History Educational Visit

The History Department took their Year 12 students to a Tudor source workshop hosted by Durham University and a walking tour of Durham Castle and Cathedral. Due to the location of Durham Sixth Form Centre, we are surrounded by quite a bit of important history and have good links with the local universities.

History students study three modules: The Wars of the Roses 1450-1499, The Tudors 1501-1603 and The United States of America 1865-1975. The city of Durham itself has links to all three of these and Durham University has an excellent archive relating to the Tudors especially.

Students took part in a workshop in which they were able to view real Tudor sources nearing 500 years old. The Durham University outreach team were very happy to have us in to analyse them and show students that sources are more than just printing text on a page. They also taught students some Paleography skills. Students are now quite adept at reading Late Medieval and Early Modern handwriting.

After this, we traced the path of the old city walls of Durham and found out about Durham’s autonomy in the Medieval and Early Modern period of history. We then moved along the peninsula of Durham and walked through the Cathedral on to Palace Green. We explored why the nobles of the Wars of the Roses wanted to secure the Prince-Bishopric of Durham, the impact of the Reformation on Durham Cathedral and made note of some local nobility who carried the name Wessington or Washington by some spellings who became quite a big deal in the late 1700s!

This also coincided with the graduation ceremonies for Durham University. Palace Green was crowded with all the celebrations going on but it made a lot of students think about university options and life beyond sixth form.

Overall, a good day out was had by all and we all learned something new about the city we all commute to everyday. It certainly made the students appreciate the significance of Durham in history.

We would like to extend special thanks to the Durham University Educational outreach team for such an informative session.