Living history (All ages)

Let our qualified teachers take your students on an eye-opening journey through time, with an immersive, hands-on experience in the authentic surroundings of our Living History Centre.

Our experienced team will help you to maximise the impact of your classroom work by bringing history to life, engaging your students with a first-hand experience of the crafts and culture of a chosen period.

Whatever your focus, from the earliest man to medieval communities our Living History programme shines a light on the people, their lives and their relationship with the environment, providing vital context to enable your students to understand the period in a meaningful way.

On returning to the classroom, you’ll find that the experiences gained on this visit bring textbook material to life for a newly enthused audience eager to learn more.

Delve into the past in our unique and authentic Saxon Village and enjoy activities focused around the time of the Anglo-Saxons.

Artefacts table
Handle and examine real and replica artefacts, uncovering their fascinating stories.

Dressing up
Step into the shoes of a Saxon villager with traditional costumes.

Foraging Walk
A guided tour around our British wildlife collection with an added focus on plants and their uses both past and present.

Milling flour
Learn how the past generations made their bread by grinding grain into flour using authentic tools.

Skittles
Play traditional Saxon games, including a lively round of wooden skittles, just like they did centuries ago.

Bread making
Make some bread in a Saxon cob oven to be taken home at the end of the day.

Daubing
Help maintain and build our Saxon huts using the traditional method of daubing (mud, water and straw).

Gardening
Learn about Saxon plants and what they would be used for and how they would be grown.

Metal work
Help our blacksmith to create a Saxon brooch in our traditional forge.

Woodwork
Learn how to use traditional tools such as chisels and the pole lathe to craft item from wood.