History Day with THS
A Living Archive
On Monday 8th July 2019 all the children who then attended Turvey Primary School took part in a Local History Day. This archive records the six activities that made up the day.
The Parish Walk
The Victorian School
Water Colour painting after the manner of John Longuet Higgins
Imaginary Diary Writing’ Inspired by the diaries of Marigo Argenti
The importance of the Mill in Turvey History
Bread making (Reception Class only)
The Parish Walk
The children walked from the present school in May Road to the old Victorian School which is now the Village Hall. They stopped at important village sites on the way and learnt about their history. Amongst them were the Cross, the Church, The Three Cranes and Ye Three Fyshes pubs. They looked at Turvey House and the Old Mill; the river bridge and Jonah and his wife. They walked to Nell’s Well and learnt about interesting private houses, including those which were formerly Non-Conformist Chapels. These are the photographs taken along the way.
The Victorian School.
The Village Hall had been set out with rows of tables and chairs and an easel blackboard. Children were given slates and slate pens to write with and facsimiles of Victorian school reading books to read. There was a portrait of Queen Victoria, and several stuffed birds in glass cases helped create the atmosphere of a typical school at that time. The school teacher had a cane; she used it to bang on the desk for hand inspection. As far as possible the lessons followed the pattern of a Victorian school. Playtime was more fun, with authentic metal hoops, whips and tops, skittles and yo-yos the children enjoyed time in the ‘playground’ The children also heard about the Lace Schools in the village and were able to help. make a piece of lace for themselves. Thanks to The Higgins Museum Bedford for providing artefacts for use during the day.
Water Colour paintings of Turvey Mill
An exhibition of the water colour paintings of John Longuet Higgins (reproduced by courtesy of the Revd John Longuet Higgins) was set up in school. Children were encouraged by visiting water colour artists to paint their version of Turvey Mill, using the paintings in the exhibition as inspiration. Photographs of the day and a selection of the children’s paintings follows.
Imaginary Diary writing
Marigo (Marigold) Argenti, who lived at Picts Hill in the late nineteenth early twentieth century kept a diary in which she recorded the family’s day to day activities. The children were encouraged to read the facsimiles in Marigo’s own hand, written when she was ten years old, and try to re-create their own diary. Extracts are reproduced below. Thanks to the Bedfordshire Archive Service for allowing us to use extracts from the diaries. (NB Some children wrote diaries of their own lives; to protect family confidentiality these have not been included and have been destroyed.)
Turvey Mill Discovery Activity
The aim of this activity was to show how life has changed in the village in the centuries since the existence of a mill was first recorded in Turvey, in Domesday Book written in 1086. The children were given a series of documents and asked to explain the changes to a fictitious figure from outer space and to draw up a time line to show the change in use of the mill. These are some of the results, and photographs of children working on the project. The use of modern technology in this project is interesting.
Bread Making
The youngest children in the school took part in the Victorian school and the Village Walk but spent their afternoon baking bread and learning how a Victorian family would have to work hard to feed themselves.
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