Year 5 & 6 students at Burgess Hill School for Girls Junior School brought a piece of history to life when they built a replica Tudor House during a workshop on 20 January 2015.
Charlie Lupton from ‘Make Your Own History’ brought in authentic materials and tools to enable the girls to undertake a variety of activities from tiling and thatching a section of roof to making wattle panels and daubing them. They also shaped the pegs used to pin the house together and learnt about carpenter’s marks when assembling the Tudor house.
Tara Tibble in Year 5 said, “Building a Tudor house was really exciting. It was fun slotting the pieces of wood together and hammering the pegs in.”
Caitlin Shapcott in Year 5 added “We got to use lots of Tudor tools; it was interesting to learn how the they made their houses – it was quite tricky.”
Charissa Armitage, Year 5 teacher, said, “As well as consolidating their knowledge on Tudor housing, construction and materials for their history topic, the girls learnt practical skills used during that period of time and drew upon their Design Technology and mathematical knowledge to construct the house.”
Charissa added, “They benefitted hugely from working together as a team – constructing a house on a grand scale brought its own challenges but with expert guidance from Mr Lupton they did an excellent job and should be very proud of their success.”
The Year 6 girls were all in agreement. “I really enjoyed the roofing activity because it was different and I had fun weaving the straw,” said Charlotte Fallon.
“It was fun making the big house – I’ve never made a house before,” commented Amy Biggs.
“It was interesting seeing the difference between the peasant’s house and the merchant’s house,” added Florence Stapley.