Our taught sessions and online resources cover a variety of time periods and places. Many contain structured investigations for use directly in the classroom. Others are more suited for research and preparation. They all allow access into our unique collections.
Showing 214 resources
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1833 Factory Act
Did it solve the problems of children in factories?
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1834 Poor Law
What did people think of the new Poor Law?
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19th century mining disaster
What happened at the Trimdon Grange Mining Disaster?
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19th century people
What can we tell from this photograph?
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4099 is my name (SEND)
How can we share the experiences of someone who lived in the past?
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72 Hours to the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (KS3)
Key Stage Three Resources - Lesson Two
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A Victorian prison
Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
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Adolf Hitler
Was Hitler a 'passionate lunatic'?
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African nurses
What part did they play in British health services?
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All on board!
What can we learn from old board games?
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All pals together
Would you like to meet our tommy, Henry Fairhurst?
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Archives Live: D-Day
Resource pack
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Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement
From Conflict to Peace - 25 Years On
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Belsen concentration camp 1945
What did the British find when they entered Belsen concentration camp?
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BGFA25 – Discussion Activity
From Conflict to Peace - 25 Years On
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Black Victorians
How much can documents reveal about the lives of Black people in Victorian Britain?
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Body Snatchers
What led to the Anatomy Act of 1832?
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Bound for Britain
Experiences of immigration to the UK
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British Response to V1 and V2
How did Britain respond to the threat of attack by missiles in 1943?
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Bulaya Chanda
What do these documents reveal about Bulaya Chanda, soldier and ‘showman’?
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Bussa’s rebellion
How and why did the enslaved Africans of Barbados rebel in 1816?
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Capturing our Collections
Artworks inspired by documents found in The National Archives
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Caribbean history in photographs
What can these photographs tell us?
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Cats and mice
What tactics were used by suffragettes, police and government?
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Chamberlain and Hitler 1938
What was Chamberlain trying to do?
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Chertsey
What was Chertsey like in the Middle Ages?
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Child migration
Why were children sent to Canada in 1869-1913?
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Christmas is cancelled!
What were Cromwell’s main political and religious aims for the Commonwealth 1650-1660?
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Commonwealth migration since 1945
What was the context and impact of migration in modern Britain?
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Discover the Dissolution
How did the Dissolution change my local area?
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Domesday Book
What can we learn about England in the 11th century?
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Domesday Book: medieval treasure
What can we learn about people’s lives in 1086?
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Dr James Barry
Why was he significant in 19th century medicine?
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Eden’s last stand
Why did Anthony Eden resign in 1938?
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Elizabethan propaganda
How did England try to show Spain planned to invade in 1588?
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England’s Immigrants, 1330-1550
Downloads for teachers
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Enquiring into Elizabeth
What can we learn about Elizabeth I’s ruling style from her letters and speeches?
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Evacuation to Canada
How much care was really taken?
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Evacuation to Shropshire
What happened to children who were sent away?
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Foundling Hospital
What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?
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From Outbreak to Archive: Tales of Public Health
What do the documents reveal about how government and society dealt with public health in the past?
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From the Front
How typical was Albert Edwin Rippington’s experience of war?
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General Haig
Butcher of the Somme or hero of Amiens?
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Georgian Britain
Age of modernity?
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German occupation of the Rhineland
What should Britain do about it?
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God blew and they were scattered
Did God really help the English defeat the Spanish Armada?
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Gordon Ford’s story
What was it like to be an airman in the Second World War?
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Government posters
How did Britain encourage people at home to help win the war?
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Great Fire of London: how London changed
What happened?
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Great Plague of 1665-1666
How did London respond to it?
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Great War soldier’s record
What can we find out?
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Gunpowder Plot
Can you uncover the plans of the plotters?
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Have we underestimated the Victorian Poor?
To what extent did the Victorian Poor accept their fate in the workhouse?
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Henry VIII court rules
How did Henry VIII get up in the morning?
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Henry’s royal rules (SEND)
What were the rules of daily life for a king in Tudor times?
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Hitler assassination plan
How did the British plan to kill Hitler?
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Holding History
What is 'The National Archives'?
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How did the government respond to a mass protest at ‘Peterloo’ in 1819?
Political reform in 19th century Britain
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How we were taught
What was school like 100 years ago?
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Irish Partition
Why was Ireland divided in 1921?
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Jacobite propaganda
What was the point of Jacobite propaganda?
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Jacobite Rebellion of 1715
Rebels with a cause?
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Jacobite Rising of 1745
A serious threat to the Hanoverians?
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Jews in England 1066
Why did Jews settle in England after 1066?
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Jews in England 1216-72
What was the relationship between Christians and Jews from 1216-72?
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Jews in England 1290
Why did Edward I expel the Jews in 1290?
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Jutland: Death at sea
Were lives wasted when the Indefatigable sank?
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Kindertransport
Saving refugee children?
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Letters from the First World War, part one
How did these men experience the conflict? (1915)
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Letters from the First World War, part two
How did these men experience the conflict? (1916 - 18)
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Life aboard the Titanic
Who travelled on the fateful maiden voyage?
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Life in 1950s Britain
What can we find out about life in 1950s Britain using documents from the time?
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Life in 1960s Britain
What can we find out about life in 1960s Britain using documents from the time?
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Loyalty and dissent
How did Indian soldiers respond to the First World War?
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Magna Carta, 1215 and beyond
A medieval revolution?
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Mangrove Nine protest
What does this reveal about police brutality and racism in '70s Britain?
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Medicine on the Western Front (part one)
How did trench warfare affect injuries and treatment?
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Medicine on the Western Front (part two)
How did trench warfare affect injuries and treatment?
Medieval agreements and arguments
What do medieval documents reveal about people’s agreements and disagreements in the Middle Ages?
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Medieval seals
What can seals tell us about medieval times?
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Medieval Society
What roles did women play in Medieval times?
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Mental Health on Record
What do the documents reveal about the understanding of mental health in the past?
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Murder at Kirk o’ Field
What happened in 1567?
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Native North Americans
What was early contact like between English colonists and Native Americans?
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Partition of British India
What can The National Archives documents reveal about the partition of British India?
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Past pleasures
How did the Victorians have fun?
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People – GCSE English Language
Using images for descriptive and narrative writing
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Places – GCSE English Language
Using images for descriptive and narrative writing
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Rebecca riots
What happened during them?
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Rebels in the records
What can we learn from documents that show how people ‘rebelled’ in the past?
Session we teach
Resistance and Rebellion in the Caribbean
How did enslaved people resist?
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Role of a Queen – Mary I and Anne
What can we find out about the roles of Queen Mary I and Queen Anne?
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Role of a Queen – Matilda and Elizabeth I
How has the role of Queen changed from the past?
Samuel Pepys
What does his will reveal?
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Say ‘cheese’: a portrait of Queen Victoria’s family
What can Queen Victoria's family photographs tell us?
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School dinners
Why were school dinners brought in?
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Seafarers’ Stories
How can we tell the stories of the Mirpuri, Bengali and Panjabi seafarers who travelled to Britain in the 1920s-30s?
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Selling the Victorians
Victorians for sale! Has advertising changed from Victorian times?
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Slavery
How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade?
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Suffrage Tales
What would you do?
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Suffragettes ‘in Trousers’
How did men support votes for women?
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Suffragettes on file
What did the struggle for the vote involve?
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Suffragettes through government eyes
What do government records reveal about the suffrage movement?
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Suffragettes: Outrage at Kew
What's the story?
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Terfysg Beca (Cymraeg/Welsh)
Beth a ddigwyddodd yn ystod
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The Holocaust
Key documents from The National Archives
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The Holocaust
What can British government documents tell us about what happened in the Holocaust?
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The Home Front
How did people prepare for the war at home?
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The Independence of Bangladesh in 1971
What can British documents tell us about the creation of Bangladesh?
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The King, the Crown and the Colonel
How did Thomas Blood try to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671?
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The road to the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (KS3)
Key Stage Three Resources - Lesson One
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The Search for ‘Terra Australis’
What did Captain Cook’s secret mission involve?
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The Sinking of the Titanic
Why were so many lives lost in the disaster?
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The South African War
How did the British conduct war in 1899-1902?
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Travel smart through time (SEND)
How and why have people travelled around in the past and how have they done it safely?
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Trimdon
What was it like living in a late 19th century mining town?
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Tudor Entertainment
What was the effect of the early playhouses?
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Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive
What types of sources might be useful to find out about the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the past?
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Victorian children in trouble with the law
Did the punishment fit the crime?
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Victorian family history
How can we find out about the life of a Victorian child?
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Victorian Food and Drink
What do old adverts reveal?
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Victorian homes
Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
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Victorian lives
How was life different in Victorian times?
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Wartime Propaganda
How did Britain try to keep the support of West African peoples?
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What is a Jubilee?
What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
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What is history?
How do historians work out what happened in the past?
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What methods did the Suffragettes use to gain the vote?
Political reform in 20th century Britain
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Whitechapel
How can we find out about what Whitechapel was like in 1888?
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William Shakespeare
What can we find out about his life?
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Women and the English Civil Wars
How did these conflicts affect their lives?
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Workhouse Voices
What did paupers say about the Poor Law?
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Workhouse Voices Creative Writing
Stories inspired by letters from the past
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Workhouse Women
How were women treated in the Victorian workhouse?
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World Cup 1966
Did England rig the result?
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Zeppelin raids
How did First World War Zeppelin raids affect British civilians?