores with exhibits of some incredible ‘finds’ dug up from the site. Most remarkable of all are the ‘Vindolanda Tablets’, written nearly two thousand years ago in the years 100-105 AD by the fort’s occupants and found by archaeologists in the 1970s and 1980s.  Written in ink on wafer-thin postcard-sized pieces of alder and birch, these tablets give a remarkable peek into the life of Romans within the fort.   Most of these tablets are now in the British Museum, but some have now been returned home to Vindolanda and are displayed in the site’s museum.

Vindolanda Tablet 291: This is a birthday party invitation from Claudia Severa (wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unnamed fort near Vindolanda) to Sulpicia Lepidina (wife of Flavius Cerialis, commander at Vindolanda).  This letter was written partly by a scribe but also includes part of the message written in Claudia’s own hand.  This is the oldest surviving writing of a Roman woman found in Britain (so far!).

The Roman soldiers and their money
Roman soldiers were handsomely paid for their services.  The money was kept (probably in a large chest) within the underground strong room of the fort.  It is likely that the Roman standards were also kept either in the strong room or nearby.  The Roman Standard was an important symbolic part of the Roman forts and towns – if a Standard was lost, then it would mean certain death for the man who carried it (aquilifer).

Strong-room at Vindolanda fort – by the shape of it, this must have been a fairly large underground room.

Strong-room at Chesters Roman Fort.

Strong-room at Corbridge Roman town.

The stairs down into Corbridge’s strong-room.  The width of each tread is only about half my foot’s length – I felt very sorry for the poor sandalled Roman soldiers who had to make their way up and down these dark stairs!

All photos (except the Vindolanda tablet) are
© Essex Voices Past 2012 and
may not be reproduced without permission.

Links which may interest you
– Roman Vindolanda and Roman Army Museum
– Holiday cottage owned by Vindolanda Trust (we stayed here and highly recommend it)
– Vindolanda Tablets Online

And for educational fun
– What have the Romans ever done for us?  Monty Pythons’ take on the Romans

As my child finds reading very difficult and a chore, these audio books and dvds have been an excellent introduction for him into the world of the Romans.
– Rotten Romans – Horrible Histories
– Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders, Romans
– Roman Myths (BBC Audiobook)
– Hadrian’s Wall: A Journey Back in Time DVD by English Heritage

Postscript
Visiting Hadrian’s Wall along with the remarkable remains of long-gone Romans has brought out the forgotten archaeologist in me.  Many years ago, before I ended up with an office-based career in London, I was a very keen amateur archaeologist and spent many a happy summer digging an Iron Age and Neolithic hill-fort at Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire.  Just maybe I didn’t hang up my trowel all those years ago and the lure of literally digging up our past is returning back to haunt me. Don’t be at all surprised if one School Trip Friday is a report about going on an archaeological dig – mother & small son!

You may also be interested in
– School Trip Friday – Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
– School Trip Friday – Chapel of St Peter’s on the Wall, Bradwell
– School Trip Friday – Imperial War Museum Duxford
– School Trip Friday – Of Cabbages and Kings
– School Trip Friday – Hadrian’s Wall

Genealogist Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers runs a great website for genealogists. He suggests ‘Daily Blogging Prompts’ to help inspire bloggers to write genealogical posts.  In the spirit of one of his prompts, Wedding Wednesday, my post today contains images of English medieval weddings.  These images are all from the British Library’s collection of magnificent illuminated manuscripts. It can be safely assumed that these images are showing the weddings of high-born folk which were probably more for a political/family alliance than for love.

Detail of a miniature of the marriage of Alfour, king of Sicily, and princess Sybil of Spain, from Romance of the Three Kings’ Sons (South England, (probably London), c.1475-c.1485), shelfmark Harley 326 f.9.

A marriage ceremony from Pontifical; Tabula (England, 1st quarter of the 15th century), shelfmark Lansdowne 451 f.230.

Marriage Ceremony from Decretales, with the Glossa ordinaria (England, 1st quarter of the 14th century) shelfmark Royal 10 E IX f.195.

Marriage of Frederick II to Isabella of England from Historia Anglorum, Chronica majora, Part III; Continuation of Chronica maiora (St Albans, England, 1250-1259) shelfmark Royal 14 C VII f.123v.

Marriage of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence from Historia Anglorum, Chronica majora, Part III; Continuation of Chronica maiora (St Albans, England, 1250-1259) shelfmark Royal 14 C VII f.124v.

A marriage ceremony from Speculum humanae salvationis (England, 1st quarter of the 15th century) shelfmark Sloane 3451 f.75v.

Note on the British Library’s copyright
Nearly a year ago, I first started to use on my blog digital images from the British Library’s catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.  As all the images were in copyright, I (quite rightly) had to request permission to use these images.  This permission the British Library very willingly and quickly granted me, as my blog is a non-profit hobby blog. However, just recently the British Library has marked all their images from their catalogue of illuminated manuscripts as being Public Domain Images and therefore free of all copyright restrictions.  This is fantastic news for both professional and amateur historians alike.  I have gained much pleasure from sharing my ‘finds’ from their catalogue with you.  The decision to remove their copyright will hopefully encourage more people to use some of the most exquisite images in existence, thereby giving us modern sophisticated(?) digital-age folk a fleeting glimpse into the medieval world.

You may also be interested in the following posts with images from the British Library’s Medieval Manuscript collections:
– Images of Tudor people
– Wild Animals and Early modern England
– Images of the Devil in the Medieval/early-modern period
– Images of medieval cats
– Images of medieval cats – part 2
– Images of medieval dogs
– The Medieval Spinsters
– The sinful hermit
– The Snail and the Knight
– Jousting snails

My post The Snail and the Knight showed some fearsome medieval snails in various poses. Here, for your delight, are some more snails jousting and fighting their way through history.

All images are from Decretals of Gregory IX with glossa ordinaria (the ‘Smithfield Decretals’) (France, S. (Toulouse?), Last quarter of the 13th century or 1st quarter of the 14th century).

A hybrid snail being ridden by hare, who is jousting a dog riding a hare,
shelfmark Royal 10 E IV f. 294

Man and snail, shelfmark Royal 10 E IV f.45

Man and snail, shelfmark Royal 10 E IV f.46v

Man & large snail, shelfmark Royal 10 E IV f.107

Two birds attacking a snail, shelfmark Royal 10 E IV f.112v

You may also be interested in the following posts with images from the British Library’s Medieval Manuscript collections:
– Images of Tudor people
– Wild Animals and Early modern England
– Images of the Devil in the Medieval/early-modern period
– Images of medieval cats
– Images of medieval cats – part 2
– Images of medieval dogs
– The Medieval Spinsters
– The sinful hermit
– The Snail and the Knight

Notes
All digital images from the British Library’s Online Images archive appear by courtesy of the British Library Board and may not be reproduced © British Library Board.

In a previous School Trip Friday post, I have told the story of how it came about that I am currently home educating my 8 year old son and on a Friday we spend the day searching out our country’s wonderful rich history and geography.  Now we have a few School Trip Fridays under our belt, it was time to adventure a bit further a field.

This School Trip Friday took place last week and turned out to be a School Trip Long Weekend – from Friday to Monday.  We headed out through Great Dunmow and the flat Essex countryside into the Cambridgeshire Fens and then onwards and upwards to the stunning rugged beauty of Northumbria.  Our destination was the iconic stone barrier running between the Solway in the west and the Tyne in the east – now known as Hadrian’s Wall.  Built by the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, in the second century AD, the wall was not so much to keep out the Picts (as is the common myth) but more as a symbol to show that the Romans were here and here to stay.

We saw so much, did so much, and investigated so much that this particular School Trip Friday will have to be split into several posts.  This first post is of a small part of Hadrian’s Wall near Steal Rigg.

Come join us for our School Trip Friday to Hadrian’s Wall.

Map of Hadrians Wall and Antonine Wall (Matthew Paris c1250)

The rugged landscape of Hadrian’s Wall running alongside Crag Lough.

Contemplating the fact that we were down the bottom and had to be up there.  Also time to explore how echoes work and how loud you have to shout to produce a magnificent rebounding sound!

Hadrian’s Wall running off upwards into the distance.  The wall becomes a reasonably modern farmer’s dry stone wall half way up, then continues on as Hadrian’s Wall.

The long and winding road

Hadrian’s Wall and a small fortification to the side of it.
This is not thought to be a milecastle.

The perilous stone stairs to the top are not known as ‘Cat Stair’s for nothing.  These were, in fact some of the better & safer steps on the climb. The stairs seem to be relatively modernish  – I pity the person who had to build them!

The view from the top looking down to where we once had been.
Hadrian’s Wall snaking off into the distance.  The turf on top of the wall was an early (successful) conservation attempt of the Wall by Victorian land owner, antiquarian, and town clerk, John Clayton.
Good solid Roman engineering.  Each stone perfectly shaped by hand and precisely placed into position using the same style that we see in modern-day brickwork.  Built for strength and durability – the Wall has already lasted for nearly 2,000 years. What did the Romans ever do for us?…

Tiny tiny alpine flowers growing all along the wall.

Father and son enjoying their home education.

Today’s post is dedicated to the team at SEN Legal – whose tireless work on my son’s educational future means that ultimately he will get the correct education he so desperately needs.

In the meantime…. long live School Trip Fridays!

You may also be interested in
– School Trip Friday – Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
– School Trip Friday – Chapel of St Peter’s on the Wall, Bradwell
– School Trip Friday – Imperial War Museum Duxford
– School Trip Friday – Of Cabbages and Kings

Villain or not, Richard III has received a great deal of national press recently.  The archaeological dig in a car park in Leicester on the site of the lost church of the Grey Friars has recently exhumed a skeleton thought to be this much maligned king – the last English king to die in battle.  Last month, it was announced by the British Government that if the skeleton proves to be Richard III, then he will be re-interred in Leicester Cathedral.

I personally am a staunch Ricardian and so think that Henry VII, having dispatched his enemy, did a metaphorical hatchet-job on the reputation of his predecessor.  A hundred years later, Shakespeare added to the Tudor myth of this diabolical king – ‘Deformed, unfinish’d, sent before my time’.  I hope now his body has been re-found, he can be re-buried with the dignity he deserves.  At the risk of incurring the wrath of local people within Leicester, I would prefer this re-burial was a more regal place such as Westminster Abbey or Windsor Castle.

Below are images of Richard III from the early 20th century – postcards and cigarette cards collected by schoolboys and young men during the Edwardian era and throughout the reign of George V. I find it very interesting that the 1902 image of Richard is that of a noble warrior king in full battle regalia rather than the more familiar portrait as shown in the other cards. Is this unwitting testimony that the Edwardians were experiencing a Ricardian revival? Or was it just the publisher, Tuck, who were supporters of Richard III?

Richard III, postcard from Tuck’s Kings & Queens, c.1902

Richard III, cigarette card
from Ogden’s Guinea Gold New Series I, c.1902

Richard III, games card
from Mazawattee Tea game Our Kings and Queens, c.1902

Richard III, cigarette card from Player’sKings and Queens of England, c.1935

Coronation Procession of Richard III and Anne of Warwick,
cigarette card from Taddy’s Coronation Series, c1902

Bosworth Field 1485, cigarette card from Smith’s Battlefields of Great Britain, c.1913 (reproduction 1997)

I personally find the discovery of Richard’s body one of the most exciting events to happen in recent English history. Not because it will rewrite history – it won’t. The facts and the myths will still remain – what happened 527 years ago, happened and can’t be ‘rewritten’ in the history books. However, the search and discovery of the ‘lost’ body of the last truly medieval king is remarkable and therefore the discovery itself will become a new chapter for the history books.

Further reading:
– Richard III Society
– University of Leicester archaeological team’s blog – the Search for Richard III

You may also be interested in
– School Trip Friday – Of cabbages and kings

I am not a Medievalist so I do not know why snails are so prevalent throughout illuminated manuscripts from the middle ages. Often these snails are in conflict with knights and other animals – this blog here gives several explanations What’s So Funny about Knights and Snails? Whatever the reason for them, here are some medieval snails for you to enjoy.

A knight charging a snail, and a bird from Le Livre du Trésor (France, c. 1315-1325) shelfmark Yates Thompson 19 f.65, © British Library Board

Cat in a snail shell from Book of Hours, Use of Maastricht (‘The Maastricht Hours’) (Netherlands, S. (Liège), 1st quarter of the 14th century),
shelfmark Stowe 17 f.185, © British Library Board

Snail and mouse in conflict, from Spiegel der Weisheit (Austria, W. (Salzburg), c1430), shelfmark Egerton 1121 f. 10, © British Library Board

Rabbits and snails jousting from Chroniques, Vol. IV, part 1 (the ‘Harley Froissart’) (Netherlands, S. (Bruges), between c. 1470 and 1472),
shelfmark Harley 4379 f. 23v, © British Library Board

Flowers and a snail from Book of Hours, Use of Sarum (Netherlands, S. (Bruges), c1500), shelfmark King’s 9 f. 67, © British Library Board

A snail with a human head from Le Régime du corps, (France, N. (Lille?), 3rd quarter of the 13th century (perhaps c. 1285)),
shelfmark Sloane 2435 f. 23, © British Library Board

Flowers, strawberry, a bird, and a snail from Book of Hours, Use of Rome (Italy, N. (Bologna), c1500), shelfmark Yates Thompson 29 f. 75, © British Library Board

You may also be interested in the following posts with images from the British Library’s Medieval Manuscript collections:
– Images of Tudor people
– Wild Animals and Early modern England
– Images of the Devil in the Medieval/early-modern period
– Images of medieval cats
– Images of medieval cats – part 2
– Images of medieval dogs
– The Medieval Spinsters
– The sinful hermit

Notes
All digital images from the British Library’s Online Images archive appear by courtesy of the British Library Board and may not be reproduced © British Library Board.

As the days grow shorter and the nights become longer, our School Trip Fridays sometimes have to be done in the comfort of our home in front of a roaring log fire.  Even though we can’t get out and head for the hills, the computer is still switched off and our own unique style of learning about our country’s great heritage continues.

As an amateur historian, I am a firm advocate of our English heritage.  However, to understand our rich past, I feel that we have to have ‘pegs’ on which we can hang our historical information. For example, if you are looking at a grand half-timbered English building, how can you say ‘this is a beautiful Tudor building’ when you don’t know roughly what period ‘Tudor’ is!  Is Tudor before or after Georgian?  Is Regency 100 years ago or 500 years ago? Where do Victorians’ ‘Morals and Values’ come into all of this?…  Without realising it, we unconsciously use language about our rich past in our daily live. So what better ‘pegs’ are there then the long timeline of English/British monarchs!

However, because of my child’s complex educational needs, it is pointless me ‘teaching’ kings and queens in a traditional (or should I say, old-fashioned!) way.  I can’t quote facts and figures to him, and expect them to be regurgitated back to me parrot style.  For one, his poor memory means he won’t be able to do that with any level of success and for another, what’s the point in him learning meaningless information that has no relevance to him!  Our learning has to be hands-on, interactive and participative for both him and me.

And for a small child who loves collecting Top Trump cards, football cards and what-ever cards the local newsagent currently has in stock, what can be more interactive and hands-on then looking at the beautifully drawn and illustrated postcards and cigarette cards of a hundred years ago.  Our great-grandparents’ equivalent of pre-computer multi-media and Top Trumps game-cards!

So last week’s School Trip Friday was spent looking at images of the kings of England between 1066 and 1485 from the exquisitely illustrated set of postcards made by Tuck in 1902 and the handsome 1935 cigarette cards from Players.  What can be more beguiling and magnetic to a small child who can barely read and write then such fine pictures! (Sadly, our only medieval Empress/Queen Matilda was not acknowledged in either set.)

Raphael Tuck’s Kings and Queens of England postcards (1902) – Normans to Plantagenets

Player’s Kings and Queens of England cigarette cards (1935) – Normans to Plantagenets

History is all about the telling of stories from our past, and the picture below shows all the characters from one of the more murkier tales from English history.  By using these 5 cards, I was able to retell to my child the story of intrigue, treachery, treason and murder – and the last English king to die in battle.  And then bring that narrative right up to date with this summer’s remarkable discovery in a car park in Leicester.   But who was the villain of this story – the first of the Tudors, or the last of the Plantagenets?  Henry or Richard?  I know what we decided… How about you?

I asked my child who was his favourite king from all of the cards of Norman and Plantagenet kings.  My academically challenged child replied ‘whoever invented the longbow’.  Whilst he didn’t invent the longbow, this naturally brought us on to Henry V and Agincourt and watching the battle scenes from the BBC’s recent wonderful production of Shakespeare’s Henry V.  Very naughtily, I also told my child about the legend of the longbow archers and how it came about that the English always stick two-fingers up to their enemies.  History doesn’t have to be dry and dusty, our children can be taught the naughtier bits too – even if it might not be entirely true and more myth then fact!

Is my child academically challenged or a child whose school-teachers totally failed to engage him with traditional teaching methods?

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings.”

The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll

You may also be interested in
– School Trip Friday – Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
– School Trip Friday – Chapel of St Peter’s on the Wall, Bradwell
– School Trip Friday – Imperial War Museum Duxford