Viking longhouse trip
Year 4 had an excellent time at the Ancient Technology Centre. After an hour travelling through the New Forest, we finally arrived in Cranbourne welcomed by our three Viking hosts, Andy, Anthony and Mel. The children were given a brief tour of the site before finding a place to store their belongings and get started on their jobs. Costumed up and tools in hand, the children were set to work washing and chopping vegetables, making butter or chopping wood and mining for chalk outside.
Lunch was a simple ploughman's style lunch but the children had certainly worked up an appetite and so it was devoured before swapping groups and heading of to carry out some more jobs.
During the afternoon, our indoor group prepared the food for dinner whilst the outside group got crafty and tried their hand at natural fabric dyeing using onion skins and nettles.
Later in the day, the children were taught some traditional Scandinavian games and then dinner was served. Vegetable and barley stew with the option of chicken and homemade flatbread. Dessert was Stewed apples and whipped cream. It's fair to stay that not all the children appreciated the hearty supper but all of them did at least try it.
Later in the evening, we were really lucky to have Andy visit us again to do some excellent and fascinating story telling around the log fire. The children, by this point, were all tucked up in their sleeping bags. Some fell asleep listening to the stories, others reserved sleep for much later.
All in all, it was a brilliant trip and so much fun had by all. Enjoy looking through the MANY photos!
