History
KS1
The Great Fire of London
Come with us to the 17th century, where life was very different for Londoners. The houses were wooden. Life expectancy was 35! Where sewage in the street was normal.
How did the fire of London start?
How did Thomas Fariner cause disaster?
What happened in Pudding lane?
Did people just eat puddings?
Why did Samuel Pepys bury his cheese and wine?
Did Charles II make the right decision?
Bring out your dead!
Rats, fleas, boils, death, fire!
All this and more in our Great Plague and Fire of London Workshop.
Teachers Endorsement:
Highly engaging and the children were completely captivated. It was great to see that every single child played a part and it really brought the topic to life.
Rowan Brae Prep School
All staff and children LOVED the workshop! The children were so engaged! The interpreter was great at recapping the children’s previous knowledge and extending this further. Our school was being inspected by OFSTED who graded the workshop as outstanding!
Greenwood Primary, Nottingham
Did You Know?
- At the time of The Great Fire of London many people believed it was started by Britain’s enemies. Britain was at war with the Dutch in The Second Anglo-Dutch War 1665-1667 and weeks before the fire the British Navy sailed into the city of West Terschelling in the Netherlands and set fire to it in an act of diplomatic piracy. So Londoners thinking it was retaliation, blamed anyone who was foreign especially the Dutch. As the hunt for a foreign scapegoat continued after the fire they eventually found one in the form of a French, special needs watch maker called Robert Hubert. He confessed to starting the fire even though he was on a Ship in a London port at the time. He was tried at the Old Bailey (his confessions was not believed by many people) and hung at Tyburn on 27th October 1666.
- Another question to consider is whether the fire could have been stopped earlier? The Lord Mayor of London Sir Thomas Bludworth had been woken on the 2nd September by two parish constables asking permission to pull down buildings to create a firebreak. His reaction to this request when he saw the fire according to Samuel Pepys diary was “a woman might p… it out,” and went back to bed.
Dear me just for a good night’s sleep… which we doubt he got in the end!
Recipe
Lastly, here is a recipe from Samuel Pepys diary which gives an example of what Thomas Farinner may have baked for King Charles ll.
“Take one pound of very fine flower and put to it half a pound of sugar. Add one pound of currants well washed. When your flower is well mixed with the sugar and currants, you must put in it a half a pound of melted butter, three spoonfuls of milk, with the yolks of three new-laid eggs beat with it, some nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of Sack. When you have mixed your paste well, you must put it in a dish by the fire, till it be warm. Then make them up in little cakes, and prick them full of holes. Bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards sprinkle them with sugar. The Cakes should be about the bigness of a hand-breadth and thin; of the cise of the Sugar Cakes sold at Barnet.”
1 lb very fine flour (you could use self-raising, although this would not have been available in Stuart times)
- 1/2 lb fine sugar
- 1 lb currants
- 1/2 lb butter
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 3 egg yolks
- pinch of nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons raspberry juice (this can be left out; it is a substitute for sack which was the name for for sherry or other fortified wines from Malaga or the Canary Islands)
Courtesy of http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/964-fire-of-london-cakes.html
If you are brave enough to bake these cakes with your class using a little maths to change the amounts, don’t forget to close the oven door if you do, we don’t want a repeat of 1666!
