We offer the following set presentations in school:

The Boudican Revolt

A chance to hear about this event from both the Roman and Celtic perspective, to look at their very different lifestyles and to explore the events of AD61. This session will take a whole morning or afternoon.

You are what you eat but are you worth your salt?

An opportunity to set a dining table using replica artefacts and to consider the food eaten by rich and poor in Medieval or Tudor England. There will also be a chance to compare the eating habits of rich and poor and the manners so crucial to your behaviour at the table.

This session will take a whole morning or afternoon.

Wartime Britain – The Home Front

Exploring the impact of wartime on family life – preparing for air raids, evacuation, make do and mend and rationing. Maybe even drilling with the Home Guard or putting out a pretend fire with a stirrup pump.

This session will take a whole morning or afternoon.

All Things New in Restoration England

When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 it was not just the King that was new - new fashions, new food, new furniture were just a few things that changed. London was then ravaged by first pestilence in 1665 and then fire in 1666. All this so graphically described in the diary of Samuel Pepys.

This presentation can be altered to be relevant to all age groups and will take a minimum of a whole morning or afternoon. Activities might include costume, medicine, writing with a quill, looking at ‘All Things New’, music, costume and exploring what happened when the Great Fire raged in London

A Passion for Fashion

Choose from Norman, Medieval or Tudor periods.

A chance to look at (and try) some of the weird and wonderful clothes of the time and discover who wore them and why.

Medicine and Disease

Choose from Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman, Medieval, Tudor or English Civil War.

Hear what our ancestors believed about health and disease and try some cures – if you dare!! Also suitable for the History of Medicine.

Portraits from the Past

A chance to explore what Tudor portraits tell us about the people in them and a chance to create your own.

Victorian School Room

Let your children experience a lesson as a Victorian child would have done. Write neatly on a slate, practice you times tables, do your sums and have an object lesson. Woe betide misdemeanours as the cane and Dunces Cap are waiting.

Victorian Wash Day

Let us bring a complete Victorian washroom into school and the children can have a hands in experience of doing the washing. From grating the soap to scrubbing the stains and doing the ironing.

Victorian Optical Illusions

The Victorian period was a time of amazing inventions and they were fascinated by the different ways of creating pictures that moved. This session will explore this area with a chance for the children to see examples of how images could be made to move. As part of this session the children will also have the chance to make their own moving image to keep.

Toys Past and Present

An opportunity to see how toys have changed since Victorian times using a collection of replica and original toys and games. There will be an opportunity for the children to try many of them out.
This session can be extended to look at Toys Through Time – a chance to look at toys from Roman times up to Wartime.

Artefact Handling

From the extensive array of artefacts that Hands on the Past possesses we can bring into school a selection of items to enhance a theme or period. This type of session would normally be run as a quiz where the children work in small groups to examine and work out what each item is.

Writing in the Past

Offer your children a chance to practice their writing using methods from the past – Roman wax tablets, writing using runes, becoming skilled with the quill and dip pen.
We can also offer a session on creating your own illuminated manuscript.

Roman Life

Anglo-Saxon Life

Viking Life

under development – World War 1 – at home and in the trenches

The cost for a session will vary depending on the number of presenters needed and the length of time required to present the session/s. Please contact Mandy London to discuss your requirements – we do keep our prices very competitive