History at The Wilderness as we mark our first week back

This was MYP3’s chance to get out into the landscape with the joy of a double session of humanities. We are exploring culture, so where better to think about 18th and 19th century culture than the Wilderness.

From our classroom deep within the ancient woodland we contemplated the music, literature, behaviour and social structure that the inhabitants of the original “Hill House” would have experienced in the late 1600’s and into the 18th Century.

Few could fail to be inspired by the breathtaking landscape and deep history of the Wilderness and our second lesson was about creating our own piece of culture. We had with us some artefacts associated (maybe some a little tenuously) with the site. Amongst these were some Iron Age coins of the Dubonni tribe who occupied these parts over two thousand years ago. From the Wilderness we can see the Iron Age Welshbury Hill fort and we are determined at some stage to find some evidence of prehistoric occupancy on our own hill.

We also had a Christmas tin from 1914, a festive gift from Princess Mary to those brave souls on the front during the early stages of World War 1. It is interesting to note that the house ceased to be a private residence in 1919, perhaps a consequence of the Great War.

Armed with artefacts, the landscape, architecture and another amazing sunny day, our students created poetry, narrative, photography and drawings reflecting their own musings on the matter of culture.

After school we stayed on to test out our new pop up observatory in anticipation of Astronomy Club 2021. The Wilderness offers amazing learning opportunities by day and by night, as a school we are exceptionally fortunate to have this facility.