Fortifying our Learning 

I hope you like the accompanying images of 7G’s Motte and Bailey castles. They were all constructed at home in the space of seven days as part of their History homework. Under normal circumstances these fortifications would have taken the Normans (or rather the English villagers under the control of the Normans), about two to three weeks to build, using mainly wood from the surrounding locality.

As you can see, the class produced some amazing models, each of which was worthy of distinction. At this point, I will pass over to Drew Doherty, who will give you his own insight into the homework, and the reasons why these fortifications were built.  “Our homework task was to recreate the kind of castle the Normans used to control England after they had successfully beaten the English King, Harold, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

These protective fortifications were called ‘Motte and Bailey’ castles, and they were simple in design so that they could be constructed in under 10 days. They were initially built to only last a few months, even though we can see many of the ‘mottes’ dotted around the English and Welsh countryside to this day.  This was a very enjoyable homework task because we got to combine creativity, learning and arts and crafts to produce accurate models”. -Drew Doherty 7G