This week I have had the pleasure of meeting both Year 4 classes from Bengeworth CE Academy and our topic was the Tudors. After the farm safety talk, I asked the children to tell me about the Tudors, lots of facts were given, many of which were about Henry VIII. I then talked to the children about rural life in the Tudor times. My explanation of a Hogbog made the children giggle and be ever so slightly revolted….. 

We then talked about life as a peasant and how the land lords took over the common land through the Enclosures Act, forcing the poor people out of the countryside and into the towns. 

On our farm walk, we looked at a wheat crop and discussed harvesting wheat and thatching straw. The children then ran on to the Saxon Saltway which crosses the farm and so we thought about meat preservation in Tudor times. In the small wood, the children were asked to build a Tudor house and were given some straw for the roof. I was very impressed by the creative ideas of the children, as shown by the photos. After house building, we then took a walk through the orchard and into the medieval ridge and furrow land in front of the farm house. The children thought about families from the village having a ridge and growing their crops and how the Enclosures Act would have made poor rural families feel. 

Back to lunch to shake the creamy milk to make butter and to try sheeps’ milk cheese. The Tudors used cows to pull the plough rather than as a source of milk.  After lunch was a rather muddy play wood….

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Tags: Tudors