On Wednesday 2nd of March Ullswater class visited Tullie House, and on Friday 4th March, it was Coniston and Windermere’s turn.  What an exciting day the children had! 

At the museum, there were two live Vikings.  First, the Viking lady demonstrated how they had managed to travel to Britain from Scandinavia and showed the children a replica belt buckle - explaining that this particular style had only ever been found in Cumwhitton.  She discussed the principle of trading items, and then allowed the children to touch a variety of furs. 

Next it was the turn of the male Viking to show us how to fight and defend ourselves.  He showed the different techniques used for axes, spears and swords before using a red cabbage (!) to show the strength of chain mail and the power of the weapons. 

The children also visited the museum’s Viking section and completed a detective sheet, where they had to find facts from replica graves in Cumwhitton. Here, the children also created their own Thor’s hammer necklace.  In another workshop the children got to try their hand at grinding wheat, kneading dough, looming, handling artefacts, writing their names in runes and acting out the myth of Thor’s hammer.