From the Stone Age to the modern day, we now have nine handling boxes to engage children with the story of the High Weald.
Our six new boxes cover the Roman period to the present day. Roman tiles, iron slag, musket balls, tenterhooks, buckles and coins are just some of the fascinating artefacts children can discover.
The artefacts in the handling boxes are brough to life in primary schools through free workshops run by our Education Officer. Rachel explains the significance of each object, how they were used by local people and how their lives and artefacts were linked to the local landscape.
Pupils can smell aromatic, dried hops and hear about the long tradition of hop growing and picking in the High Weald.
They can thumb through a replica WW2 ration book and listen to how children were evacuated from London to the High Weald countryside.
This resource is part of our themed primary school workshops and 'Welly Walk' offer.
The handling box workshops cover these eras:
Paleolithic (c.1,000,000 to c.9,000 BC)- Mesolithic (c.9,000 BC to c.4,000 BC)
- Neolithic (c.4,000 BC to c.2,300 BC)
- Roman (AD 43 to AD 410)
- Anglo-Saxon (AD 410 to AD 1066)
- Medieval (1066 to 1534)
- Tudor and early post-medieval
(1485 to 1837) - Victorian (1837 to 1901)
- Modern and World Wars
(1914 to present day)
The boxes have been developed in partnership with East Sussex County Council's archaeology team.
Contact our Education Officer to book handling box workshops for the Autumn term 2019:
Rachel Bennington
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T: 01424 723013 M: 07986 703088
More information:
High Weald Hero schools' welly walks.
See our High Weald timeline from Mesolithic to the modern day (click on the stars to find out how the High Weald has changed through time).
High Weald product stories: From hops to beer.
Living history videos: meet Ruby, a hop picker between the wars.
Living history videos: meet Dora a WW2 evacuee and other High Weald Characters.
About the East Sussex Historic Environment Record (ESHER): a database of archaeological sites, finds and historic monuments.