Dunannie invaded by Vikings
About Bedales
Dunannie invaded by Vikings
06/11/2011
Bedales pre-prep school, Dunannie, experienced a Viking invasion just before half-term when Year 3 pupils were transformed into Viking shipwrights, weavers, sail-makers, carpenters, sailors and warriors.
This was a fabulous culmination of their Viking project work this term, a full day’s workshop to bring history to life and work together on a major construction activity, in costume!
The pupils were assisted in their trip back through time by Charlie Lupton from Make Your Own History, who tasked the pupils with the job of building a 5.5 metre long, quarter-sized long-ship, complete with sail, mast, oars and shields. The School’s orchard quickly became populated with Viking warriors, crafts men and women hunting around the trees.
The children discovered that Viking long-ships were made to a very clever design. The keel stopped the ship capsizing, and the lapped planks were tied together with sinews and gut. The children used 600 cable ties instead, to connect the planks and used the special double thickness plank half way up to create the iconic curved sides of the hull. They learned the special suturing stitch sail-makers used on the woven panels that made their sails, and also constructed Viking shields using wood and metal.
The ship-building kit was designed and built to an authentic design by the Bristol Classic Boat Company and the shipbuilder who made the ship for the film The Dawn Treader.
Commenting on the invasion, Dunannie Head Jo Webbern, said: “The children learnt so much during this unique experience and were fascinated and enthralled from beginning to end. Interesting historical facts came to life as they learnt the Viking craft of ship-building and discovered that a real longship might have had up to 110 warriors and that words such as 'starboard' are thought to have originated in the Viking era. The Dunannie Viking ship was a quarter of the size of a real one and the children had fun working out the true length of a long-ship and discovering that it would have been as long as the School’s corridor (22 metres) and they were amazed by this.”
