People, Place and Community Seminar: Colonial Countryside: Lessons Learned, Insights Gained
Colonial Countryside is a child-led history and writing project funded by HLF and ACE in partnership with the National Trust. 100 children visited 11 Trust houses and explored their African, Caribbean and East India Company connections. This talk will explore the underlying research questions and key themes which drive the project and work in the historic housing sector more broadly.
A lot has been learned about what "child-led" means and what it achieved. Some children led guided tours. Others redesigned guidebooks, wrote pamphlets for visitors or made videos about country houses' colonial links for Twitter. Colonial Countryside also produced, with two curriculum experts, lessons for year 5 pupils which teach the history of empire focused on local histories of five cities and National Trust properties. This has already had a positive impact and an example is provided of the benefit of these curriculum materials to a Toxteth Primary school and its teachers.
