A Visit to the Civil War Centre

Following their visit to the Civil War Centre in Newark, Mr Jeffery asked Year 7 to write about their favourite part of day:

Tour of Newark 

The tour of Newark was really good and we got to see lots of monuments, buildings and places where the sieges took place and where important historical moments happened. We got to talk about all three sieges in detail, standing where they took place. We visited the church and the castle on which you could see cannonball markings on the bricks. (Annabelle J)

The tour around Newark was really interesting. The castle was massive, I never knew it was that big. I learnt that Prince Rupert marched through the marketplace and had a big fallout with Charles I. He eventually left the town after a huge argument with Charles, with 100 more soldiers than he had entered Newark with. (Rupert B-W)

Trial of King Charles I 

After the tour we went back to the Civil War Centre and learnt about the trial of King Charles I and his execution. My favourite two facts were: 

1. Sir Thomas Fairfax did not go to the execution, however there was a mysterious lady there who kept shouting out against the trial, and about 10 years after the trial people started to realise that the mysterious lady was most likely Sir Thomas Fairfax’s wife, Lady Anne Fairfax. 

2. The executioner of King Charles l wore a mask so no one would recognise him and he also did not say the words he was meant to say when he killed the King as he did not want people to recognise his voice. (Megan B)

After the trial the rest of us had to decide whether or not we would have signed the death warrant of King Charles I. We then did the beheading and after that we went for lunch. (Euan P)

Museum and Gallery

For this we went to the gallery and we had a clipboard to draw objects that we liked in the gallery – for example, the matchlock musket, the amputation items and many more. We then wrote about them and showed the tour guide. We found out some cool facts about the objects as well. There was a projector in one of the rooms in the gallery and we watched two films and did some interactive activities and dressing up, it was very interesting and fun. (Euan P)

We scouted out some objects in the museum we found interesting. I chose the two muskets which were really cool and we all tried on the armour, which was really heavy, and different pieces of clothing. (William L)

Arms and Armour

Last but not least, we learned about armour and weapons. In groups we had to dress up one of our group members in an outfit and the other groups had to guess who and what type of soldier they were. In our group it was a musketeer. Then we had to learn how to load a musket. It was really hard! We had to do it in the time that they would have to do it in the olden days. For a great finish we had a foam pike fight. The Cavaliers won both rounds! (Ela H)

This part of the day was definitely the best! First we had to identify different items of clothing and decide what kind of soldier they belonged to – the pikeman armour was really heavy! Next we learned how to load and fire a musket and how quickly musketeers had to load their guns in the sieges! We then learnt commands of attacking and defending in groups and then had a battle with pikes (pool noodles!). (Annabelle J)

The Trip

I think the day was brilliant and I learnt a lot of things about the Civil War. My favourite part of the day was either the tour around Newark or the pike fight at the end. (Megan B)

I really enjoyed this trip overall and my favourite part was the arms and armour section. I also liked the interactive games and the film in the gallery. (Euan P)

We went to Newark Castle which was the best part in my opinion. We also got to see all the marks/holes in the castle wall from the cannon balls. (Jemima S)