We had a fantastic opportunity to extend our history topic learning by visiting the museum in Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth.
By observing different artefacts, we considered how life on the ship would be very different for the officers and crew. Differences in material, quality and the actual items reflected the different responsibilities, wealth and status of the different inhabitants of the ship. Following this, we dressed up in both roles and saw how the differences in clothing. Did you know that black dye was one of the most expensive aspects of clothing in Tudor times?
Similar to a secondary school science classroom, we observed a number of replica materials from Tudor times. Microscopes provided us with the opportunity to look at the quality of items and assess their suitability for use on a Tudor ship. Finally, we compared how environmentally friendly the Tudors were compared to us.
The highlight of the day was seeing the remaining 40% of the ship on display. We learn a lot about preservation of the ship in the museum and visualised what it would have looked like 500 years ago. Animated video clips also showed us where the different crew members worked and re-enacted their duties on the ship. As an added bonus, we saw several items which were not on display for the general public with an expert guide explaining their importance. The children particularly enjoyed learning how the museum created a reconstruction of an archer based on a skeleton found on the ship.
We had a fantastic day leaning about Henry VIII’s favourite ship.