We visited the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, to learn more about what life was like for the monks there during the reign of King Henry VIII. We took part in a brass rubbing workshop and completed the ‘Dissolution Trail’. What did you learn today?
Year 4 trip to St Albans Cathedral
On Friday the 23rd of November it was a crispy cold morning when Year 4 went to St Albans Cathedral. It was 25 minute journey on a Golden Boy coach.
We were split into different groups. Two of the groups did brass rubbing and the other two groups had to complete the dissolution trail. I was in one of the two groups which went brass rubbing first.
Firstly a lady called Allison showed us some brass pictures on the floor. They were there because before someone important dies they would choose a type of brass so a picture of them could be embroided onto a stone. Then we did brass rubbing in a small workshop. Brass rubbing is when there is a picture of a person or animal made out of brass on a stone. Then we would put a piece of paper onto the back of the stone and using masking tape we would sellotape the paper onto the stone. After we had to use something which was similar to a crayon called a heel-ball which we had to rub onto the piece of paper. After we had finished the same image is duplicated on the paper. Top tip if you rub for really long you will get lots of detail.
After we had finished lunch we swapped activities so my group did the dissolution trail. We all pretended to be monks and we each had different jobs. One person was the Albert, the manager of the monastery. We had a chapter meeting where all the monks came together and we had to try and think how to change King Henry III of closing are monastery down. My idea was we can show how hospitable we are by inviting him to our monastery.
This was a great school trip with lots of fun experiences.
Yesterday Year 4 travelled to St. Alban’s Cathedral and Abbey Church for a school trip on the Tudors. When we arrived we walked through the main entrance and the first thing I noticed was how high the ceilings were and how quiet it was.
The first activity we took part in was the Brass Rubbings. We were given a sheet of paper and a piece of chalk and an object, which we placed under the paper and rubbed the chalk over. I had an object of a knight and Jaiveer and Cruz both had lions.
After lunch a man gave us a talk about the Tudors. We dressed up as monks from St. Albans Abbey back in the first half of the sixteenth century. I was able to light a candle too. The monks wore blue cloaks which looked almost black. The robes were quite heavy. The monks lived in the grounds of the Cathedral and spent much time praying and lighting candles. Jaiveer dressed up as the Saint of Alban who was also a martyr. We learned that St Alban was the first Christian Martyr in Britain.
We also sat in a circle and were shown pictures of Catherine of Aragon and King Henry VIII. There was a rhyme which the man taught us to learn about what happened to King Henry VIII’s wives. The rhyme was “Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived”.
We had a fantastic time where I learnt lots about the Tudors. I was very impressed with the huge size of the Abbey.
All of year 4 went to St Albans Cathedral. My to group went to the costumes and education first, i’ll tell you all about it! First of all we dressed up as monks and we pretended the church was still a monastrarey, we learnt that monks learnt how to read, write and learn Latin, we also learnt that there were five knots on their clothing . The first one meant patience, the second one means obedience, the third one meant chasity ,the fourth one meant penace and the last one meant detachment.the next thing we did was learning how henry divorced Catherine of Aragon; he divorced her by becoming the owner of the church which meant he could make his own choices with divorces. After that, we went and learnt about why henry beheaded Anne Boleyn; he did because she didn’t give Henry a son. Soon we learnt about Jane Seymour and that she gave Henry a son but almost immediately. Straight after that, we learnt that when Henry married Anne of Cleves he did not like the look of her so he divorced her. Then we learnt that After Henry divorced Anne, he shut down the monastries. As so the monks did not have a home so they got a job for example: A teach
Finally after education and costumes we did brass rubbings. First we looked at some and learnt that Henry VIII tried to take some of the brass rubbings. When we went to the brass rubbings place, there were different brass templates to choose. I chose a lion. I’ll teach you how to do a brass rubbing.
1. Choose the Template of brass you want
2. Attatch paper to the brass template.
3. Feel for the outline and gently rub the wax on it.
4. Finally,rub everywhere on the paper where the template is.
I went to St Albans cathedral with my class on a school trip. At St Albans cathedral we had a tour around the cathedral and a lady explained us about what happened during Tudor period. Also we learnt about different monks and their life. Monks do different things, like a novice who was a student and the novice master who teaches the novice. Also we learnt about Abbot and his responsibilities. Some of my classmates dressed up like Abbot.
Also we learnt about the reign of Tudor king Henry VIII and dissolution of monasteries. When the Abbot came to know that King Henry VIII would take all of their money. He asked the monks for ideas to write in a letter to King Henry VIII so he wouldn’t take monastery’s money and treasure.
After the tour around St Albans cathedral we went for brass rubbing we rubbed on brass of important people. But first we looked at already rubbed brass to have an idea what it looks like. I loved how good the texture came out when you rub really hard on the brass. My brass came out quite good. Teachers like when we were doing brass rubbing and they really liked to do it as well.
My favourite bit of the school trip was when we changed into the monks and pretended to be the monks and when Max and Alex dressed as an Abbot. Later Alex dressed as a messenger from King Henry VIII. We are learning about Tudor period in our school and during our visit to the cathedral we learnt how it influenced life inside Cathedral during Tudor period.
Firstly we got on the bus, it took 25 minutes to get to ST Alban’s Cathedral. After we arrived we spilt into our groups and went to do our first activities, mine was brass rubbing we went into rooms and saw some brasses of royal and rich people. Then we went outside to the education centre there we chose a brass with paper under it. Then we put the paper on top of the brass, we turned it upside down we taped the top and bottom to the brass and we turned it again, then we got the shoe board and rubbed the paper. The longer you rub the more detail you will get. It looked amazing as a result.
After lunch we went to do the dissolution of the monasteries. The teacher Emma gave us scapula’s to wear, the scapula’s were basically monk clothes. There was a hood that you wore when you were praying. Then we got a tour of the Cathedral. After we got a tag to show what we did in the monastery, we had a meeting and discussed how we would persuade Henry VIII to not shut the monastery down we ended up giving in and taking the money!
THANK YOU TEACHERS FOR ORGANISING!!!
My favourite thing at St Alban was the brass rubbing. I made a knight by taping a piece of paper to the brass picture of the knight, rubbing a big lump of gold and silver onto the paper. After I finished rubbing the knight appeared on the paper!
I walked around the church and learned that monks did not fight, they were peaceful people and they worshiped god.
St Alban’s Cathedral was built in honour of St Alban. Alban was a Roman who sheltered a Christian priest. He was so impressed but the priest’s goodness and devotion to God that he converted. When the Roman’s found out he was hiding the priest in his house, they came to search for him and Alban put the priest’s clothes on and took his place. The Roman’s tortured and beheaded him at the top of the hill where the cathedral is. The place of his death became a place of worship and pilgrimage and a church was built there using wood. The cathedral as it is now was built in Norman times using the ruins of Verulamium. The tomb of St Albans is there and it’s a shrine.
St Alban’s cathedral was a monastery and all the monks there had a role. The most important one, who was in charge of all the monks, was the abbot. One of the most famous abbots was Thomas de la Mare. All monks had different roles. There was monks that wrote books, others grew food, there was a doctor a cook and so on. One of the roles they had was to help the poor. Monks in general could read and write and were much better educated than the people they helped which couldn’t read or write. In fact stained glass windows were used to tell stories from the Bible in a way that uneducated people could understand and remember. They are like a painted story for people that can’t read.
Brass plates were a way of remembering important people within the church and the community. One of the most majestic plates, in fact one of the best in the UK, is the one of Thomas de la Mare. The brass plate was made in Brussels because he didn’t like the ones made in England. When Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries, which led to anything of value being taken away, the monks at St Alban’s managed to save Thomas de La Mare’s plate by turning it upside down and hiding it. Many of the other brass plates were lost and lots of other valuable artefacts of all kinds were plundered.
Finally we made brass rubbings using black paper and a sort of waxy chalk. You could use gold, silver or bronze or a mixture of them. I used the two colour effect and thought it was really cool. It was great fun!
On Friday Year 4 visited St Albans Cathedral. We went on the ‘Before and After Dissolution Trail’ and also took part in the Brass Rubbing activity.
The trail started with us all being put into the role of monks in the Abbey during the first half of the sixteenth century. We were all in costumes with badges to show what our jobs were. I was the Chronicler, whose role was to write and deal with letters on behalf of the monastery. In this role play we were able to begin to understand the lives of those who had lived there for all their adult life.
We learned that the monks faith was in the following of a Roman called Alban. The King’s Commissioner informed us that we had 30 seconds to decide if we wanted to sell the monastery to King Henry VIII. If we chose not to we would be beheaded! Our group moved around the Abbey looking at the treasury, the nave altar, the wall paintings, statues, stained glass windows, brasses, and the shrine of Alban itself.
My role then changed from the Chronicler to the Abbot. I was in charge of the Abbey and the monks followed my leadership. I was asked to call to a meeting to discuss if we should let the guards take over, which would lead to the dissolution of the monastery.
In the end we decide to sell the monastery to King Henry VIII and we would leave the Abbey. King Henry VIII ordered for the shrine of Alban o be bricked up. However the body of Alban goes missing!
It was a very exciting and informative day. I have not been to the cathedral before but the trail and the role play was the best part of the school trip.
At St Albans Cathedral I had so much fun. My favourite thing was dressing up as monks it was so fun. I had a job it was to help people around and I found it so fun having a job so early. It was so fascinating
My second favourite thing was something when you rub wax on paper and it shows up on the paper. For this, you would need:
• A picture
• Paper
• Wax
• Sello-tape
I had so much fun. It took about 25 minutes to get there. When we got there we were split into little groups. We dressed up in kid sized monk clothes. A lady told us about the jobs the monks did. One of the jobs was working on a farm.
After lunch we looked at the brass on the floor. We went to a classroom and we all did a big, beautiful brass rubbing. Then we got back on the coach and went back to school.
the Cathedral was immense and very cold.The architecture and carvings were very intricate, there a lot to look at.
My favourite part of our trip was dressing up as monks and learning about the Tudor monasteries.We
learnt that not only did people worshipped in them but also monks lived and worked there.We also learnt about the dissolution of monasteries and that some became cathedrals.
My favourite part of the trip was the brass rubbing because you can take an ancient picture rub it an the piece of paper is your’s.
On Friday 23rd November I visited ST Albans Cathedral. At the cathedral I took part in two activities Brass Rubbing and a Dissolution Trail.
Firstly, I did what is called Brass Rubbing. A Brass is a hard picture on wood that people pray to help the person on their way to Heaven, so you get a mini Brass, put black paper on the top, turn it upside down, stick it together with masking tape, turn it right side up, find the rounded side and start colouring the outline. When you want to colour in the actual thing, you use the flat side. Also, you can ask the teacher to remove the mini Brass and then right your name on it.
Next, I did the Dissolution Trail. Some of us dressed up as Monks and one of us wore fancy clothes and was called Lord Albert. We did everything Monks did but at the end of it we had to make a rough decision either lose our job or be banned from the village. Two of us made a bad choice and the rest of us made a good decision.
Finally, my favourite part of the visit was when we were shown the Brasses, it was fabulous and I hope we go back sometime soon!
The trip to St Albans Cathedral
My favourite part was the brass rubbing. My brass rubbing was of a lion and I used a gold crayon.
How to do a brass rubbing.
1. Choose a item to rub
2. Get a black piece of paper
3. Choose a crayon
4. Start rubbing with the edge the crayon
5. Discover the item underneath.
The trail.
I dressed up as a monk and King Henry the VII messengers. The lady talked about the story king Henry VII . We acted as monks we had a meeting to argue about king Henry shutting down the monasteries.
thank you teachers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cruz H
Today the Year 4s went to St Alban Cathedral. When we got there we hanged our bags and sat down. The cathedral was massive. A kind girl told us what group we were and what workshop we were doing. First a girl told us about some statue. Harry something got a statue for doing work in the cathedral. He had a speech mark saying“ I will give you my heart for just peace”. Some statue in the cervidrill got stolen. People in the Tudor time had a statue before they died because people think it will be a quicker way to go to heaven. Then we went to do are own scrubbing. It was so fun. I got to draw a knight. There was something like a crayon and you had to draw on a cardboard paper. Thru out our lesson I loved doing our own brass scrubbing.
After lunch we did the dissolution of st Alban cathedral. We had to wear a cloth like a monk and we had pretend to pray when we walked. Every hour there would be speaker saying a pray. We also had a job. My job was to draw for king Henry the VII and Oliver had the key for the Cathedral. The man put a cape on and pretended to be the mayor. He said” you have 30 seconds to decide to give my the key for the cathedral or get killed by the soilders in the battle. Then we went back to get are bags. Then we left. The trip was so fun.
By Zachary C
Last Friday all of the year 4 boys went on a school trip to St. Albans Cathedral. When we got on the coach it took us about 25 minutes to get there. Over at the Cathedral we were meant to do 2 activities.We did brass rubbings and a tour around the Cathedral. I really enjoyed the brass rubbings because I thought there was a lot of detail on the brasses and a great story surrounding each of them.
After lunch we gathered outside the Cathedral to have a little run around. Later on we went on to do the tour around the Cathedral. We dressed up as monks and we each had a job that we needed to do and I was the Cellarer so I needed to keep the keys for the cellar. We had small meetings to try and get king Henry VIII and his messenger to not close the monastery. Finally after that we all packed up and went back to school.
I thought that the trip was a lot of fun. It was also educational and I think that was the point.
First we went on the Golden Boy to Saint Albans Cathedral. Next we looked at some brasses and rich and important people had them made for them. After that we did brass rubbings which you need a sort of chalk board crayons and they were gold, silver and bronze colour and with the paper you put it on top of the brass and start using any of the colours and get rubbing. We put our name on sellotape which we stuck on – I did a knight.
After we had lunch and the next activity was dressing up as Monks and I made the medicine.Jaiveer was our first leader. We had a lot of meetings and did a lot of talking. Our Monastery had to be closed down. A lot of us started a new life (not really) and the man in charge of the cellar (Filip) stayed. Part of the building got broken and the faces of important people got rubbed off.
A man called Alban changed clothes with the person who is Catholic so that Alban died instead. This is why we have this Church.
Lastly, we all went back to school and my favourite bit was everything. we had a lot of fun!
Year 4 trip to St. Albans Cathedral
Today we went to St. Albans Cathedral the first activity out of 2 was a tour around and learning about the Cathedral and dressing up. What we did first was telling us a story about who Alban was. He was a Roman. The romans found out about the Christians. The Romans had hundreds of gods they believe in but Christians had 1 god. The romans did not like the idea so they made it illegal and whoever was Christians would be executed. One day a man came to the village and started telling people about having one god and the Christian religion. The word spread and soon the king found out and wanted this man executed. The man started banging on peoples’ doors to let him hide but it was no hope. Finally someone let him in his name was Alban. Alban wanted to know about Christian religion. Alban knew guards would look inside his house so he told the Christian to get dressed in his clothes’ so he could get home safely. Alban quickly got dressed in the Christians clothes so when the guards came they would take him instead. When he reached the palace the king was confused? He knew Alban well??? The king gave Alban a chance to go home and go back to believing the roman gods or he could be punished !!! Alban chose to be punished so in St. Albans Cathedral there is a big shrine where we think he was buried. This was the most interesting thing i found out about in St. Albans cathedral and thank you Mrs Copping, Mrs Rose, Mrs Cronias and Mrs Whinnet for taking us to this amazing church
On Friday 23rd November we went on a trip to St Albans Cathedral. It was a 25 minute and we went by coach.
When we arrived, I was saw how huge the Cathedral was. I thought it was a beautiful building. We split up into 4 groups. My group did the dissolution trail. Half way through the trail we got dressed up as Monks. The clothes were black.
In the next part of the dissolution trail, we were all given different jobs. I had to remove stuff from the Cathedral for King Henry the Eighth.
He would sell then for money.
We all then went off to eat lunch. After lunch it was my favourite part of the day, as we did brass rubbing. There was a choice of king or queen. I picked the queen. We all then compared our work.
After that all the groups got back together, and went back to school. It was a brilliant day. Thank you teachers.