An Image Says a 1000 Words

An Image Says a 1000 Words
Introduction
Pictures can tell us a lot about events but they only show us a second in time and everyone
can see something different in a picture.
Task
Look at the photo.

What do you think life would have been like for the men in this picture?

Do you think their working lives would be different today
© English Heritage
An Image Says a 1000 Words
© J Driver
Introduction
Pictures can tell us a lot about events in time but they only show us a second in time and
everyone can see something different in a picture.
Task
Look at the photo.

What do you think life would have been like for the men in this picture?

Do you think their free time would be spent different today?
A Day in the Life
Introduction
During your visit to the Fens you met some interesting local characters. You will have met Billy
the brick maker who showed you around and may have introduced you to Sybil or Violet the
wise women and if you were lucky Willie the fisherman.
Task
Do you think the characters you meet would have very different lives today?
Chose one of the characters you met and imagine you had to spend the day as them. Write a
story about what you would get up to.
Billy the Brick maker
Billy works at the brick works in Ramsey Heights with
Mr Beasley Summers his boss. The brick works opened
during the Victorian times after Whittlesea Mere was
drained. With more land available the brick works is
very busy making bricks for all the new homes and
farms in the area.
Billy helps with digging out the clay from the pits and
moulding and baking the bricks. Once the bricks have
cooled they travel by the catchwaters and drains to
the building sites.
© Wildlife Trust
A Day in the Life
Sybil the Wise Women
Sybil lives out in the Fens where she can go out and collect all the plants and herbs she
needs to make her remedies. Sybil will even grow the ones she needs the most often to
make sure she has a good supply to work with.
Doctors are expensive so many people will travel to Sybil’s when they are ill for help. Sybil
with give them something to take or actions to do to make sure their problems go away.
Sybil will even make it safer to work and travel through the Fen by helping people to make
safe keeps to keep those Boggarts and Bogles away.
Violet the Wise Women in training
Violet is Sybil's daughter and covers for Sybil when she is out helping people. Violet is still
learning all of her mother’s remedies so that she can continue to help all the people in the
local area.
Violet is just starting her training as a wise women and is having to learn all the plants and
herbs so she can go out collecting for Sybil and knows just how to mix the remedies
together to make sure she makes people better not worse.
Willie the Fisherman
Willie is a local eel catcher and goes out early in the morning to set out his traps. He
leaves his traps in the water and comes back the next day to see what his caught. Eels are
very useful to have, not only can they be used as food but Willie can use them as money
to pay his rent and for other food and drink.
Since Whittlesea Mere has been drained Willie is not catching as many eels and has
started to work on the barges from the brick works delivering the brick to make enough
money to live.
Design a Boggart or Bogle
Introduction
Throughout English folklore there have been stories of evil, mischievous spirts living in
people’s homes and countryside and the Fens is no exception. The Fens has tales of ill-natured
spirits called boggarts and bogles which live out in the marshes and are the cause of things
and people going missing. The old wise-women would help people to make safe keeps to fend
off any evil spirits that may wish to do them harm.
Task
Design you own Fen Boggart or Bogle.
Thinking points

Where does it live?

When during the day will it be out and about?

How will it move about?
Follow on activity
Why not write a play about your Boggart or Bogle and the kinds of mischief it gets up to.
Investigate the People of the Fens
Introduction
People have been trying to drain the Fens for hundreds of years to get at the rich peaty soil
underneath the water. In the 1600s there was a big push to get rid of the water and marshy
areas of the Fens to create large areas of rich farmland.
Task
Investigate the people and their roles in the drainage of the Fens.

King Charles I

The Earl of Bedford—Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford

Cornelius Vermoyden

The Fen Tigers

Dutch workers
Follow on activity
Maybe stage a debate between the land owners and the Fen tigers .