History Around Us (Buckland) exam questions

Task:

On the next few pages are some exam questions about Buckland . Have a read through the questions and the plans that are below them. Follow the plans and have a go at some of the questions. You would get ½ an hour to answer a question in the exam.

Choose a turning point in your site’s history. Explain how and why this changed the importance of the site, either locally or nationally. Use physical features of the site as well as your knowledge to support your answer. [20] ( ) Spelling, punctuation and grammar and the use of specialist terminology [5]

Introduction:

Explain a turning point in your site’s history. This could be any turning point. Buckland turning from a monastery to a manor house is a good one. Briefly explain changes that occurred. You will then go on to explain these more in your actual answer. Mention these changes were part of the .

Paragraph structure should follow the order of the question:

1. Consider a feature that had existed in monastic times. 2. Then explain how it changed after Buckland was dissolved as a monastery. 3. Explain why Grenville made that change.

Paragraph 1: Consider a feature that had existed in monastic times. Then explain how it changed after Buckland was dissolved as a monastery. Explain why Grenville made that change

• Explain that in monastic times there were dormitories and a refectory and a chapterhouse • Explain that in Tudor Times these were all demolished by Grenville. Plus the Cross shape of the Abbey building was removed. • Why? To remove religious/ remnants from Buckland Abbey because as a staunch protestant Richard Grenville hated the fact that the Abbey used to be Catholic as he hated Catholics.

Model Paragraph (see words of the question emboldened in your answer): “One turning point in the site’s history occurred in 1539 when Buckland Abbey was dissolved as a monastery and became a gentleman’s estate instead (1). One example of how this occurred on the site was that many monastic buildings were demolished (2). The Cloisters that the studied in, the refectory that they ate in, the dormitories that they slept in and their lavatories were all demolished. This is because [explaining why this changed the site’s importance] Richard Grenville, the Tudor gentlemen who was changing the site wanted to create a Tudor Estate and home in the 1570s for his family (3) and there were far fewer Grenville family members than the previous group of monks and lay-brothers that had been living on the site. This meant that these large buildings such as a refectory were no longer needed and were expensive to run – it was easier to get them knocked down. Grenville also demolished certain other features, such as the transepts on the Abbey(2). This was to remove the cross shape of the abbey building [explaining how this changed the building](2). Grenville was a protestant whose family had bought Buckland Abbey from the King. As a protestant he despised Catholics and so was trying to remove all trace of the monastic site and its religious heritage; the cross shape of the abbey was one of those reminders. This changed the importance of the site – it was no longer a religious site, instead it had become a home for a Tudor gentleman and his family (3). Also it was no longer an important site for Catholics, it was now used by Protestants (3).

Paragraph 2: Consider another feature that existed in monastic time. Then explain how it changed after Buckland was dissolved as a monastery. Explain why Grenville made that change.

• Explain that in monastic times the Abbey was used for worship • Explain that in Tudor Times the abbey was converted into a home – but a home that looked quite clumsy – due to the architecture of the Abbey getting in the way of Grenville’s plans • Why? It appears Grenville was short of money. Most Tudor gentlemen who inherited an abbey demolished it and used the stone to build an entirely new house in the Tudor style. However Grenville couldn’t afford to do this and so took the abbey building and converted it. This may also explain why he sold it in 1582 to Drake, a man who Grenville disliked. Perhaps money issues forced him to.

Paragraph 3: Consider another feature.

What challenges are there when trying to understand the appearance of your site when it was first created (1) and how could someone overcome these challenges (2)? Use physical features of the site as well as your knowledge to support your answer. [20] ( ) Spelling, punctuation and grammar and the use of specialist terminology [5]

Introduction: Outline that there are many challenges in understanding the appearance. Lack of sources, the way the building has been changed over time and a fire have all made it harder. It is possible to overcome these challenges because there are still features of the building from that time and we can use these to work out the overall look.

Paragraph 1. The challenges.(1) The only original written source is the one from Amicia, Countess of . It does not describe the building, only why it was built. There have also been huge changes. For example, (here you can explain the changes made by Richard Grenville). This means the building has been changed massively since it was first built.

Paragraph 2. However, there are certain features left that mean we can get an idea of what it looked like (2). For example (here you can use the south side of the outside building which has features of what it looked like such as the original tower and the crease lines of the south transept). There are remains of the original cross vaulting in the Lifetimes Gallery and the Smoking Lobby. In the Georgian dining room is the winged Ox of St Luke from the original building, which show the spreading of Jesus’ around the world.

Paragraph 3. There are also some artists’ impressions that can help to give us an idea(3). These are based in part on the remains and also on an understanding of what most monasteries included such as cloisters, dormitories (here you could mention some other features of monasteries eg comparing it to what we know about Fountains Abbey). Also the Buck brothers (Samuel and Nathanial) brothers made landscape engravings which give us further understanding of what the building looked like in the 1734

Imagine that an artist has been hired to do a painting showing the diversity of everyday life at your site, at a particular time in its past (1). What would you tell the artist to help make the painting historically accurate? (2) Use physical features of the site as well as your knowledge to support your answer. [20] ( ) Spelling, punctuation and grammar and the use of specialist terminology [5]

Introduction: Start by stating which time period you will be focusing on. (In this example the time is 1577 after the monastery had been converted in to a Tudor home). State why it is important (the purpose of the house changed from a set of monastic buildings to a Tudor Family home)

Paragraph 1.

• Explain the diversity of daily life that revolved around one family – the Grenvilles. it would be important for the artist to paint parts of the buildings that show the stamp of the new family and also reveal the religious buildings they have converted . Eg. draw the abbey from the east, to show transepts now gone and the Chancel modified to be a serving area between the Tudor Hall and the Kitchens.

Paragraph 2.

• The artist could also present the life of a gentleman that Grenville wanted to be. In the painting Grenville could be shown lording over an estate which has the abbey and all its new Tudor features like square Tudor windows, but also some of the monastic estate features that he kept as a Tudor gentleman, such as barns, dovecotes, orchards, Elizabethan gardens and ponds. • Could also paint his family: Mary St Leger and his four sons for they also explain the look of the building. Grenville and his wife were both from wealthy backgrounds and so they lived the lifestyle of a wealthy Tudor family, and that included servants. • Could paint the Tudor east wing that Grenville also added which had a ‘service wing’ where servants worked, and the artist should draw servants bustling around the entrance of the house perhaps assisting with a horse and carriage which would be the way people arrived at Buckland since it is in such a remote part of Devon in Dartmoor, no one would walk there.The servants should wear appropriate plain clothing whilst the clothes Grenville and his family should be wearing is t he formal dress of a wealthy family.

Paragraph 3.

• Could also paint the Great Barn with men working to collect the harvest into it from the estate showing farming continued from monastic era. It should be a warm bright day in order to be able to showcase the people working on the land in the sunshine and the servants bustling outside. We can ensure the accuracy of the painting of everyday life using a representation of Buckland Abbey painted in 1734 by Samuel and Nathanial Buck and information we know about other Tudor manor houses of the time.

Diversity includes: • Types of people at the site • Type of employment going on • What the buildings looked like • What the background might include • What clothes people were wearing. • Where each part would feature in the painting

Choose one important change in the way in which your site was used(1). Explain how your site was changed (2) and why this change took place (3) Use physical features of the site as well as your knowledge to support your answer. [20] (!) Spelling, punctuation and grammar and the use of specialist terminology [5]

In this example, it is going from the time before the Agricultural Revolution to the impact of it.

Introduction: Explain briefly what the Agricultural Revolution was. Before this, the ‘open-field system’ was used. Then there were improvements like Enclosure, the Norfolk 4 course crop rotation and better farming machinery. New buildings were created and changes were made to existing buildings at Buckland.

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A good first paragraph:

The abbey itself changed in the late 1700s from simply being a Tudor estate to being an estate that became more efficiently used for agriculture (1-outlining an important change in the way the site was used). Buckland Abbey greatly benefitted from the agricultural revolution. Before Lord Heathfield introduced new agricultural methods in the late 1790s, the abbey which had now become a Tudor home was being neglected by the Drake family that owned it. Indeed, in the 1750s one person described Buckland Abbey like this: “This decayed place is a sinker and there is absolutely no forethought in management”. The dining room ceiling in fact collapsed in 1754! The agricultural revolution on the site brought about better management of the estate but also better management of the house. Samuel Pepys Cockerell, an architect was hired to make changes which he did, including installing a Georgian staircase at the south west end of the Great Hall (2-explaining how it changed). These changes were made because of the increasing wealth of the estate (3 - why it was changed) and the residents who lived in it (Lord Heathfield) to end the neglect of the property by the Drake family that he was now married in to.

Other changes made during the agricultural revolution:

At the end of the 18th century a gentleman called William Marshall visited Buckland Abbey. He was an agricultural reformer who was doing research for his book a Rural Economy of the West of .

• He created a flight of stairs leading down into the first of several enclosures which were reorganised by William Marshall in the 1790s. This particular enclosure would have been used as a milking yard. • The Guest House was also converted. it was originally an agricultural building in the monastic era but in the Tudor era Grenville enlarged the widows and probably added a fireplace at the west end. However William Marshall changed the building slightly in the late 18th century (which means late 1700s) by adding a cottage on the west end of the Guest House. • The Ox Sheds – these are William Marshall’s legacy, designed for the Ox teams that worked at Buckland until 1881. The sheds were built on a semi-octagonal plan enclosing a dung yard. At the lower end of the there is an opening to another former straw yard. • In the 19th century as part of the agricultural revolution a Linhay was built – this is a traditional Devon building with an open-fronted cattle shed on the ground floor and a tallet (first floor) for fodder above. In 1791 there were 22 oxen on the estate. • The Great Barn was changed slightly during the Agricultural revolution too. William Marshall recognised that goods had to be moved by hand around the barn as the doors open across from each other in the middle of the barn meant a horse and cart could only walk through the middle of the barn. So in 1792 he added 3 new doors, 2 of which were at the top and bottom of the barn. This allowed carts to be driven the whole length of the barn from the bottom to the top.

What do specific features in the physical remains at your site reveal about the similarities (1) and differences (2)between it and other sites you have studied? Use physical features of the site as well as your knowledge to support your answer. [20] (!) Spelling, punctuation and grammar and the use of specialist terminology [5]

Introduction: Outline a few things about Fountains Abbey

Paragraph 1/2: Write about how the fountains abbey buildings were the same as those at Buckland Abbey.

Some similarities:

• Fountains Abbey was laid out in a similar style to that of Buckland. This was no coincidence – Each Cistercian Abbey was laid out to a similar plan so visiting monks would know their way around. Like Buckland, men could serve as in two ways: either as a choir in prayer or as a laybrother doing manual work. • Like Buckland, Fountains Abbey had a crossing tower. This was rebuilt in 1500 to become an enormous 167 foot tower which still dominates views of the abbey today. • Just like Buckland Abbey, Fountains Abbey had a Cloister. • In the Cloister, just like the monks at Buckland, there was a roofed area for monks to sit under and study their books. • Both had a chapter house and a burial ground • Both also had a refectory, a Guesthouse and toilets for the monks at the site

Paragraph 2/3: Then discuss ways they are different. Remember to keep referring to parts of the building. For example “Fountains Abbey differs to Buckland Abbey because it was much wealthier and so had the funds to build more. Because of this, Fountains Abbey built a separate dormitory and a set of night stairs for the laybrothers, to keep them separate from the choirmonks who had their own dormitories.”

Other differences:

• In the north where Fountains is located the local stone was sandstone so it is made of a different material to Buckland Abbey which is constructed of grey stone. The Church was much bigger than that of Buckland • Although the first stone church was quite simple, the great Abbey Church of 1160 was more ornate and so didn’t follow the rule of no ornamentation in the same way the Cistercians of Buckland did. • Where buildings were placed. Buckland’s cloisters were placed on the North side of the building • Fountains Abbey keeps to the rule that cloisters ought to be on the south side of the abbey • Fountains Abbey was much wealthier than Buckland: Buckland was sold for £234 when it was sold in 1541, whereas Fountains sold for £11000!

Choose one period in your site’s history. Explain how the site is significant in helping us to understand everyday life and attitudes at that time. Use physical features of the site as well as your knowledge to support your answer. [20] (!) Spelling, punctuation and grammar and the use of specialist terminology [5]

Introduction: Say which period you will use (this example is the monastic era). The site helps us to understand everyday life, religious beliefs and the strong work ethic of the people living there.

Paragraph 1: There is much that is left that reveals the importance of religion in this era. For example… (here you can write about some of the features that show it used to be a monastery).

Paragraph 2. Here you could write about what things the choir monks did in the day and how this reflected their vow of obedience and commitment to God.

Paragraph 3. Here you could write about the Lay brothers and what they did. The importance of farming can also be shown in the Great Barn – a building of this size indicates how important farming was. And it reflects the Cistercian work ethic that was about a commitment to God.

Paragraph 4. As well as life in the abbey, there was a daily bustle in other parts of the monastic properties too. Here you could mention the Tower Cottage and what that was used for. You could also write about the ‘industrial’ area beyond the north cloister wall. There were workshops for the masons, the smiths, the carpenters and the abbey bakehouse and brew- house. Beside the stream were fishponds and on the bank quarries and orchards.