BLEWBURY SCHOOL
The Iron Age
The Blewbury School children chattered excitedly as they climbed onto the bus, their doorway to travel over 2,000 years back in time to the Iron Age. They were greeted, on arrival at the Danebury Fort, by the leader of a fierce Celtic tribe, clad in battle dress and armed with both sword and spear.
The children were soon seated on the hard mud floor in the warrior’s round house, a large single-room structure with wattle and daub walls and a thatched roof. They coughed a little from the smoky fire and wrinkled their noses at the sweaty smell of the animals which had over wintered there. Invited to weave wool, grind grain or decorate pottery, their eager hands flew up.
Suddenly a warning shout called out; a challenging band of warriors was approaching. The children lined the wooden fence which crowned the defensive ramparts, hurling spears and rocks at the attackers. But the enemy could not be repulsed and soon burnt the gates…..
We can only be glad that we do not live in that uncertain and often violent world, where our children would really have been at risk. But for a few short hours we were whisked to that faraway place and I learnt that nothing could create a better learning environment than the “real thing”.
Andrea Brown