With engaging and immersive activities that support the different subject areas at Key Stage 2, a visit to the Weald and Downland Living Museum is a great way to explore life in the past and inspire learning.
With a focus on hands-on learning, our Key Stage 2 workshops can accommodate a wide range of schools, SEND and home education groups. From science and design and technology to English and history our sessions aim to stimulate communication and thinking skills, develop creativity and encourage team working.
To find out more about each workshop click on the links below.
Self-Guided Visits
A self-guided visit to the Weald and Downland Living Museum is an excellent way of enriching Key Stage 2 studies. From the Anglo-Saxon to Edwardian era, our buildings tell stories about the people who lived and worked in the countryside over a 1,000 year period.
A self-guided visit allows you to explore the homes, traditional working buildings and beautiful landscape in your own time and our Resources page has materials to help you plan plus activities to support a visit.
Tours Through Time
3 Houses
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £60 for 15 pupils
4 Houses
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £75 for 15 pupils
Join us on an interactive journey through time where your tour guide will take you on a whistle-stop tour of 3 or 4 different houses from 3 or 4 different time periods. Pupils will be challenged to spot the difference between the houses and take part in an immersive hands-on activity at each stopping point along the way which will help bring the history of each house to life and enable a better understanding of what it was really like to live in the past!
Choose from the following tour options:
1. Saxon to Tudor Tour (stops at Saxon House, Hangleton, Boarhunt and Bayleaf)
2. Victorian to Medieval Tour (stops at Whittakers, Victorian school, Bayleaf and Boarhunt)
Expect to take part in historical crafts, horrible chores, lessons in apothecary and become time travelling detective along the way.
Onsite Workshops
Shelters and Survival
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £60
Challenge your class with a hands-on outdoor experience designed to build confidence, teamwork, and practical problem-solving. Pupils will work together to weave wattle fencing and construct a shelter using traditional techniques, safely handle tools, watch a fire-lighting demonstration, and learn about how Anglo Saxons would have used the woodlands to forage for food.
What will they do?
- The pupils will Build a shelter using ancient wattle weaving methods
- Use tools in a supervised, confidence-building environment
- Watch how to light a fire without matches
- Hunt for wild foods and learn about historical plant uses
Learning Outcomes:
- Develop teamwork and communication skills
- Gain confidence through practical tool use
- Understand historical survival techniques
- Build environmental awareness and plant knowledge
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Time Travellers: Home Life Through the Ages
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Take your group back in time to explore how people lived in different historical periods. From cooking and cleaning to sleeping and using the toilet, children will discover how homes have changed over time. Examine household equipment and compare to modern day versions. Take a tour on site to explore different houses and discover how people have lived through history.
What will they do?
- Handle Real Artefacts and Examine authentic household items from the past.
- Investigate different houses and Compare features of historic homes with modern ones.
- Step inside real homes from different eras to see how people lived.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the evolution of domestic life.
- Develop observational and critical thinking skills.
- Engage with history through hands-on experiences and demonstrations.
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
At Home With the Anglo-Saxons
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Step into the world of the Anglo-Saxons in this hands-on workshop set in our authentic hall house. Pupils explore Anglo-Saxon home life, building techniques, and traditional crafts through practical activities and outdoor investigation.
What will they do?
- Become house detectives and explore an Anglo-Saxon hall house and learn how the houses were built.
- Take part in hands on traditional activities
- Explore the mystery bag to work out what the Anglo-Saxon items are and what they are used for
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand how Anglo-Saxons built and lived in their homes
- Develop practical skills through traditional building and crafting methods
- Build historical knowledge through active, hands-on learning
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Bringing Beowulf to Life
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Bring your Beowulf topic to life in this activity-packed workshop. Pupils explore the historical context of sitting around the fire and the importance of storytelling, games and riddles. During this hands-on workshop, there will be opportunities for the pupils to dress up as warriors, handle replica artefacts, and playing traditional games.
What will they do?
- Handle replica artefacts including a warrior’s shield and helmet
- Explore Anglo-Saxon social structure through a hierarch
- Dress as one of Beowulf’s warriors
- Play traditional games like Knucklebones and Nine Men’s Morris
- Take part in a fun and challenging Riddling game
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand Anglo-Saxon culture and social hierarchy
- Explore the historical context of Beowulf through role play and artefacts
- Develop historical enquiry and interpretation skills
- Experience traditional games and storytelling methods
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Medicine and Magic: Anglo-Saxon Remedies
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
What did people do when they felt ill in Anglo-Saxon times? In this hands-on workshop, pupils explore ancient healing practices, from herbal remedies to magical charms and surgical methods. They’ll investigate the natural world for cures, mix traditional salves, and decide whether treatments from the past would kill or cure!
What will they do?
- Explore the three types of Anglo-Saxon medicine: herbs, spells, and knife medicine
- Discuss remedies found in the natural environment
- Hear and chant healing charms from the Lacnunga
- Mix a salve using the Nine Herb Charm
- Take part in a “Kill or Cure?” activity comparing past and present medicine
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand historical approaches to health and healing
- Develop enquiry skills through comparison and investigation
- Learn about the role of nature and belief in Anglo-Saxon medicine
- Gain insight into how medical knowledge has changed over time
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
At Home With the Tudors
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Travel back in time to explore daily life in the Tudor countryside. Pupils investigate what homes were like, what people wore, and how they lived, right down to where the loo was! This hands-on workshop gives pupils a sensory experience of Tudor life through practical activities and real artefacts.
What will they do?
- Visit a Tudor farmstead and explore a historic home
- Become house detectives and investigate Tudor living spaces
- Handle Tudor artefacts
- Take part in everyday Tudor chores
- Dress up in Tudor-style clothing
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand aspects of daily life in the Tudor period
- Develop historical enquiry skills through object handling and investigation
- Experience traditional domestic tasks and clothing
- Build empathy and insight into life in the past
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Tudor Fun and Games
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Step into the world of Tudor childhood in this fun, interactive workshop. Using a 15th-century painting as clues, pupils investigate how children played in the past and try out a range of replica Tudor games themselves.
What will they do?
- Explore historical evidence to uncover Tudor play
- Learn to play traditional games
- Enjoy indoor and outdoor games including stilts, hoop and stick, skittles, hobbyhorse, quoits and more
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand aspects of Tudor childhood and leisure
- Develop historical enquiry skills through evidence investigation
- Experience traditional games and physical play from the past
- Build connections between past and present ways of playing
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Kill or Cure? Tudor Apothecary
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Feeling a bit under the weather? It might be your black bile! In this hands-on workshop, pupils train as Tudor apothecaries, exploring the strange and surprising world of Tudor medicine. From herbal remedies to magical charms, they’ll discover how people in the past tried to stay healthy and whether those cures would kill or cure!
What will they do?
- Diagnose ailments using the Four Humours
- Match Tudor remedies to illnesses in the “Kill or Cure?” activity
- Explore medicinal plants in the Garden Medicine Cabinet
- Make a pomander bead to take home using a Tudor recipe
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand Tudor beliefs about health and medicine
- Explore the role of herbs and beliefs in historical treatments
- Compare past medical ideas with modern understanding
- Develop enquiry and critical thinking skills through hands-on activities
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Spit and Polish: Victorian Chores
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Step back in time and discover what life was really like in a Victorian household. This hands-on, activity-packed workshop gives pupils a chance to experience the daily chores and challenges faced by children in the 19th century.
What will they do?
- Explore a Victorian Cottage
- Observe how families lived without modern conveniences.
- Test Out Victorian Gadgets and take part in chores
- Take on the Victorian Washday Challenge
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the differences between Victorian and modern home life.
- Appreciate the hard work and responsibilities of children in the past.
- Gain hands-on experience with historical tools and techniques
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Victorian Cooking
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
This immersive, hands-on session invites pupils to explore food, cooking, and daily life in Victorian times. Through historical enquiry and practical activities, they’ll discover what people ate, how meals were prepared, and even cook a traditional treat over an open fire.
What will they do?
- Take part in a Grocery Basket Challenge to explore where Victorians sourced their food and how it varied by class and location.
- Investigate original Victorian kitchen utensils and equipment, learning how they were used in everyday life.
- Use authentic Victorian scales and weights to measure ingredients and understand historical systems of measurement.
- Follow a real Victorian “receipt” (recipe) to mix ingredients and cook drop scones on a griddle over an open fire.
- If successful, pupils will get to taste what they’ve made.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the differences between Victorian and modern diets, food sources, and mealtimes.
- Develop historical enquiry skills through hands-on investigation of replica artefacts.
- Apply knowledge of historical weights and measures in a practical context.
- Work collaboratively to follow instructions and complete a cooking task.
- Reflect on how food connects to wider themes of health, class, and daily life in the past.
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Sit up Straight! Victorian Schoolroom
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Transport your class to the 19th century and experience the strict routines and discipline of a Victorian schoolroom. This immersive session gives pupils a genuine taste of historical education, complete with slate writing, physical drill, and good manners training. They may even leave with a new appreciation for modern classrooms!
What will they do?
- Take part in a Victorian-style lesson using slates in an authentic schoolroom setting. Participate in discipline activities and practise good manners and classroom etiquette expected in the period. Complete short activities linked to the 3Rs – Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the structure and expectations of Victorian education.
- Compare historical and modern classroom experiences.
- Develop empathy and historical perspective through role-play.
- Practise basic literacy and numeracy skills in a historical context.
- Reflect on how education has changed over time and why.
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
How to Book
Visit our Plan & Book page for all the information you need to organise and book a visit, including prices.
Online booking formNeed More Information?
Please email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk or call us on 01243 811459
