Form 6 on the Monks' Trail

Date: Tuesday 11 December 2007

No, it isn't a new detective series..... the Monks' Trail is the name given to a very interesting tour starting at the International Studies Centre at Canterbury Cathedral. One Monday afternoon before the end of term two Form 6 History classes studied building techniques and reassembled the Cathedral, using wooden blocks! On offer also: writing with quill pens, doing a brass rubbing... They tried out various mediaeval skills - hoisting, playing a small organ, being a stonemason, and Ella Austen even came face to face with a live knight in armour - and he looked very angry indeed!

In the Cathedral itself the pupils saw many things, including the spot where Archbishop Thomas Becket was struck down violently by a knight with a sword blade to his head, and they learnt how the tip of the sword broke off. He sounds like the knight in the picture!

"I was shown parts of the Cathedral I didn't even know were there", as Edward so catchily put it afterwards.