On Friday 16th May 2014 members of J3H went to Chichester to visit Fishbourne Roman Palace. The palace was built in the 1st century AD, around thirty years after the Roman conquest of Great Britain on the site of a Roman army supply base established at the Claudian invasion in 43 AD.
It was a glorious sunny day and this was the last outing for this year for Manor House School girls in Year 3!
We arrived ready for our workshop in which we learnt about the lives of the Celts and the Romans who lived in the area and what artefacts were found when the area was excavated in 1960.
The best part of the workshop of course was dressing up as slaves and taking part in the various activities. The girls were able to work in the kitchen, grinding corn and mixing various herbs, sweeping the floor and cooking the evening meal. The other activities the children were involved in were to write their names in Roman letters on a wax tablet and to write in ink pen using a quill. There were various games and puzzles as well. They also learnt how a Roman arch would have been built and how to assemble the tiles on a roof so as to make them waterproof. They learnt how to weave using yarn as well.
The highlight was of course when Hannah was chosen to be dressed in the ceremonial Roman princess outfit and Emma was her brother Claudius, dressed in a toga and a very long cloak. They both looked rather fine!
After lunch we went to view the amazing mosaic floor of Fishbourne Roman Palace and saw how the floor was heated. We managed to sketch beautiful examples and the ‘Cupid and the Dolphin’ floor was certainly the main attraction.
To end our lovely day at Fishbourne Roman Palace we explored the beautiful gardens where we found some very interesting and unusual herbs and flowers.