WORKSHOP 2. Parish and parish church.
The local parish church has nearly fallen down many times but people have built it up again and improved it. Scroll down the page to the Background Notes to discover more about St. James' Church.
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES.
To help detectives discover more about the Parish Church building, how it has changed over the centuries and how old it is.
To demonstrate how the shape of windows can help a heritage detective work out the age of a church building
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To help detectives develop skills of observation and research and experience the joy of discovery
WORDS AND DEFINITIONS
Parish, Parish Church
RESOURCES NEEDED
Clip boards, view finder sheets, old photos, plastic covers and pencils.
TOOLS NEEDED
View Finders
Timelines - window timelines and general timeline
Old pictures of Norton Church
SKILLS LEARNED
Heritage Detectives are able to use an old photograph to identify what is different and what is the same.
They are able to use information to answer the question 'Why?'
They can use a timeline to locate information in time.
THE QUEST. To discover if Arthur would recognise this church.
Earlier in the week
The heritage detectives found a Treasures Box and inside they found:
A stack of pictures of church buildings in an envelope with a note on “ which one is St James’ Church Norton and how old is it?
Plan of development of the building through the centuries
An architectural drawing of latest build.
A page from the book of donors to the 1878 restoration - George Walker gave £200
Some old photos of Norton church including one of the west wall propped up
Also in the treasures box Merlin’s notes and discoveries about the windows he has seen over the centuries. He has made a timeline of window shapes.
QUESTING TASK ONE
Which of this stack of pictures is St James' Church Norton?
The detectives are not sure.
Each couple takes a picture of a church, puts it on their Viewfinder sheet and goes outside to see if their picutre is Norton church.
One couple finds that the picture is of Norton church but even then there is a question mark because the picture does not quite tally with what they can see with their eyes. Why?
To find the answer the detectives look for more clues. They look again at some of the other material from the Treasures Box and discover that the extension has been built very recently. They also find that the church has been repaired and rebuilt many times, so it is old but how old?
To find the answer the detectives look for more clues. They look again at some of the other material from the Treasures Box and discover that the extension has been built very recently, They also find that the church has been repaired and rebuilt many times, so it is old but how old?
Then they find the window timeline and off they go again looking at the shape of windows. This time they find one very old window but it is inside the building why? They discover what this means and begin to work out the age of the building.
Look at their own timelines and find that the shape of the windows comes from before Arthur's time so he might recognise
QUESTING TASK TWO
The church has nearly fallen down several times but people have always found the money to restore it. How do you know?
They remember the information about George Walker and Miss Beechill in the Treasures Box
BACKGROUND NOTES
A Parish Church sits in an ecclesiastical parish. Norton Parish Church has been in a parlous state many time but the people of the parish have built it up again and improved it.