History Visits

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History Visits History Visits offers an interactive service in your school, bringing fun activities and artifacts to your children.

Exploring aspects of life in a variety of eras from the First century onwards. Talks and activities designed to give an insight into past times, for schools and all types of community groups. Topics include:
Native Britons and Invaders,
Life in the Iron age,
Celts and Roman Occupation
Dark ages, Medieval and Tudor life. Wars of the Roses, Henry and his Wives
Life as a camp follower during the Napoleonic Wars
Victorian School Day
WWI and The changing Role of Women
WWII and Life on the Home Front

School visits with a difference! Wearing period dress,
Let us Transport the museum to your school with Hands on Activities,
Handling collection of artefacts and replicas, Clothing, Armour & Weapons, Craft skills and Art styles, Drama, Storytelling, Games and Dance to explore how our ancestors lived.

13/09/2026

On September 11th 1297, The Battle of Stirling Bridge occurred. It was the scene of William Wallace's greatest triumph against the English.

The 'name' Wallace is an old Scots term meaning Welsh speaking or 'of Welsh stock' and although William Wallace was born and raised in Scotland, it is almost certain that his ancestors were Welsh. The Wallaces left Oswestry, which up until that time was in Wales, for Scotland around the year 1170.

The town of Stirling was the key entry point to the north of Scotland and a mighty English Army under the command of the Earl of Surrey had arrived in Stirling on a mission to put down Scots resistance to English rule. The Scots waited until half of the English force had crossed the bridge. Then William Wallace led a charge that cut into the unprepared English, splitting their army in two, and reinforcements from the far bank could only be sent in twos across the bridge. Most of the men who had crossed were killed by the Scots and the English baggage train was captured. Surrey fled south to Berwick.

Wallace went on to lead a destructive raid into northern England and by March 1298, he had emerged as Guardian of Scotland. His glory, however, was brief, for Edward I, who had returned from Flanders, led a force north himself. The two men finally met on the field of Falkirk in the summer of 1298, where Wallace was defeated and forced to go on the run.

Wallace evaded capture until 5 August 1305 when he was turned over to the English and transported to London, where he was tried and found guilty of treason. In his defence, his stated that he was never Edward's subject and, therefore, could not be a traitor. However on 23rd August 1305, he was stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to the Elms at Smithfield, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered, released whilst still alive, emasculated and his bowels burnt in front of him. He was then beheaded and his preserved head (dipped in tar) was placed on a pike on top of London Bridge.

13/09/2026

A burial mound in Denmark hid something extraordinary beneath the soil.

A Viking ship.

Not a wreck.

A grave.

In 1935, archaeologists excavating near the village of Ladby on the island of Funen uncovered the remains of a ship that had been dragged onto land and buried more than 1,000 years earlier.

The vessel was around 22 metres long.

Its wooden hull had largely decayed, but the shape of the ship was still preserved in the earth, along with hundreds of iron rivets that once held its planks together.

Then archaeologists realized what they were looking at.

This ship had not been abandoned.

It had been transformed into a tomb.

Sometime in the early 10th century, a powerful Viking man was placed inside the vessel and buried with objects, animals and equipment intended to reflect his status.

The burial included the remains of horses and dogs.

An iron anchor and heavy chain were placed inside the ship.

Decorative fittings, weapons and other objects were also discovered.

The ship itself became part of the funeral.

But at some point after the burial, the grave was reopened.

The body was removed.

Many valuable objects disappeared.

Whether this was grave robbery, a political act, or a deliberate attempt to destroy the memory of the dead man is still debated.

What remained was the outline of the ship.

The ironwork.

The animals.

And the evidence of an elaborate funeral performed more than a millennium ago.

Today, the Ladby ship is preserved where it was discovered.

Visitors are not looking at a reconstructed Viking ship.

They are looking at the actual impression left behind by one that was buried in the earth around 900 AD.

The wood has mostly vanished.

The man buried inside is gone.

But the ship’s shape is still there.

A vessel that once carried people across the water became the final resting place of someone important enough to be buried inside it.

More than 1,000 years later, the grave still preserves the outline of that final journey.

12/09/2026

I rarely post pictures of school visits, but have a little availability for workshops after half term.
Contact me for details

13/11/2025

Archaeologists have compiled the most detailed map yet of roads throughout the Roman Empire in AD 150, totalling almost 300,000 kilometres in length

My ancestor John Jones
21/10/2025

My ancestor John Jones

19/10/2025

On this day, 19th of October, 1216, King John of England drew his final breath in the castle of Newark-on-Trent. He was forty-nine years old, worn down by war, rebellion, and a lifetime of enemies. The man once called “John Lackland” left behind a kingdom in chaos and a legacy that would stain his name for centuries.

John had spent his final years running from disaster. The barons had turned against him after he broke every promise of the Magna Carta, that fragile peace agreement sealed just a year before. His reputation for greed and cruelty had spread across the realm. He had lost his father’s lands in France, taxed his nobles into fury, and quarreled with the Church until he was excommunicated. England, at the time of his death, was torn apart.

In the autumn of 1216, John was retreating north from the French invasion led by Prince Louis, son of the French king. Storms and war had already stripped him of men and hope. Then came the disaster of the Wash. His baggage train, heavy with treasure and the royal regalia, was caught by the incoming tide. Wagons, horses, and soldiers were swallowed by the sea. The king’s gold was gone, his pride with it.

Soon after, John fell ill. Some chroniclers say it was dysentery. Others whispered that he had been poisoned. What is certain is that by the time he reached Newark Castle, he was too weak to fight. He called for priests, confessed his sins, and ate what would be his final meal: peaches and ale. In the early hours of the morning, England’s most despised monarch was dead.

His death left a nine-year-old boy as king. Henry, the son of John and Isabella of Angoulême, was crowned weeks later in the ruins of Gloucester Cathedral. His coronation was hasty. The royal treasury was gone, so they used a simple gold circlet taken from his mother’s jewelry. England had a child for a king, a civil war still raging, and a foreign prince claiming the throne.

Yet somehow, out of this wreckage, the realm survived. The regent William Marshal, one of the greatest knights of the age, rallied the remaining loyalists. He reissued the Magna Carta to calm the barons and fought to drive out the French. The boy Henry would grow to reign for more than fifty years, one of the longest reigns in medieval England.

As for John, history never forgave him. Monks called him faithless. Chroniclers called him treacherous. Even Shakespeare turned him into a villain. But if you strip away the legend, what remains is a man born into power he could never control, ruling a kingdom he barely understood. His death at Newark marked the end of an age of arrogance and the beginning of a long, uneasy rebuilding.

When John was buried in Worcester Cathedral, the monks placed his sword beside him and his hands folded in prayer. A king who had fought everyone, even God, now lay silent. The country he left behind would spend years cleaning up the wreckage of his reign.



Since cameras didn’t exist in the Middle Ages, this scene was conjured with a little help from AI. This is my take on how it might have looked.

12/10/2025

The Battle of Crug Mawr is believed by many to have taken place on this day (11 October) in 1136!

Did you know that it remains one of the most important battles in Welsh history?

The battle was fought between the Welsh and the Normans in either September or October of 1136. It saw a united front of Welshmen, being led by the formidable alliance of Owain Gwynedd (King of Gwynedd and the first true "Prince of Wales"), his brother Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd and Gruffydd ap Rhys (King of Deheubarth), a mighty King perhaps less famous than his wife, Gwenllian, and his son, Rhys ap Gruffydd.

Crug Mawr took place roughly 3.2 km (2 miles) northeast of Aberteifi (Cardigan), right next to the village of Penparc. An estimated army of around 6,000 men fought for the Welsh, with an unknown number of Normans (believed to be much larger and described as "substantial") fighting for the opposing side.

The battle began as a part of a wider revolt against the Normans in Cymru. Earlier in 1136, the Marcher Lord Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare was killed by Welsh soldiers during his attempt to take Ceredigion with 500 men. It is believed that he, too, was slain by the Welsh longbow.

Even more, a battle had taken place earlier in the year at Kidwelly Castle, resulting in the capture and beheading of the valiant Gwenllian by the Normans - angering Gruffydd (her husband), Owain Gwynedd (her brother) and Cadwaladr (brother of Owain and Gwenllian). This bolstered the alliance between them and, in-part, led to Crug Mawr.

Crug Mawr was a crushing defeat for the Normans and a brilliant win for the Welsh. Eventually, the Normans were made to flee the battle - they were chased as far as Afon Teifi. When trying to cross the bridge, it collapsed under their weight; many of the soldiers drowned, with the dead bodies (human and horse alike) blocking the flow of the river.

It ensured a long-time postponement of a Conquest of Wales which would never take place until 1283; resulted in the bolstering of a Welsh alliance which, for a short period, thrived and led to a 40 day celebration.

Gruffydd ap Rhys would die in 1137, with the cause uncertain. Owain and Cadwaladr would die in 1170 and 1172, respectively - both in their 70s.

05/10/2025

The Roman Villa

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