Time Lord visits CDPS

(January 2010) Year 8 were visited on 21st January by the Time Lord, Dave Lord to be precise, a time traveller from seventeenth century England. He brought a new dimension to the history classroom when he introduced pupils to the bloodiest turmoil this country has ever witnessed – the English Civil War.

Pupils were fascinated by his gory stories of the toilet habits, injuries and blight of the people involved in the Civil War. One pupil explained that she really liked the story about “how they had to put the pooey bullets in their mouths.” Georgia Murray explained how she enjoyed the day because he made her laugh with stories about the “sausage trimmer!” Pupils loved the experience of learning outside the classroom. Kerry Stehle said “we’d been learning about the causes of the war in class and it was really good learn to learn about the battlefields. I didn’t realise that they drank beer on the battlefields because the water was so dirty!”

There were many enthusiastic volunteers to try on the authentic, seventeenth century clothes. Opportunities to dress up as Cavaliers, Roundheads, pikemen and musketeers were presented to pupils, as well as the chance to see how women of this period dressed. Their enthusiasm did not dwindle when our time traveller offered the experience of handling genuine seventeenth century weaponry!

Clemmie Livingston “It was fantastic how we got to try on all the costumes and fight with real swords. Lauren Barker was “surprised that we were allowed to handle not only real weapons, but weapons that were 300 years old!” Max Lukaweckyi said that he had “also learned a lot about how the weapons like the bone crusher could crush your bones with one swing and how the bacon slicer, could slice off your skin! But my favourite was the musket ball gun!”
In a response from Mr Lord, he expressed his delight at Year 8’s enjoyment and interest on the day and wished to thank our pupils. He said “an impression certainly had been made”, and he “hopes our association will continue.” He went on to say he looks forward to seeing Year 7 next year!