Imprisonment, escape and execution
History Unit 7
In this session students will put themselves in the shoes of a prisoner and hear exciting stories of the Tower’s dark Tudor history. Where would they have been locked up? What were the prisons like? What crime might they have committed? A character from the Tower’s past will guide your group around the Tower and some of the fortress’s surviving evidence to help students identify prisoners and the conditions in which they lived.
Monday to Friday
10.30, 12.00, 13.30
Visitor route session
50 minutes
£80
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Under siege: the medieval fortress
British history d, g
A medieval costumed character will help your students consider the Tower of London as a fortress. This session explores the medieval sieges that took place here and looks at the many defensive features of the Tower, from the rudimentary post-Norman defences to the formidable outer curtain wall built by Edward I. Students will experience the story of how this great castle was built and think about how to attack the fortress during a siege – does the Tower have a weak spot?
Monday to Friday
10.30, 12.00, 13.30
Visitor route session
50 minutes
£80
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The Normans
British history d
William I’s greatest fortress and palace – the White Tower – was completed in 1097 and overlooked his new capital to the west. Pupils will meet one of William’s courtiers in this session, who will recount the construction of the great ‘Norman fist on Anglo-saxon soil’. The session will explore the White Tower’s exterior and its defences, but also the visual tricks and illusions of a fortress built to over-awe the Anglo-Saxon city. A magnificent monument to the Norman Conquest, students will discover some of the secrets behind this unlikely success.
Monday to Friday
10.30, 12.00, 13.30
Visitor route session
50 minutes
£80
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Medieval music: ‘I have heard the planets sing’
British history g; Music i, j
Medieval scientists and musicians were attuned to music all around them: in dance, the motions of the planets, even in the principles of architecture. Using specially re-created musical and scientific instruments from the period, a 14th-century cleric will show students how sounds are made, and why some make harmony and others do not. Using modern stroboscopes and oscilloscopes, the costumed presenter will help students learn to discuss sound in modern scientific terms of amplitude and frequency.
*A low intensity light strobe is used for short periods, and will be signalled to students and staff.
Tuesdays
10.30, 12.00, 13.30
Vaults Learning Centre
1 hour
£80
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Tower Hamlets: Living in a diverse world
British history f; Citizenship i, j
The Tower Hamlets area has been arguably the most diverse corner of the world over the last four hundred years. The ‘Hamlets’ governed by the Tower of London have been home to generations of Irish, Jewish, Huguenot French, Bangladeshi, Somali and other immigrants of many nationalities. This session will explore the many stories of the world’s diaspora in the East End over the last three hundred years, and the ancient ties the Tower of London has with its diverse neighbourhood.
Available: 23–27 March
Monday to Friday
10.30, 12.00, 13.30
Education Centre
1 hour
£80
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Attack the Tower!
British history d, g
Students will lay siege to the medieval Tower of London using interactive technology. Divided among defenders and attackers your group will make war over Edward I’s Tower as it stood in 1300, following the construction of his new outer curtain walls. Attackers must decide a strategy, choose a siege weapon and decide when to send their men into the breach. Defenders must consider how to deploy their 100 men, where to station their archers and work out a back-up plan should it all go wrong! Live decisions will alter the besiegers’ fate – will the ‘bridle on the city of London’ fall?
Available: 8–11 December; 18–21 May
Monday to Friday
10.30, 13.00
Education Centre
1.5 hours
£90
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The history detectives
Enquiry-based workshops at Key Stage 3
Students will learn to develop skills of interrogation and enquiry in these history sessions. Pupils will explore their particular session’s historical context and establish study questions in the first half of the workshop. In the second half they’ll put their line of questioning to a costumed character as the session becomes interactive.
Tuesdays
10.30, 12.00, 13.30
Education Centre
1 hour
£80
Available topics:
The princes in the Tower British history d
This workshop explores the story of the two princes – Edward and Richard – who disappeared from the Tower in June 1483. The story goes that the princes were imprisoned by their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and murdered in the Bloody Tower, though conclusive evidence has never been found. Using original source material to devise a line of questioning, students will interrogate a costumed character close to the action to try to solve the mystery, and make up their own minds.
The Peasants’ Revolt British history d
Students get the chance to investigate the Peasants’ Revolt, which brought as many as 60,000 disgruntled Englishmen to London’s doorstep in 1381. The unpopular tax collectors sought safety in the mighty Tower of London, but the peasantry would not submit. Students will interview and interrogate one of the many peasants – the first and last people ever to successfully break into the Tower.
Elizabeth I British history g
The year is 1585 and England is on the edge of war with Spain. Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster has captured an enemy agent and imprisoned them in the Tower. The queen is waiting for her privy councillors – your group – to interrogate the prisoner and advise her. Students will question this prominent Catholic prisoner to find out their views on the queen, the extent of their faith and the latest thinking from Rome so to better understand the challenge looming on England’s horizon.
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