[Y]ear 7 students at Penrith’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School have gone back in time this week on the school’s annual Mediaeval Day.
As the culmination of the year’s history curriculum, the entire year group spent the day in a series of Mediaeval pursuits.
The morning was spent playing Stool Ball, a traditional game of the age, similar to our modern rounders. Students also visited Penrith Castle, built in the Middle Ages by Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, as part of England’s defences against the Scots. There, they completed aerial views and reconstruction drawings of the castle, showing how it may have appeared in its heyday.
A catapult contest completed the morning’s activities; students built their own catapults and then tested them by firing ping-pong balls. Prizes were awarded to Ben Rodley, Theo Coward and Ella Kirkton for the most historically-accurate catapult designs and to Billy turner, Thomas Pantry and Harper Short for the catapults with the longest firing range.
Students donned armour and took up replica arms after lunch to recreate the Battle of Hastings in the climax to the day’s events. The students judged by staff to have the best costumes took the roles of William of Normandy and the fated King Harold. Areas of the school field were designated as key battle locations: Normandy, where William set sail for England; Pevensey Bay where he landed and build a fort; London, where Harold stopped on his way south to fight William; and Senlac Hill, where the Battle of Hastings was fought. Norman knights on hobby horses battled against the brave Saxon infantry, who were ultimately defeated.
QEGS’ Head of History, Mr Allen Martin, said: “This is the seventh year we have held Mediaeval Day and it just gets bigger and better each year. The amount of effort the students put into their costumes and catapults is phenomenal. We do it because it is a lot of fun and the students get engaged with it. It makes that period of history more tangible, especially the reconstruction of the battle – it helps the students understand the physicality and chaos of mediaeval warfare.”