All the information on this and our sister web site for heritage detectives is available as an activity for schools either as a stand alone activity or as an integral part of a school topic or programme.
The material we can offer teachers has been trialled in several ways since it was first introduced during the Stories from the Stones pilot in 2007. The pilot, which was funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, put the focus on the ecclesiastical parish and the parish church - if the walls of a parish church could speak what stories would they tell? Parish churches remain at the heart of all quest activity as these remarkable buildings carry the community memory. They are also well documented buildings and can make easy links to the place and its people over the centuries.
In 2013/4 seven schools from the Pershore area took part in the Pershore Big Heritage Quest.
The activity took place over a twelve month period. Have a look through the Quest Archive to see what has been going on.
OLD PHOTOGRAPHS
We all walk in the footsteps of people who have gone before us, what we see around us may or may not be what they saw, things are always changing. Old photographs present us with evidence of that
change. It can be fascinating to compare and contrast an old photograph of a building with what we can see today. The photograph does not have to be very old for there to be
differences, maybe the colour of the paint has changed or the windows are different, or perhaps a whole new wing has been added or taken away. Go West is collecting an archive of old
photographs of buildings and country scenes. You will find it in the Time Traveller's Guide on our sister site.
CHURCH WINDOW SHAPES TIMELINE
Church buildings are wonderful buildings to explore heritage. In medieval times builders tended to build in the latest style; buttresses, window shapes and window tracery can all give clues to the age of a building. Windows especially offer ways to date a building (or a wall) so why not challenge yourself to date a church in this way. Download and refer to our windows timeline - but remember the Victorians often copied the styles when they restored old churches.
WONDER POINTS AND WONDER CARDS
Heritage Detectives out on a quest trail to discover what there is to see today that Arthur and his friends might recognise may be given an old photo as a clue. Their task will be to spot the image today, make comparisons with the photographic image to spot the changes and then decide if Arthur would recognise it. This is a 'WONDER POINT'. Detectives make WONDER CARDS for their Wonder Points, in doing this they learn and practise many skills. For more information visit the DETECTIVE SCHOOL.