School Trip to Ightham Mote

Year 2 spent a lovely day at Ightham Mote near Sevenoaks in June 2002. The visit was in connection with our art topic, ‘Can Buildings Speak?’ Before our visit the children searched for different patterns and textures at school and in the local area.

The children looked for patterns in brickwork, windows and paving. We had two lovely guides who told us about the people who had lived in the house and what it would have been like to live there.

	"Ightham Mote is a very old house. It is over 650 years old. There is a chapel inside. It has got a wide mote all around it. It is a really good place. There is a water fountain in the middle of the courtyard."
"When we were just going into the house we saw a hole in the wall. It was a peephole. What people did was to peep through the hole and see what other people were doing and it was used for shooting arrows out."	"The first room we went in was the Great Hall. There was a picture of Lady Dorothy Selby. She used to live at Ightham Mote. About five families lived there."
	"There was a real kennel for a really big dog called Dido. Dido was a St Bernard dog."
"The Great Hall had a fireplace but when it was first built there was a fire in the middle of the room but luckily the floor was made of stone. Next we went to the crypt. It was the lowest place we could go. It had holes in the walls. They were used for scaffolding."	Ightham Mote by Olivia
Ightham Mote by Owen	"My favourite room was the Billiards room because I liked the large green billiard table and the brilliant bright lights and the magnificent plates with holes in them. I really liked the gargoyles in there too. They made me laugh."
"My favourite part was the gardens because they had water fountains and beautiful flowers. I really liked the woodland walk because it was shady. I liked going over the bridge because it had a bump. The pond was pretty because it had ducks in it."

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