Who doesn’t know about the year 1066 when, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says, “Harold became consecrated as king, and he experienced little quietness in it while he ruled the kingdom.”

Monday’s trip to Battle Abbey in East Sussex was an exciting opportunity for our Year 7 historians to visit the site where William of Normandy vanquished Harold Godwinson, thereby changing the course of English history. The girls had a tour of the battlefield, as well as the remains of the Abbey that William built to atone for the blood shed on 14 October 1066, and where a stone has been laid to mark the spot where Harold is thought to have fallen on that fateful day. Year 7 learnt about the impact of the Conquest, which not only took England out of the Scandinavian orbit, reorienting it to look to the Continent, but also explored feudalism and monastic life. While one group called on their musical and linguistic skills to do some antiphonal singing in Latin, another evaluated the extent to which monasteries were developed with an investigation of the garderobe!

The History Department was delighted to see the keenness with which Year 7 explored Medieval England, and even the massive traffic jam that we hit en route could not dim their enthusiasm!

Miss Boon, Head of History