Museum takes history to schools

Recently, we produced bespoke MaxiMaps for the Education Team at the Guildhall Museum in Rochester.

One map is a section of the Ordnance Survey map of North Kent at 3 mtrs x 3 mtrs, the other is a standard 5 mtr x 4 mtr World MaxiMap with a customised colourway.

Rachel Kerr is the project Co-ordinator for the muesum, and she has kindly updated us on the (sucessful!) use of the maps during a recent school visit :

Rachel wrote …

“I promised to send you some pictures of the splendid large map you created for us in action. Here it is, centre stage, as Jeremy teaches Year 4 all about the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1667. You can see we have made signs showing the key sites of the encounter: Chatham Dockyard, Upnor Castle and Sheerness. The Dutch warships have made it all the way up the Medway!

Below, is a close up of the map and our paper warships, which got moved down the river on the map as the story unfolds…

Finally, I thought you’d like to see one of the “Thank you” drawings we received from a child following the session, which mentions your beautiful map as the highlight of the day!

We were delighted – the map certainly helped to make the session memorable – this picture reveals a lot of learning and understanding. Zac’s drawing shows that he remembers.

• that the main battle took place in front of Upnor Castle (structure to the right with a smoking canon atop);

• the cannon balls that we took in to show (recovered from the river Medway and clearly to be seen in the picture lying on the river bed);

• in desperation, once it was clear the Dutch had won, the English sunk their ships so they would not be seized by the enemy, and then the Dutch set fire to whatever was left sticking out of the water.”