TG Working on site 1 Once the group has arrived on site, start with an introduction to the mill, staff and facilities. Begin with an orientation exercise. Divide the party into pairs. Provide the pupils with a very small strip of post-it note. Ask them to draw their partner on the post-it note. Once this is complete the pupils give each other their sketches and they place the sketch of themselves on the map or plan. During the visit ask the pupils to move their picture on the plan as they walk around the site. Another activity is to divide the group into pairs and give them photographs of different parts of the site. They have to find the place illustrated in their picture and return to the group. Roles on site This pack provides a number of site activities and suggestions for work. It may be appropriate to divide the party into groups. Each group could have a particular role. By dividing the party into groups they can work in specialist teams, with specific objectives and the requirement to feedback to their class when they return to school. The groups could be: • Video producers • Oral historians • Surveyors • Reporters • Photographers • Artists • Archivists Each group could collect their evidence, draw their conclusions about what they have found and all be involved in observing, discovering and hypothesising. Teachers’ Guide for the Kent Windmills Education Pack Ian Coulson TG Question prompts on site 2 Look at where the windmill is situated Can you explain why the windmill was built on this site? What is the situation of the windmill? What is the area around the windmill like? How easy is it to get to the site and are there good transport connections ? Are the roads the same as they used to be or have they changed? Buildings on the site What buildings and remains of buildings can you see on the site? Are there any other buildings, new or old, on the site? Can you work out what the other buildings would have been used for? Do you think there are any buildings missing? Is there any evidence of where the miller lived? The windmill Is the windmill complete is any machinery missing? What machinery can you find on the site? What materials have been used to construct the windmill? Why do you think these materials were chosen? Has the windmill been altered over time? Are some parts of different dates? Which are parts of the building is earlier, which later? Changing use Has the use of the windmill changed? How were materials or products moved from one process to the next? Where was the grain and the flour stored? Who were the people who worked here? How many people do you think must have worked at the windmill? Where might did these people live and how did they get to work? Is there any evidence of who used to work here? Inside the windmill Windmills are cramped and it is important that pupils look where they are going so try to avoid spending too much time using a worksheet inside the mill. It is here that you may require the help of an expert! Teachers’ Guide for the Kent Windmills Education Pack Ian Coulson TG Investigative Questions 3 Once on site there are several broad questions that can be investigated. A line of enquiry helps define what you do with the children. It provides a starting point and a clear outcome for any activities – the answer to the questions. Key questions might include: • Why was the windmill built on this site? • How long has it been here? • Why has it lasted so long and not been taken down? • How big is the windmill? • What other buildings were around the windmill? • What are the working areas in side the windmill? • What type of windmill is this one, and what other types of windmill are there? • How was the mill built? • How is it possible to put the sails on a windmill this big if you do not have a modern crane? • What was life like for a miller in the past? • How has the windmill changed over time? • What did the windmill produce? • Who did the windmill supply? • What is the layout of the windmill and the surrounding buildings? • Should we preserve windmills? Teachers’ Guide for the Kent Windmills Education Pack Ian Coulson TG Working in cramped conditions 4 Windmills are cramped and not suited to large groups in one place at any one time. It is always worth organising your visit so that the class, or classes, are divided into smaller groups. These groups can them be set time limited tasks as part of a circuit of activities. On such occasions it is best to avoid detailed recording and to have tasks that are limited in their scope but significant for building the understanding by pupils of the windmill, its use and its development. Paired work is effective, allowing pupils to concentrate on a small aspect of the building and then report back to a larger group. The reporting back is especially important because it forces children to reform, verbalise and explain what they have observed and concluded. Letting the local guide know how you intend to use the site is vital. Avoid the forty minute technical explanation and history of the site in favour of pupils having a brief succinct introduction and then questions and activities that get them to seek answers. They can report back to both the group and the guide who can be used to help clarify what they have seen and concluded and answer some of the technical questions. Short questions might be: • Finding out about the millstones. How many millstones are there? What sort of stones are used as millstones, can you describe them accurately in words and drawings? • Finding out about the sails. How many sails are there? What are they made of? Finish the incomplete drawing of the sails and describe them. Why are they shaped this way and what do you think the shutters for? A simple model of generic questions might include: • What is………? • What does it look like? • How big is it? • What materials is it made from? • How do you think it worked? • What part of the milling process does it belong to? Teachers’ Guide for the Kent Windmills Education Pack Ian Coulson TG Asking Questions: Starter Activity 5 Provide the pupils with two images for the mill you will be visiting. Use the following questions to encourage their curiosity about the mill, where it is and how it works. Starter Activity Chillenden Windmill Chillenden Windmill Working in pairs take either the photograph or the line drawing. Look at it carefully. 1. What is the name of the mill? 2. Do you know where it is? 3. What does the windmill need to work? 4. How many people do you think worked at the windmill? 5. What jobs do you think people did at the windmill? 6. What other questions would you like to ask. Teachers’ Guide for the Kent Windmills Education Pack Ian Coulson What happened to Chillenden Mill on the TG night of 26th November? 6 A Grade II listed windmill has been badly damaged by high winds which have battered the South East of England. BBC News Wednesday, 26 November, 2003 The windmill at Chillenden near Canterbury was blown over in the storms of Wednesday morning. The mill, which was built in 1868, had recently undergone extensive restoration work. A post mill built on stilts, it is believed to be one of just five of its kind in the UK and worked until 1949, when one of its sweeps was damaged in a gale. Restoration work carried out after Kent County Council assumed control for the mill was completed as recently as last year. Margaret Holyer, who is a volunteer at the windmill, said: "The middle strut is broken, it must have been pushed over and broken and so it's gone over to the left as I was looking at it. "It's done an awful lot of damage. "I can usually see it from my gate but I went out to see it and it just wasn't there." Elsewhere in Kent, a fallen tree landed on a taxi on Canterbury Road in Folkestone but the driver escaped serious injury. Other roads in the county were blocked by fallen trees and rail services were delayed after trees were blown onto the lines at Gravesend and Godstone. The torrential rain led to the Met Office issuing a severe weather warning affecting Kent and Sussex and flood warnings for some areas on the south coast of Kent. Teachers’ Guide for the Kent Windmills Education Pack Ian Coulson TG 7 Destroyed windmill dismantled A Grade II listed windmill that was flattened by high winds has been dismantled by cranes in preparation for restoration work. The windmill at Chillenden near Canterbury, Kent, was blown over and destroyed during a storm on 26 November. The windmill at Chillenden was The mill, which was built in 1868, had been flattened by storms restored before the storm. The same contractors who repaired it have been called in to take it apart. It will take the IJP workers a week to dismantle the mill as each part has to be labelled in case it is decided to rebuild it in the future. The post mill was believed to be one of just five The timber is quite wet at of its kind in the UK. the moment so we will dry it out while it is in the container to prevent possible rot setting It will be stored in a container in Reading for at in least three months while Kent County Council, the mill's owner, decides its fate.