History Resource Cupboard – lessons and resources for schools

History Resource Cupboard - lessons and resources for schools

Has the Battle of Hastings artist done his homework?

Battle of Hastings reconstructionThis enquiry will take you to the heart of what good interpretations work should be: unpicking how the past is reconstructed.

Students find different features in a brilliant drawing of a scene, by artist Peter Dunn, from the Battle of Hastings. They are then asked how did the artist know?

They analyse  written sources, then the Bayeux Tapestry to check.

Next they hear from the artist who tells them exactly how he re-constructed the image.

They then end by deciding if the artist really did his homework before drawing this scene.

This lesson now has a downloadable homework task that you can just print off and set your students. 

Download lesson

  • Lesson presentation: PowerPoint
  • Lesson write-up: PDF – new
  • Resources 1-4 including the artist reconstruction and sources:PDF
  • Worksheet 1: PDF
  • Homework task: PDF
  • Homework task with teacher answers: PDF

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