St Mary and St Nicolas, Spalding€¦ · Web viewA famous architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (one of his designs was St Pancras Railway Station in London) led the team of 30 men

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A museum and church partnership

Learning Resource Pack

Contents

2Visiting information

6Curriculum links

10Floor plan of The Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

10Floor plan of Ayscoughfee Hall

12A visit to the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

13Trail sheet 1a

13Exploring the inside of a church

14Trail sheet 1b


15Trail sheet 1c


16Trail sheet 1d


17Trail sheet 2

17Exploring the outside of a church

18Trail sheet 3a

18Searching for symbols

19Trail sheet 3b

19Searching for symbols

20Trail sheet 4

20How does this church make you feel?

21Trail sheet 5

21The Johnson Family Trail

23Investigating the lives of the rich and poor in Tudor times at Ayscoughfee Hall

24Trail sheet 6

24Exploring the house of a wealthy Tudor merchant

25Trail sheet 7

25Exploring the house of a wealthy Tudor merchant

26Trail sheet 8

26What were the differences between rich and poor in Tudor times?

27Trail sheet 9

27Comparing the lives of the Tudor rich and poor

29Life in Victorian times at Ayscoughfee Hall

30Trail sheet 10

30Victorian family life at Ayscoughfee Hall

31Trail sheet 11

31Links between the Hall and the Church

32Trail sheet 12

32Victorian Kitchen Life

34Photocopy activity sheet 1

34The Church Trail


35The Johnson Family Trail


36The Tudor Trail


37The Victorian Trail

38Map resources

Visiting information

Welcome to Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens and The Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas in Spalding

The histories of the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas and nearby Ayscoughfee Hall have been linked closely for many centuries. This learning resource is designed to support teacher-led self-directed class visits to the two sites and has been developed as a partnership project between the two organisations. It is just a short walk between the Hall and the Church to explore the lives and times of people who have lived at Ayscoughfee Hall and worshipped in the parish church.

The learning pack provides curriculum-linked ideas, information and practical advice for teachers and pupils engaging with both sites on a single or separate visit and supports many cross-curricular learning outcomes with:

· pre-visit activity ideas

· information and trail sheets for adults or good readers to use in small group work during your visit

· trail and activity sheets to use during your visit are also available to download separately so that they can be edited for differentiation by teachers

· information on the resource handling boxes and interactive displays in the Museum

· follow-up ideas to try back at school

The pack has been designed for Key Stage 1 and 2 children but can also be adapted for use with Key Stage 3 students. There are three themes to explore:

· a visit to a church (KS1 and KS2)

· life in Britain in Tudor times (KS2)

· life in Victorian Britain (KS1 and 2)

Booking a free visit

A booking must be made using the booking form available on-line at least one month before you plan to visit. You can make your booking either through the Museum Manager at Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens or the Parish Office. Please state if you are visiting one or both of the sites to ensure that space is available at each site at the most convenient time.

We will send you a confirmation of your booking by post or email.

Please note

There may be unexpected changes regarding access to the Church because of funeral services as it is a place of worship. Every effort will be made to inform schools of any changes to the visit programme.

Photographs may be taken for educational reasons but not for publication.

Make an advance visit

We strongly advise teachers to make an advance visit and we are always happy to help meet your expectations of a visit. There is no charge for the planning visit, but we recommend that you contact the Museum or the Church first to ensure that someone will be available to answer any questions you might have.

Risk assessment forms are available on request.

Learning spaces

Although the Museum, Gardens and the Church are spacious, space is limited to one class of up to 30 pupils at each place at any one time to get the very best out of your visit.

Please note that it is very important that you book your pre-visit and actual visit in advance.

Teachers will need to select and print out at school the activity and group information sheets that you have selected. Clipboards and pencils are available in the Museum.

Resource boxes will be available for schools to use during their visit but are only available if you have booked to visit the Museum. The boxes contain handling materials, resource sheets and activity ideas linked to exploring life at Ayscoughfee Hall.

Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens has been awarded the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge (LotC).

Preparation

Allow approximately one and a half hours for your visit to each of the two sites. Have a clear focus and learning intention to the visit. Plan to involve any adult helpers who are accompanying the class so that they have a clear idea about the visit.

Teachers of educational groups or classes visiting Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens and the Church are responsible for ensuring the correct ratio of adults to children. These are:

Reception

1:2

Key Stage 1

1:5

Key Stage 2

1:8

Key Stages 3/4

1:10

All teachers are responsible for the behaviour of their pupils whilst visiting Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens and the Church. A designated adult should remain with their allocated group for the duration of the visit for health and safety reasons.

Facilities

At Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens

· There is space for one class of up to 30 pupils to leave their coats and have their packed lunches in the first floor Meeting Room. This room must be booked in advance as it will contain the resource boxes for use during your visit.

· The resource boxes can either be used in the Meeting Room or in the gallery settings suggested by this pack. Please note that any damage caused to the handling items in the boxes is the responsibility of the teacher or supervising adult.

· Toilet facilities are available on the ground floor in the Museum.

· An accessible toilet is also available on the ground floor.

· There is a ramp access to the building and a lift to the first floor.

· The Museum shop on the ground floor contains a range of different gifts as souvenirs of your students’ visit with us.

At the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

· Classes can work in the main body of the Church and in the Churchyard.

· The nearest public toilets are in Ayscoughfee Gardens.

· Please do not eat or drink in the Church.

· Ramp access to the West and South Doors is available if booked in advance.

· Torches and binoculars are available for investigating high objects and features.

Insurance

Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens and the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas each hold separate Public Liability insurance.

How to find us

The postcode for navigation to both sites is PE11 2RA.

On entering Spalding from all directions, follow the brown tourist signs for Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens, which lead to the Hall and the Church.

Parking

Coach drop-off points only are located at:

· The main road outside the front entrance to Ayscoughfee Hall.

· Outside the Church gates in the Vista car park.

Disclaimer

The information provided in this pack is believed to be accurate and reliable but neither South Holland District Council, the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas in Spalding nor Lindsey Kennedy Portfolio can be held responsible for any errors or omissions.

Please note that some sites referred to within the pack may not be fully accessible. No liability is accepted by South Holland District Council, the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas in Spalding or Lindsey Kennedy Portfolio for any loss or injury arising from any field trips or visits.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the following who have provided information or images for use in this pack:

Richard Davies and Julia Knight, Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens.

Marion Brassington, Sue Slater and Roger Smith, the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas, Spalding

R. J. L. Smith & Associates.

This pack has been researched and prepared by Lindsey Kennedy Smith (Lindsey Kennedy Portfolio).

This project has been made possible with funding and support from South Holland District Council and the Friends of St Mary and St Nicolas Parish Church.

Photography and image copyrights acknowledged to:

St. Mary and St. Nicolas Parochial Church Council

Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens

Phil Crow

Lindsey Kennedy Smith

The National Archives

The British Library

Ordnance Survey Limited

© South Holland District Council

and St. Mary and St. Nicolas Parochial Church Council, Spalding 2010

Curriculum links location symbol: Ayscoughfee Hall Museum

Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

Religious Education

A visit to a church

Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

Learning about religion

RE1b – name and explore a range of celebrations, worship and rituals in religion

RE1c – identify the importance, for some people, of belonging to a religion and recognise the difference it makes to their lives

RE1d – explore how religious beliefs and ideas can be expressed through the arts and communicate their responses

RE1e – identify and suggest meanings for religious symbols and begin to use a range of religious vocabulary

RE1a - describe the key aspects of religions, especially the people, stories and traditions that influence the beliefs and values of others

RE1b - describe the variety of practices and ways of life in religions

RE1d - investigate the significance of religion in the local community

RE1g - use specialist vocabulary in communicating their knowledge and understanding

RE1h - use and interpret information about religions from a range of sources

Learning from religion

RE2a – reflect on and consider religious and spiritual feelings, experiences and concepts such as worship, wonder, praise, thanks, concern, sadness and joy

RE2b – ask and respond imaginatively to puzzling questions, communicating their ideas

RE2c – identify what matters to them and to others, including those with religious commitments, and communicate their responses

RE2d – reflect on how spiritual and moral values relate to their own behaviour

RE2e – recognise that religious teachings and ideas make a difference to individuals, families and local community

RE2a - reflect on what it means to belong to a faith community, communicating their own and others’ responses

RE2b - recognise how commitment to a religion is shown in a variety of ways

Religions and beliefs

Christianity

Christianity

Themes

Celebrations – how and why celebrations are important in religion

Symbols – how and why symbols express religious meaning

Worship, pilgrimage and sacred places - where, how and why people worship, including at particular sites

Symbols and religious expression - how religious and spiritual ideas are expressed

Religion, family and community – how religious families and communities practise their faith, and the contributions this makes to local life

Experiences and opportunities

Visiting places of worship - focusing on symbols and feelings

Visiting places of worship – encountering religion through visits to places of worship, and focusing on the impact and reality of religions on local community

History

Life in Victorian Britain

Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

Chronological understanding

Hist1a- place events and objects in chronological order

Hist1b- use common words and phrases relating to the passing of time

Hist1a- place events, people and changes into correct periods of time

Hist1b- use dates and vocabulary relating to the passing of time

Knowledge and understanding about the past

Hist2b- identify differences between ways of life at different times

Hist2a- explore the characteristic features of the Victorian period including the ideas, beliefs, attitudes and experiences of men, women and children

Hist2b- look at the social diversity of Victorian society

Historical interpretation

Hist3- identify different ways in which the past is represented

Hist3- recognise that the past is represented and interpreted in different ways, and give reasons for this

Historical enquiry

Hist4a- find out about the past from a range of sources of information

Hist4b- ask and answer questions about the past

Hist4a- find out about life in Victorian times from a range of sources of information

Hist4b- ask and answer questions, and select information relevant to the focus of enquiry

Organisation and communication

Hist5- select from knowledge of history and communicate those ideas in a variety of ways

Hist5a- recall, select and organise historical information

Hist5b- use dates and historical vocabulary to describe the Victorian period

Hist5c- communicate knowledge and understanding about the Victorian period through a variety of ways

Breadth of study

Hist8a- study of Victorian Britain

Hist11a- study the impact of changes in the lives of men, women and children from different sections of Victorian society

History

Life in Britain in Tudor times

Key Stage 2

Chronological understanding

Hist1a- place events, people and changes into correct periods of time

Hist1b- use dates and vocabulary relating to the passing of time

Knowledge and understanding about the past

Hist2a- explore the characteristic features of the Tudor period including the ideas, beliefs, attitudes and experiences of men, women and children

Hist2b- look at the social diversity of Tudor society

Historical interpretation

Hist3- recognise that the past is represented and interpreted in different ways, and give reasons for this

Historical enquiry

Hist4a- find out about life in Tudor times from a range of sources of information

Hist4b- ask and answer questions, and select information relevant to the focus of enquiry

Organisation and communication

Hist5a- recall, select and organise historical information

Hist5b- use dates and historical vocabulary to describe the Tudor period

Hist5c- communicate knowledge and understanding about the Tudor period through a variety of ways

Breadth of study

Hist8a- study of Tudor times

Hist10- study of a significant individual and the everyday lives of men, women and children from different sections of Tudor society

Cross curricular links

Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2

English

Eng2c - Make comments

Eng2d - Listen to others’ reactions

Eng2e - Ask questions to clarify their understanding

Eng11b - Present drama or stories to others

Eng3 - learn to talk effectively as a member of a group in discussion

Eng4 - participate in a range of drama activities with characters conveying a theme or emotion. Script and perform plays.

ICT

Use the internet and CD-ROMs to obtain information about church building and religious teachings and ideas

Use ICT to find information on a variety of subjects and use ICT tools to present their findings

Geography

Geo1c - Express their own views about people, places and environments

Geo3a - Identify and describe what places are like

Geo3a - identify and describe what places are like

Geo3d - explain why places are like they are (local materials)

Geo3e - identify how and why places change (historic development)

Citizenship

C1b - to share their opinions on things that matter to them and explain their views in preparing to take an active role as a citizen

C2e - to reflect on the spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues using imagination to understand other people’s experiences

C2i - to appreciate the range of national, regional, religious and ethnic identities in the UK

History

Hist2b - Identify differences between ways of life at different times

Hist4a - Find out about the past from a range of sources

Hist6b - Explore the ways of life of people in the more distant past who lived in the local area

Hist1a - place events, people and changes into correct periods of time

Hist2a - learn about the characteristic features of a period and societies studied, including ideas, beliefs, attitudes and experiences of men, women and children in the past

Victorian Britain

Britain in Tudor Times

How aspects of life have changed in the local area

Art & Design

A&D1a - Record from first hand observation

A&D2c - Represent observations, ideas and feelings to design and make images and artefacts

A&D4c - Look at the work of artists, craftspeople and designers from different times

A&D1a - record from experiences and observation

A&D1c - use a sketchbook

A&D2 - use a variety of methods and approaches to communicate observations, ideas and feelings to design and make images and artefacts

A&D4c - explore the role and purpose of artists, craftspeople and designers working in different times

Floor plan of the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

Floor plan of Ayscoughfee Hall

Medieval

Georgian

Victorian

Ground floor (showing areas of building alterations)

First floor (showing areas of building alterations)

A visit to the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

Pre-visit ideas

Aim: To explore what a church is.

What experiences do the class already have of visiting a church?

These experiences may include attending Sunday Services, family weddings or baptisms, school events such as nativity plays or harvest festivals. Make a class collection of photographs of any events in church which children may have taken part in.

Look at some pictures on the internet or in books showing different church buildings around the local area. What can they spot in the images, are there any similarities or differences in how the churches look?

At the Church

Enter the Church through the North Porch entrance. Ask the class to walk down the centre aisle and sit on one of the pews at the front, in front of the pulpit. School groups are very welcome. Please explain that the Church is always open to the public during the day to come and worship or visit. A low level of talking is ideal, and careful walking in this ancient building is a good idea.

Divide the class into five groups. Each group will have an opportunity to go on each of the five trails in rotation. The trail sheets have information and challenges to complete. If you are using any of the activity sheets these should be printed at school and brought with the groups.

Trail sheets 1

Aim: Exploring a church.

Discovering the key features inside a church building.

Trail sheets 2

Aim: Exploring a church outside.

Discovering the key features outside a church building.

Trail sheet 3

Aim: Searching for symbols.

Exploring some of the symbols and their meanings within the Christian faith.

Trail sheet 4

Aim: What do places like churches make me feel?

Where, how and why people worship at particular sites? Reflecting on the ideas and feelings of being in a church.

Trail sheets 5

Aim: Links between the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas and Ayscoughfee Hall

Discovering some of the clues that link the Church to a local Victorian family.

Church resources

Several pairs of binoculars and handheld torches may be made available for school groups to use. On overcast days the inside of the Church can be quite dark and the roof is very high.

Laminated copies of the trail sheets are available for school groups to use during their visit.

Trail sheet 1a

Exploring the inside of a church

There has been a church here for over 700 years. It was built by a group of local monks who lived in the Priory of Spalding. The monks belonged to the order of St Benedict. The head of the Priory, which was originally in the Market Place area, was called Prior Symon Haughton. This church was originally named after St Mary and St Nicolas was added later.

There had been a church here before made of wood and stones and some of these materials were used to build the church you can see today. The church was for people of the local parish in Spalding to use rather than the monks. This is why it is called a parish church.

It took about thirty years to build the original church. Over the next 700 years the building has been changed and added to with much of the work being done during the Victorian period.

You came in through North Porch Door.

Go back out of this door and have a look at the

porch ceiling. The ceiling is decorated in fan

vaulting.

Walk back through the door back into the Church. This large space is called the nave. The seats are called pews and are for the congregation to sit on during the church services. The walkway down the middle is called an aisle.

Sit down on the pews and take a look around. Look at all those pillars keeping the roof up. Over 500 years ago they would have been 2 metres shorter. That was when a new wooden roof was put on and raised higher, so the pillars were made taller.

The roof is called a hammer beam roof and it is made of English oak. Can you see the carved wooden angels? Can you find 28 looking down at you?

Trail sheet 1b


Look behind you and you will see a font by the huge West Door which was the original main entrance to the Church. This is where people are baptised into the Church. Fonts are traditionally found near the entrance of a church. This font is made out of carved stone and holds water for the Vicar to baptise or christen people with. Worship services in this church may be led by a Vicar, a curate or a lay minister.

Above the West Door is the West Window. About 350 years ago this window was blown in during a gale and part of the tower came crashing through the roof. The window you can see today was put in during Victorian times.

In front you will see a carved wooden pulpit with some steps leading up to it and a cover over the top. This is where the person who preaches a sermon stands during a church service. A sermon is a talk explaining something about the Christian faith.

On the other side is a large metal eagle on a stand. This is called a lectern and is used to hold a Bible, the Christian Holy Book, from which people read during a church service.

Between the pulpit and the lectern is a carved wooden screen, which in medieval times separated the monks from the people. This is called a rood screen. Rood is an old word meaning cross. If you look up you will see a very large cross hanging from the roof.

Trail sheet 1c


Walk through the rood screen into the next space. This is the chancel and the oldest part of the Church building. The choir sit in the choir stalls down each side. They sing hymns and anthems during the services.

Look up at the painted ceiling. This ceiling was added and painted in 1959.

At the end of the chancel is a table, which is called the altar, covered in a beautifully embroidered cloth, and is a special place in the church. The altar cloths are changed at different times of the church year: Green for Trinity; White or Gold for Christmas and Easter; Purple for Advent and Lent and Red for Pentecost and Saints days. Bread and Wine are placed on the altar during communion services.

Trail sheet 1d


The earliest Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas was built in the shape of a cross.

The arms out to each side are called transepts. Each side of the main nave aisle are smaller chapels. These are extra places in a church to sit and think or to pray in.

This is St Thomas’s Chapel.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 (over 420 years ago) this had an upstairs to it and was the local Grammar School. Boys would come in through a small door on the outside of the Church and be taught their lessons in the schoolroom. Girls would not have gone to school at this time. The school was here until 1881 when it moved to a new location in Spalding.

The Church still has strong connections with the Spalding Parish Church of England Day School, which is nearby.

The main musical instrument usually found in a church is usually an organ. Find a wall with lots of pipes of different sizes and the organ is above the pipes on a small raised floor.

Organs need lots of wind blowing through the pipes to make the sound of a note. Nowadays the wind is pushed through by electric bellows, but in the past they used hand bellows to pump the air into the pipes. Different size pipes make different sounds and the stops do exactly that, they stop the air in some pipes so that they are silent whilst other pipes are played.

The organist sits in the organ loft which is situated behind the lectern.

Trail sheet 2

Exploring the outside of a church

Leave the Church through the North Porch Door and turn left following the path around to the front of the building.

Here you can see the outside of the West Window and Door.

The bell tower was added around 650 years ago and stands over 48 metres high. At the top are eight bells which are still rung by bell-ringers today. The tower has had to be repaired over the centuries to keep it upright.

Around the outside of the Church is the Churchyard where some of the people of Spalding were buried. When the Churchyard became full a new cemetery was built on the Pinchbeck Road.

Many of the old gravestones have been worn by the weather but you can still make out some of the carved letters telling us about who was buried there, when they lived, whether they were married and how old they were when they died. Please take care when walking around the gravestones as some are fragile.

Around the Churchyard are several different trees. One tree you will usually see is a yew tree or hedge. People think they are planted to show long life and rebirth as they grow for a very long time. These ideas started long before people believed in Christianity as a religion.

Once you are back at the North Porch take a look above the door. There is a small room above the porch which has been used as a library, an armoury where the town’s weapons were kept under lock and key.

Trail sheet 3a

Searching for symbols

Sit on a pew in the nave. In the past many people were not able to read or write so they looked for signs and symbols around them to help them understand what it was to be a Christian. They looked for pictures, statues, carvings in wood and stone and other objects.

When the Church was built over 700 years ago it was one of the biggest buildings many local people would ever see.

The whole building was meant to be the universe. The nave was the world and the roof the sky with 28 carved wooden angels looking down on us.

Through the rood screen is the chancel and that was meant to be heaven. Walk through into the chancel. Does it have the same feeling as being in the nave?

One symbol you will see many times is the cross or crucifix. These are in many different places around the Church. The cross is an important shape in the Christian faith and the reason why is explained in the Easter Story. Take a look around and see how many different crosses there are. Even the Church is built in a cross shape if you could see it from the sky. (Look at the plan on the wall near the shop).

Trail sheet 3b

Searching for symbols

The huge windows in every wall let in light. They are also there to tell the stories from the Bible and show how Christians believe they should live their lives. In the West Window you will be able to see Jesus, his twelve followers called disciples and many angels. You can see St Mary in blue in the top left hand side and St Nicolas in green on the top right hand side. St Nicolas is the patron saint of children. In fact, Father Christmas is based on St Nicolas.

A statue of St Michael the Archangel is above the World War Two memorial, which you will find near the lectern. St Michael was chosen as he is the patron saint of warriors.

If you look up towards the roof in the nave you will see several large painted lozenge or diamond shaped panels of wood. These are called hatchments.

Hatchments would be put on display during the funerals of people called the gentry around 150 years ago.

They were only for the wealthiest people in the area, like the Johnson family who lived nearby at Ayscoughfee Hall. The hatchments would also be hung above the doorway of the family home for up to a year afterwards as a sign that someone had died in that house.

On the hatchment is a coat-of-arms. These were originally granted by Royalty to reward men who provided ‘men at arms’ during battles.

This hatchment was designed for Caroline Johnson, who died in 1871

Trail sheet 4

How does this church make you feel?

Take a moment to sit quietly on one of the pews and look around you. You can use all but one of your senses. What can you see? What can you hear? What can you smell? What can you touch?

Many years ago there were no pews to sit on as you were meant to stand during the church service which could last up to two hours! The floor was divided into smaller places with high sided wooden walls. There would not have been any heating.

The Church had become very run down before Victorian times but one of the Vicars, called Canon Edward Moore, decided that the Church needed restoring. Many of the local wealthy families paid for new windows, a new lectern, a new roof and new furniture.

A famous architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (one of his designs was St Pancras Railway Station in London) led the team of 30 men who took over 2 years to finish the work on the Church and the tower, which was falling down. How do you think the local people would have felt about the Church after it was smartened up?

When people come to a Christian church for a service they are called a congregation. In this Church people worship God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Worship may include prayer, praise and silence. Anyone may come into this Church when it is open to look around, to sit quietly, pray or to light a candle. Some people come to say thank you to God or to ask for God’s help or encouragement. There are at least ten other Christian churches in Spalding and they work closely together to serve the whole community.

Other religions also have sacred places of worship, which may be called different names e.g. mosques, temples or synagogues.

Trail sheet 5

The Johnson Family Trail

The Johnson family lived at nearby Ayscoughfee Hall for over 240 years. They would have come to this Church each week to worship. Several members of the family even became vicars of this Church.

Take a look at the hatchment high up on the nave wall of Reverend Maurice Johnson who was vicar of the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas about 190 years ago. You will be able to see the same Johnson family coat-of-arms again at Ayscoughfee Hall.

The Johnsons were a wealthy and influential local family and you can find their family coat-of-arms and name in many different places in the Church.

Can you find any more

Johnson family links

in or around the

Church?

Ideas for back in school

· Visit your local church or religious place and go on a symbol hunt. Are they the same or different to the ones you found at St Mary and St Nicolas in Spalding?

· Write a poem about visiting a sacred place, like a church, using your senses to describe what it was like. Imagine the person who is reading your poem has never visited such a place before.

· Use any sketches or digital photographs taken inside a sacred place to help you paint a picture of your favourite part.

· Create a simple angel out of wood patterned paper (old wallpaper sample books are a good source of paper or print some sheets of wood patterns on the computer). Try making a large-scale class angel and use it during a sharing assembly with the rest of the school.

· Find out more about what your local sacred place does. Does it run any clubs or groups for adults, young people or children? Is it raising money for a particular charity at the moment? Is there someone you could invite into school to explain more about your local sacred place?

Investigating the lives of the rich and poor in Tudor times at Ayscoughfee Hall

Pre-visit ideas

Aim: Life at Ayscoughfee Hall during Tudor times.

Research images of the first Tudor king of England, King Henry VII and create a washing line of dates and images to show where the Tudors fitted into history.

At the Museum

You may like to start in the Ayscoughfee Hall Room on the first floor exploring the handling box and then visit other parts of Ayscoughfee Hall and Gardens using one the activity sheets.

Trail sheets 6 and 7

Aim: Exploring the house of a wealthy Tudor merchant.

Discovering how the rich lived by exploring Ayscoughfee Hall, identifying key features of the Tudor home outside and inside.

Trail sheets 8 and 9

Aim: What were the differences between rich and poor people in Tudor times?

Looking at a Tudor household and exploring the roles of people within the house.

Museum handling box

In the Ayscoughfee Hall Room you will find a resource box with objects and information sheets to help you discover more about how we think Tudor life may have been like at Ayscoughfee Hall. Allow about 40 minutes to explore the kitchen and handling box.

In the handling box are:

· Replica Tudor household artefacts, mystery objects and information sheets

· Dressing up costumes of young Tudors to try on (male and female headwear)

· Cooking herbs and spices to smell

· Copies of Thomas Wimberley’s household inventory of 1616

· Copy of Sir Nicholas Aldwyn’s will of 1506

· Historical maps of Ayscoughfee Hall

Trail sheet 6

Exploring the house of a wealthy Tudor merchant

Ayscoughfee Hall

The person who paid for Ayscoughfee Hall to be built is thought to have been Richard Aldwyn, a prosperous wool merchant, and he clearly intended that the house should be as grand as possible. Brick was a very expensive building material to use in Lincolnshire.

The Aldwyns were rapidly climbing the social scale at the time and

Richard's son, Sir Nicholas Aldwyn, was to become Lord Mayor of London in 1499. After his death his will of 1506 mentions, 'my grete place at Spalding'. This might refer to Ayscoughfee Hall or to another large medieval house that no longer survives in Spalding. What do you think?

Using historical evidence

Archaeological investigations and research whilst Ayscoughfee Hall underwent repairs and refurbishment, have shed new light on the history of the building and its owners.

We now know that the hall is one of the most complete great British medieval houses to have survived from the 15th century. Tree-ring dating of the timbers used in the construction of the building show that the hall, wings and tower were built in one carefully planned project, in the early 1450s.

We can also discover more about the building and the people who lived

here by looking at wills and inventories. These tell us more about the

rooms, household possessions and wealth of the owners.

These records are usually held at local Record or Archive Offices or the

National Archive at Kew in London.

In the entrance hall take a closer look at the model of Ayscoughfee Hall to the left. We believe from research and evidence found that this is how the house would have looked in early Tudor times.

The house is an ‘H’ shape with the hall at the heart of the house. All living and eating went on in this space with a central open hearth to heat the room.

The plaster ceiling above was added hundreds of years later. The smoke from the fire would have escaped through a hole in the wooden roof above.

This is the west front, or front of the Hall.

Trail sheet 7

Exploring the house of a wealthy Tudor merchant

Ground floor

Standing in the main entrance hall to the museum you are in what would have been the main or great hall of Ayscoughfee Hall. This was the hub of a wealthy house.

There would be a dais which was a raised platform. The master of the house and his family or friends would sit at tables on the dais. Everyone else sat at trestle tables further down the hall - this was called ‘sitting below the salt’. Salt was expensive and would only be available on the top table.

On the next floor high up on the right would have been a minstrels’ gallery where musicians entertained the guests in the hall.

The hall was lit by two-storey oriel windows on opposite sides of the room – only one remains. The stained glass is not the original but was added much later. The two windows would have lit the hall all day with the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

Can you spot the small window high in the wall on the right side of the painting? This was called a ‘squint’ and was used to watch what was happening in the hall, possibly by servants looking to see how the meal was progressing.

Upper floor

In early Tudor times the Hall would still have been just one storey with earth floors and the roof beams visible. The plaster ceiling was added centuries later as styles changed. The Tower room up the stairs and to the left explains more about the Aldwyn household.

The Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

Whilst Ayscoughfee Hall was being built the parish church nearby was also undergoing some major building work. The pillars inside the nave had been raised a further two metres and the roof replaced, new windows were added above the nave arches and a new East and West windows added. A spire was added to the tower and a north porch was built with a room above.

During the reign of King Henry VIII, the Priory of Spalding, which had originally built the Church in the thirteenth century, had all its wealth and income seized by the King as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. Eventually, Sir Anthony Oldfield became the patron of the Church, thus having the power to appoint a Vicar; he in turn established a trust of a group of local wealthy men called feoffees, one of whom was Bevile Wimberley, owner of Ayscoughfee Hall in 1616. The feoffees continue to fulfil this role today.

The Grammar School in St.Thomas’s Chapel in the Church was established with a charter from Elizabeth 1. It is possible that the sons of the owners of Ayscoughfee Hall may have attended the school. Girls were taught at home about how to run a household.

Trail sheet 8

What were the differences between rich and poor in Tudor times?

Take the curved stairs to the left of the hall. You are now in the Medieval Hall Room or Tower Room. This is where the master of the Hall and his family had their private chambers or rooms.

There was a private doorway on the ground floor for the family to use. You can still see the stone newel stairs in the turret in the corner. Below this room is the undercroft which was a secure room for keeping valuable possessions safe.

The stairs would also take you up to another floor above which were probably his wife’s private rooms. Next door was a small garderobe turret or lavatory. You can also see a stone step which was recently uncovered showing where a doorway was once located.

As a wealthy man, the owner of the house would want to show his wealth to guests at Ayscoughfee Hall. The walls would probably have had expensive tapestries covering them for warmth and possibly a few mats or small carpets on the floor. Often the floors were just covered in straw or rushes with herbs thrown on to disguise the bad smells!

Tudor Society

Kings and Queens

They were born into the Royal family or fought wars to win the monarchy.

Gentlemen

They were born into rich titled families. They lived at Court or on their large country estates and may be called Earls or Barons.

Yeoman and Citizens

These were also wealthy men but who had made their money through farming (Yeomans) or trade (Citizens or Merchants). They would employ labourers to work for them.

Labourers

They earned a living working for small amounts of money and would have a small piece of land on which to grow crops and food.

Vagabonds and Beggars

They had no work, money or land so had to beg in the streets and rely on the charity of wealthy people or the local church. Vagabonds were people who left their villages in search of work. This was illegal at this time.

The whole household would have worshipped at the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas next door every Sunday. New laws made it compulsory to go to church and you could be arrested and fined if you did not. Churchwardens were responsible for checking up on people!

Sir Nicholas and his family would have been expected to give money to the church to help look after the buildings and provide charity for the poor. During Queen Elizabeth 1’s reign a Poor Law was introduced which made parishes responsible for providing food and shelter for their local poor and homeless.

Trail sheet 9

Comparing the lives of the Tudor rich and poor

Leave the Medieval Hall Room and walk along the gallery above the hall, and past the oriel stained glass window on the left.

Further on the left you will see a clear door covering the entrance to a passageway leading down to the ground floor. It has a brick cross-vaulted ceiling and only recently been uncovered during renovations to the Hall. It was an entrance staircase from the back of the house. Only five stone steps remain. Part of the wall was broken through when an arched cupboard was put in the library in the nineteenth century. You can see the wood sticking out from the wall.

Half way down the wall is a blocked up small window that would have originally lit the staircase. You can also see the wooden arch of the cupboard added to the ground floor library in the 1840s set into the wall.

The large room to the right (now a gallery about The Fens) is thought to be a guest chamber and possibly a ‘manorial’ hall where the Lord of the Hall would deal with estate business.

It is possible that the door by the staircase was where travellers could call to ask for a bed and food for the night. Wealthy merchants could afford to be generous to the poor who may have arrived at the porch at the bottom of the staircase to ask for ‘alms’ or charity.

The porter had a room on the ground floor to answer the door and deal with any visitors, day or night. The number of poor people was increasing as farmers moved from growing crops to keeping sheep, as keeping sheep needed fewer workers.


· We don’t have a portrait of Sir Nicholas so we can only guess, so do some research to find out what a wealthy Tudor merchant (or Lord Mayor of London) might have looked like and create a portrait of him. What would he wear to show his high status?

· Research your local area to see how it was affected by the Dissolution of the Monasteries during Henry VIII’s reign.

· Write a short play using some of the characters from the Aldwyn household. How do you think people behaved with each other? There were those who gave the orders at the top of the house and those who did the all work!

· Investigate hats and headwear that would have been worn in about 1499 by members of the household and make some patterns. Wear them for your play to show the different roles and status of people.

· Investigate your local church to see if it was there during the Tudor period. If it was then see what you can find out about its history from that time.

Life in Victorian times at Ayscoughfee Hall

Pre-visit ideas

Aim: Living at Ayscoughfee Hall in Victorian times.

Ask the class to bring in pictures of their own homes or pictures from magazines of houses they like and make a collage board of all the images.

Discuss they different parts of a house with the various rooms their functions and features. Label a simple drawing or photograph of a house.

Make pairs of large snap cards from A4 card. Collect two colour copies of a variety of styles of house, e.g. bungalow, castle, stately home, caravan, tent, detached, semi-detached house, terraced houses and cottage. Divide the card in two with a black line and paste an image at the top with the type of house written underneath. Play small group snap.

At the Museum

You may like to start in the Victorian library of Ayscoughfee Hall and then the Victorian kitchen where there is a handling box. Use one or more of the trail and activity sheets.

Trail sheet 10

Aim: To identify differences between homes of now and long ago.

Explore the Victorian interior of large house and the lives of the family who lived there.

Trail sheet 11

Aim: Discovering more about the links between Ayscoughfee Hall and the nearby Church

Exploring the local connections in Victorian daily life.

Trail sheet 12

Aim: Finding out about domestic life in a Victorian kitchen.

Discover more about the life of the servants in a large Victorian house.

Museum handling box

In the Victorian kitchen you will find a resource box with objects and information sheets to help you discover more about how we think the kitchen at Ayscoughfee Hall was like during Victorian times.

In the handling box are:

· Kitchen utensils, mystery objects and information sheets

· Pictures of servants and information about their different roles at the Hall

· Dressing up costumes of young Victorian servants to try on (mob caps, aprons, a corset, boy’s hat and waistcoat)

· Cooking herbs and spices to smell

· Copies of the census from 1851 and 1901

· Marriage certificate of Isabella and Maurice Johnson

· Illustrations of Ayscoughfee Hall from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Allow about 40 minutes to explore the kitchen and handling box.

Trail sheet 10

Victorian family life at Ayscoughfee Hall

The hall was built over five hundred and fifty years ago in about 1450 during medieval times. It was built for a rich person. We know that because brick was a very expensive material to build with at that time.

Over the years people who have lived in the hall have made many changes to it. The house you see today is very similar to how it would have looked in Victorian times and so has looked the same for about the past hundred and fifty years.

Look closely at the coat-of-arms above the front door. This was the coat-of-arms for the Johnson family who lived at the Hall for over 240 years. You will see the same coat of arms in the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas next door.

Go into the hall through the main entrance and turn right to go into the Library. The wall panels and arch-headed cupboard in the room next door are made from expensive dark wood called mahogany. This room was a place for the Johnson family to sit and read. Today these rooms are now used to hold civil wedding ceremonies. In the displays are objects from the collection of the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society, which started one of the very first museums in this country.

During Victorian times Ayscoughfee Hall was owned by Mr Maurice Johnson. He lived here with his second wife Isabella and their daughter Mary. They lived here until 1851. Maurice Johnson was the sixth Maurice to live here. His father, grandfather, great grandfather, great-great grandfather and great-great-great grandfather were all called Maurice too!

After Maurice died his widow Isabella sold the Hall to a committee of Spalding citizens in 1898 and eventually it became the Museum you see today.

You can see portraits of Maurice and Isabella Johnson hanging by the marble fireplace near the library.

Trail sheet 11

Links between the Hall and the Church

The Johnson family had very close links with the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas. It was the family’s parish church.

The grandfather of Maurice Johnson, whose portrait hangs in the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society Room, was the Reverend Maurice Johnson who was vicar of the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas until 1825. For 43 years he would have walked the short distance between the Hall and the Church.

Another connection is Maurice Johnson’s uncle, the Reverend Walter Maurice Johnson. He was one of the Masters of the Grammar School which was located in an upstairs room in St.Thomas’s Chapel in the Church.

Reverend Maurice Johnson

The Johnson family motto was ‘Onus sub honore’ which means ‘Honour matters more than life’s burden’. The family coat of arms can be found in different places in the Hall and the Church next door.

Most of the middle and upper class Victorian families went to church. On a Sunday there were three services at 10 o’clock, 3 o’clock and 6 o’clock. There were also services at a quarter to nine on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings and twice on Wednesday and Friday. The number of people who came to church on a Sunday could be between 450 and 1230 people at each of the three services.

Wealthy Victorians were expected to give money and help to support local poor families. This was often done through church groups. One group was called the Spalding Blanket Society. In one year, its members collected 60 blankets to give to 60 poor families. Victorian families would give money to the church during the church services and support activities such as clothes collections, whist drives and other ‘entertainments’.

Victorian children would also be expected to go to Sunday School at the Church to learn more about the stories and teachings of Jesus and the Bible. They could also join the Choir to learn to sing hymns at the services. Children were not allowed to play with toys on a Sunday, instead they were expected to read religious books, take walks or visit their families.

Trail sheet 12

Victorian Kitchen Life

This part of the house has been here for over five hundred years ago and originally may have been a parlour or sitting room. During Victorian times the room was changed into a kitchen.

The Johnson family had many servants looking after them. We found out who the servants were who looked after the family and the house by looking at a census from 1851.

William Sutton

Footman

George Westmorland

Coachman

Thomas Baynton

Gardener

Thomas Goolding

Page

Elizabeth Seward

Nurse

Harriet Allen

Cook

Eliza Barker

Housemaid

Fanny Arnold

Housemaid

Huly Butterwich

Kitchenmaid

Sarah Doughty

Lady’s maid

During Victorian times the life of a servant was hard work. The only time off they may have had was to go to church or to visit their families, if they lived nearby. All the servants working at Ayscoughfee Hall would have been expected to go to the services at St Mary and St Nicolas Church at least once, if not twice, on a Sunday.

The local church was often the only place people could go to meet friends outside of their houses. The wealthy families were expected to give charity to help schools, orphans, the poor, unemployed or homeless in the local parish.

Take a look at the oven, or range as it was called. It was fitted into what was a very old fireplace. The range was made from cast iron and a fire was kept lit all day to heat water and cook food. Cakes and joints of meat were cooked inside and saucepans and kettles used on top.

The ‘best’ china was kept on display on the shelves above the range. All the work was done at the large wooden table in the middle of the room. Take a close look at the kitchen table. You will find some jelly moulds, a ricer (long metal handled object) for mashing cooked potato and a wooden sieve for getting the lumps out of flour. The white bowl, called a mortar, and the wooden handled object called a pestle were used for crushing salt, sugar or spices.


· Collect different examples of images of key Victorian architectural features such as windows or doors. Create an exhibition of the images. Write stories about the different people who might have lived and worked at Ayscoughfee Hall behind the different doors or windows.

· Create a short play based on the Johnson family and their servants to show what life might have been like for them. Decide on the types of characters, how they might have behaved and how they worked together. Share the short play with the rest of the school during a sharing assembly.

· Do some research on your local church to find out more about its history and some of the people who may have been in the congregation on a Sunday in Victorian times? Are there any particular local families who are linked to that church?

· Look at census returns for your local area and then see if you can locate the same family names on the gravestones in the local churchyard.

Photocopy activity sheet 1

The Church Trail

Make notes or quick sketches of something you found interesting in the Church.


The Johnson Family Trail

You are looking for any clues about the Johnson family who lived at Ayscoughfee Hall and have links to the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas.

At Ayscoughfee Hall

Resources

At the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas


The Tudor Trail


The Victorian Trail

Map resources

The Pinchbeck map of the Fens circa mid C15th

The map was painted by monks to record their properties in the area.

The Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas is the second church from the bottom, on the right hand side of the map.

Image courtesy of the National Archives

Map of 1779 showing Ayscoughfee Hall and the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas in Spalding

Ayscoughfee Hall is shown with an oval driveway.

Extract from the Plan of Spalding from Armstrong’s Map of Lincolnshire, June 1779

Image courtesy of the British Library

Ordnance Survey map of 1888

Ordnance Survey map of Spalding. The Hall and Church are midway up on the right.

Crown copyright, Ordnance Survey Limited

Ordnance Survey map of 1888, enlargement of the hall and the Church

Ordnance Survey map of Spalding. Holyrood House was demolished in the 1950s.

Crown copyright, Ordnance Survey Limited

The Parish Church of

St Mary & St Nicolas

Spalding

Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens

Telephone01775 764555

Website

�HYPERLINK "http://www.ayscoughfee.org"�www.ayscoughfee.org�

Email

�HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]"�[email protected]�

Address Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens�Churchgate�Spalding�Lincolnshire�PE11 2RA

Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas

Telephone01775 722772

Website

�HYPERLINK "http://www.spaldingchurches.org"�www.spaldingchurches.org�

Email

[email protected]

AddressThe Parish Office

St Mary and St Nicolas Church

1 Halmer Gate

Spalding

Lincolnshire

PE11 2DR

On the left of the door is a statue of St Mary and on the right is St Nicolas. In the middle is Jesus.

Take a look at the shields the angels are carrying. Are they all the same?

Why do you think there are angels looking down on us?

This is called a rood screen. Why do you think there is such a large cross hanging above it?

Can you spot the Johnson family’s coat-of-arms?

The chancel ceiling.

On this side is an aumbry which is a cupboard where the bread and wine were kept for the communion service.

To this side of the altar is a piscina which was used to wash holy plates and cups.



The altar.

This is a modern organ loft and not as it would have looked when the church was first built. There are also several pianos in this church.

The whole building is built mostly from limestone which came from quarries in Barnack near Stamford.


The Chancel ceiling.


Look up at the carvings just under the roof. Some are for decoration but others have a job to do. The carvings with a spout are called gargoyles. They can look quite scary but they help to take water away from the roof when it is raining.




To this side of the altar is a piscina which is used to wash Holy plates and cups.

To this side of the altar is a piscina which is used to wash Holy plates and cups.




St Mary, the mother of Jesus in a blue robe.

St Nicolas, patron saint of children in a green robe.

When you first came into the church what sort of things were you thinking or feeling? You’ll need some good describing words to help.

Was the inside of the church how you imagined it would be?

Think up some words to help describe the church building to someone who could not see it for themselves.

How do you think people should behave in church?

In marble

In wood

In slate

In stained glass

Tree ring dating is called dendrochronology

Why do you think Richard Aldwyn wanted to build a house that looked like this?

We know that after Sir Nicholas died neither his son, nor his nephew, lived beyond 26 years so the house was sold and the poor benefited from the sale!

In Sir Nicholas Aldwyn’s will he requested that if his son and then his nephew did not live beyond 26 years old the hall was to be sold and the money raised given to support the poor of Spalding.

What sort of Victorian family do you think lived in this house?

Did any of your family live in your house before you?

On the walls of the Parish Church.

On the front of Ayscoughfee Hall.

On things that they owned.

On Sundays servants were expected to work only on ‘essential’ duties.

Why did you find this interesting?

Signs and symbols you discovered in the Church.

Key things not to miss on your visit. . .

Carved angels(

Altar(

Rood cross(

West window(

Font(

Painted ceiling(

Pulpit(

Organ(

Hatchments(

1-2 symbols = OK

3-4 symbols = Good

5+ symbols = Brilliant!

2

1

3

1

3

2

Any other evidence you have found ?

Make notes of any evidence you discover about life in Tudor times in the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas.

Make notes of any evidence you discover about life in Tudor times at Ayscoughfee Hall.

Make notes of any evidence you discover about life in Victorian times in the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicolas.

Make notes of any evidence you discover about life in Victorian times in the Ayscoughfee Hall.

Documents

St Mary and St Nicolas, Spalding€¦ · Web viewA famous architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (one of his designs was St Pancras Railway Station in London) led the team of 30 men