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“Doddington is a family-run house with a warm and friendly atmosphere…The major appeal of the house is its lived-in, cared for family feel. It is full of an eclectic array of interesting items collected by the families that have lived there through the ages…There are lots of stories about the people who have lived there and what they got up to…”
Mrs Claire Birch, owner.
Doddington Hall is a stunning Elizabethan mansion complete with walled courtyards and a gabled gatehouse. Doddington Hall stands today as it was completed in 1600. It has never been sold and its varied contents reflect 400 years of unbroken family occupation with fine textiles, porcelain, furniture and pictures. The Hall is still very much a family home.The Hall is surrounded with six acres of romantic walled and wild gardens with a continuous pageant of colour from earliest spring till autumn.
“It demonstrated principles [and] knowledge already taught and provided lots of new learning and greater understanding.”
(Lynne Fairweather, Year 4/5 teacher, Caythorpe Primary School.)
HERO Project: 'SAVE DODDINGTON HALL!'
HERO’s challenge and opportunity was to develop a cross-curricular programme that reflected Doddington Hall's history, atmosphere and the warmth of the family which owns it.
This has been acheived through a combination of interactivity and storytelling. Time was taken to choose a character who could lead children around the house. Edward Hussey Delaval was chosen for several reasons:
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He lived at Doddington 200 years after the house was built and 200 years ago and thus acted as a good bridge from the Tudors to Victorians and on to present times
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He was an eminent scientist, a member of the Royal Society and a member of the committee who put a lightning conductor on St. Paul’s Cathedral and therefore a famous person worthy of wider study.
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His role is key to the family history of Doddington, being one of the last Delavals to own Doddington.
Children are treated to an interactive tour of the house, introduced to some of the collections and undertake a series of activities enabling them to learn more about collecting and recording collections. Children are then asked which item they would save in the event of a fire, perhaps caused by a lightning strike. Delaval was fascinated by fire prevention and known for his fireproof house in London. The families of Doddington throughout history have been blighted by the devastation of lightning. Children come to learn at the end of their visit that, despite the beauty and value of the collections within Doddington, the most valuable thing they could possible save is themselves.
In addition, an exploration of the gardens allows children to concentrate on areas of the curriculum such as History, Geography, Art and Design, Numeracy and Literacy, depending upon the primary reason for visiting. Those visiting to study the Tudors (Years 3 and 4 in Key Stage 2) are offered a Tudor herbs workshop, where children can touch and smell herbs, whilst they learn of their uses in Tudor times in comparison with their uses today.
More characters related with the history of Doddington Hall are currently in development.
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As a result of curriculum research and other relevant research following the advice of the Focus Group, it was decided to develop the programme from a starting theme of ‘Collections’. This theme sits well within heritage education, and lends itself to the following curriculum areas:
- Numeracy
- Literacy
- History
- Art
- Science
- Citizenship
- PSHE
This resource was developed in association with The History Squad.
