Schools

Having me come to your school is so much easier than having to organise a trip out to a museum, right! And it can be even more rewarding than visiting a museum - because they can feel, smell, touch, and sometimes even taste - all of the stuff I bring with me!

My sessions usually take the form of a 'show and tell' style presentation, and I include references to archaeological, scientific, and historic sources where I can. See photo - my information board from 2003!

I'm currently offering the following preset sessions:

'Rigsthula' - a 2 hour Viking session (KS2/60),
'Symble' - a 2 hour Anglo-Saxon session (KS2/30) subject to availability of male Anglo-Saxon,
Medieval Medicine - a 45 minute interactive talk (KS3/unlimited).

* Bespoke Days can also be offered subject to availability, as two persons will be required.

Visits to schools are individually priced, depending on group size, travel time and topics covered (on average, it works out to about £2 per pupil). I attend in costume and I provide all the props. Contact me here.

"The children still talk about their fantastic day (they've forgotten about the weather!)"

Mrs M. Vaissiere, Headteacher, Catfield VC First School

“The food everyone tried was gros. I never ate any I didn’t really want to by the look of people spitting it out in there hands”

“I thought the costumes were pretty weird and they stank to high heaven."

“I was especially fond of dressing up, but I found the cloak very itchy but it seemed very warm. The brooch which held it was very beautiful but seemed hard to undo.”

'Rigsthula'

A Viking creation poem/myth following Rig - a god in disguise, who visits the houses of three families and begins the classes of Thrall, Karl and Jarl (slaves, workers, and nobles). It is, potentially, how Viking royalty reckoned they could trace their ancestry back to the Gods, as the final character is called 'King' - he is one of the children of the Jarl's family!

Note: yes, I am wearing my glasses. This is because some of the items I show are sharp, and I need to be able to see what I, and the kids are doing.

Risk assessments are available on request!

As I read through the poem, key characters get to dress up and do stuff. Afi (Grandfather), in the first image, "hewed wood, a pole for a warp beam". In the second image, Jarl (Earl) "drew bow-strings, bent the elm bow". Thirdly "a boy was birthed to Moðir (Mother) ... bleached was his hair, bright were his cheeks, and piercing eyes" - perfect Viking characteristics....

The poem gives lovely descriptions of some of the clothes worn, the houses and furniture, and even food. Everyone gets to try Edda's (Great-Grandmother) "lumpy loaf, heavy and chunky, loaded with bran", but only a select few can try Moðir's "pale bacon and roasted birds".

(With thanks to Little Melton Primary School for allowing photographs - 2022)

'Symble'

A very different style for this Anglo-Saxon session: it's in three sections. We have to repair the walls of our hall, and dress in our finest clothes, before we can attend the 'symble'.

I split the class into two groups for the 'dressing' and 'repair' sections - I cover 'dressing' and a helper covers 'repair'. Each group does both, as we swap over.

In the 'dressing' section we look at archaeological, written/drawn, and scientific evidence for clothes, and then some lucky people get to get dressed up.

To repair the walls of the hall they need to practise their 'wattle and daubing' technique. There is NO dung in my daub!

And finally, the groups meet back together for some food and drink tasting, with music and entertainment! I make non-alcoholic mead that they can try drinking from the mead-horn. Pre session riddles could be read out for the entertainment....

(With thanks to Great Yarmouth Primary Academy (2011) and West Flegg Primary (pre-2005) for allowing photographs)

Bespoke Day

Dame Bradbury's school asked for sessions on a variety of subjects to cover one day for one class. These were: clothing, arms and armour, food and drink, shelter, and pastimes. I threw in a reading of a short section of Beowulf, for free. I was assisted by Glenn Wilkin throughout the day and he was Beowulf in the story.

Wattle and daub and jellied eel...
Date: 13/11/2007

Dried cow flesh and jellied eel were on the menu, washed down with mead from a drinking horn, when Year 4 went back to Anglo-Saxon times for a day.
Helped by teachers Rosie and Glenn, from Historical Costumes and Living History, they joined in a wide range of activities. They dressed in Saxon clothes (learning that the rich had more choice of colours and ornate jewellery, while the poor just wore brown and white) and discovered that a Saxon warrior's chain mail weighed two stone!
The Saxon food they tasted included hearty vegetable broth, heavy wholemeal bread, goat's cheese, and raspberry and goat's milk jelly for pudding, with non-alcoholic honey and grape juice mead. "All met by Year 4 with varying levels of relish!" said Year 4 teacher Mrs Brown.
The children also built panels of wattle and daub, had a go at braiding and cording wool and played games such as Nine Men's Morris, and other strategic battle games which might have been the origins of drafts, chess and backgammon. The day ended with a bloodthirsty extract from Beowulf.
"It was a wonderful hands-on learning experience for all, which I am sure the children will remember," said Mrs Brown.

Extract from school news bulletin, Dame Bradbury's School, Saffron Walden.

Photographs by kind permission of Dame Bradbury's School, 2007