On Friday 4 October Rochester Class travelled to Rochester to explore the city. The sun shone and we were blessed with good weather. To start the day, we followed a treasure trail, walking in the footsteps of Charles Dickens, the famous Victorian Novelist, seeing some of the shops and houses that he used in many of his famous novels. We interrogated the Tudor buildings, many of which had doors so small that we would have banged our heads on them, we concluded people must have been shorter in those days. We passed the beautiful cathedral that was hosting a wedding: the bells were ringing as we walked around the city. We went through the medieval vineyard and out onto the river. We had learnt about the importance of the river for trade in times gone by.
By lunchtime, we arrived at the castle. We had our lunch in the castle grounds and then explored inside. The castle is 900 years old and we saw where some of the soldiers from centuries ago had carved their names on the battlements. We identified the south wall that had been damaged in the 12th century by King John, when he overthrew the rebels that had taken siege inside. We all loved the castle, although some of us did not want to climb to the top. We imagined what life may have been like for the people that had lived there, with fires raging in the massive fireplaces and how cold it would have been for the soldiers in winter. We imagined using bows and arrows against our enemies and keeping watch over the river. It was a great day.
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