Introduction

This one-day walking workshop will take place on alternate Fridays between 20th May to 13th August 2022 and has been developed to meet the challenges teachers face posed by teaching the history curriculum throughout the key stages. The workshop is based in the Peak District of Derbyshire, which we use as an accessible extension to your learning base. The day brings the curriculum alive using the landscape of the National Park as one of our resources. Our aim is to help you develop a deeper understanding of the historic environment generally and how it can be used in your schemes of work. The day includes visits to archaeological sites from the end of the last Ice Age to WWII. 

​

Background

Archaeology is the study of people and societies in the past. This is achieved through the retrieval, analysis, and interpretation of their material remains, which can be literally anything left behind by people in the past. This can include buildings from any period, artefacts (things made by people), pollen/plant remains, animal bones, human remains and even the landscapes themselves that people have lived and worked in. It is by studying this evidence that archaeologists can begin to reconstruct past societies and environments. As such, archaeology is a discipline that crosses boundaries between the humanities and the hard sciences. It uses a range of techniques including excavation (digging for remains), non-invasive surveys such as field-walking or geophysical surveys, and aerial photography to identify sites. It uses the scientific analysis of plant remains, including wood, and other organic remains such as bone for dating, identifying diet, and more recently tracking movements of people in the past. Archaeologists also use ‘experimental archaeology’ in which they try to recreate how people lived in the past. Archaeology can give insights into the study of any period beyond the written record and is the principal means of studying prehistory. All material remains are archaeology, but for most people it seems to be generally considered to be anything older than 50 years. 

​

When will it take place?

May       27th

June      10th         24th

July        8th           22nd

Aug        5th

​

Contact us if you have any questions or to make a booking!

​

What Does The Day Involve?

We will spend the day walking through a landscape that has developed over thousands of years. We’ll be stopping at a number of points and asking you to answer these questions: 

​

• ​What’s the story here? 

• How does this reflect the curriculum? 

• How has this landscape evolved? 

  

Each day will have a maximum of 6 participants and will involve walking approximately 9 miles. Each participant will have a workbook to answer the questions posed and keep notes and observations about the day. Most of the walk (80%) will be on tarmac, but there are some elements that involve trackways and farm tracks, and a short but strenuous climb. There are also several stiles and gateways to be negotiated, and there may be livestock in fields. 

​

• ​We believe in learning through experience, and that in order to teach your students effectively you can use your experience of landscape. 

• As a result of completing the study day, you’ll be able to link what you see/learn to classroom activity. Even though your local landscape may be different from ours, it will contain common elements. 

​

Why walking?

Walking has, since the time of Aristotle and Socrates, been associated with thinking. Other famous thinkers who used walking to think include Rousseau and Wittgenstein. But don't worry, we are not walking directly in their footsteps! We are using walking as a tool, one which generates "an imaginative access to the past" (Readman, 2022)*. When we walk we begin to have time to think, Rebecca Solnit wrote "The rhythm of walking generates a rhythm of thinking"** We are going to slow down our pace from that of high-speed, everyday thinking to a more leisurely 3 miles per hour. And gain the benefits.

​

The Cost

The cost for the day is £75 per person and includes all materials and resources. Refreshments are not included, and you are advised to bring enough water/drinks as you feel you need. We will stop at a pub for lunch and have rest stops en-route. 

​

*Paul Readman 'In Conversation - Antiquarianism, history-writing, and the embodied experience of landscape'. Environment and Culture in Britain, 1688-1851 Friday 14th January, 2022.

** Rebecca Solnit 'Wanderlust. A History of Walking'. 2014.

​