Our lessons are investigations mapped to the curriculum that can be covered in a single period or followed up for homework. You can use them ‘as is’ or adapt them to fit your group’s needs.
Showing 168 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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1919 race riots
How significant a factor was race in the riots of 1919?
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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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72 Hours to the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (KS3)
Key Stage Three Resources - Lesson Two
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A ‘right’ to relief?
In what ways did paupers hold the Poor Law to account?
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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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American Revolution
What political ideas in the colonies influenced the American Revolution?
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Anglo-Saxons – Gift from a King
What was Anglo-Saxon society like?
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Archives Live: D-Day
Resource pack
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Archives Live: Tudors
Student resource pack
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Archives Live: Windrush 75
Special live event from The National Archives
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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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Body Snatchers
What led to the Anatomy Act of 1832?
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Boston Tea Party
How was the 1773 Boston Tea Party significant for the American Revolution?
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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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Caribbean history in photographs
What can these photographs tell us?
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Census detective
What can you find out?
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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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Children’s Clothing in the Workhouse
What do the letters tell us about pauper children's clothing in the workhouse?
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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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Coping with Cholera
How did the authorities react in 19th century?
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Crime and Punishment: Robert Peel
How was law enforcement changed by Sir Robert Peel’s new Metropolitan Police Force?
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Criminal petitions
What do they reveal about the justice system?
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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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Downing Street Declaration (KS4)
Key Stage Four Resources - Lesson One
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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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Edward the Confessor
What does the Domesday Abbreviato tells us about Edward the Confessor?
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Elizabethan propaganda
How did England try to show Spain planned to invade in 1588?
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Empire Windrush: Caribbean migration
Why did people from the Caribbean travel to live and work in Britain?
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Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence
What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain?
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Empire Windrush: Life for Migrants in the 1940s and 50s
What do these documents reveal about life for Caribbean migrants to Britain in the 1940s and 1950s?
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Empire Windrush: The Notting Hill Carnival
What do the sources reveal about the significance of the Notting Hill Carnival and why it began?
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England’s Immigrants, 1330-1550
Downloads for teachers
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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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Florence Nightingale
Why do we remember her?
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Food Glorious Food
What was food like for a child in the Victorian workhouse?
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Foundling Hospital
What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?
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Framlingham Castle
What was the primary function of Framlingham Castle in the ‘Middle Ages’?
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French Revolution
How did the British react to July 1789?
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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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General Haig
Butcher of the Somme or hero of Amiens?
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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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Going to School in the Workhouse
How was school for pauper children different, and what was the same?
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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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Health and the Poor Law
To what degree did the Poor Law make an important contribution to Public Health?
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Henry VIII court rules
How did Henry VIII get up in the morning?
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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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Hong Kong and the Opium Wars
How did Hong Kong become part of the British Empire?
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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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Huguenots in England
What was the experience of Huguenot migrants in seventeenth century England?
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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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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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Kenilworth Castle (part one)
What can you tell from an image?
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Kenilworth Castle (part two)
What do the medieval records reveal?
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LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain
How have changes in laws and attitudes affected LGBTQ+ people in Britain?
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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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Magna Carta teacher’s resources
Downloads for teachers
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Mangrove Nine protest
What does this reveal about police brutality and racism in '70s Britain?
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May Fourth Movement 1919
Why did the Paris Peace Conference lead to a mass protest movement in China?
Medieval agreements and arguments
What do medieval documents reveal about people’s agreements and disagreements in the Middle Ages?
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Medieval castles
What was their purpose and significance?
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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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Places – GCSE English Language
Using images for descriptive and narrative writing
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Protesting against the New Poor Law
What can archival material tell us about protest?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson One
What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about punishments for workhouse children?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson Two
What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about attitudes towards punishments in the workhouse?
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Queen Anne
How can we find out about her?
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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?
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Rob Roy
A Victorian railway accident
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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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Significant People
Key Stage One Activity Book
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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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Sugar
What can original documents tell us about the history of sugar?
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Terfysg Beca (Cymraeg/Welsh)
Beth a ddigwyddodd yn ystod
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The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (KS4)
Key Stage Four Resources - Lesson Two
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The Boxers of Whitechapel
What do the documents reveal about the inhabitants?
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The Chinese Civil War
Why did the fighting between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party happen?
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The Great Seal
What can it tell us?
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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 South African War
How did the British conduct war in 1899-1902?
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Tobacco
James I & VI: How was tobacco viewed, consumed, and traded in the Stuart period?
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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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Ugandan Asians
What was the impact of the expulsion from Uganda on the lives of British Asians?
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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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Uncovering the past
How can we use photographs to find out about 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 Health Reform
How did the Victorians view compulsory vaccination?
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Victorian homes
Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
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Victorian Railways
Did they create more crime?
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Walter Tull
How can we use sources to find out about him?
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Wartime Propaganda
How did Britain try to keep the support of West African peoples?
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What caused the 1832 Great Reform Act?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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What caused the ‘Swing Riots’ in the 1830s?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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What is a Jubilee?
What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
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What led to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement? (KS5)
Key Stage Five Resources
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What methods did the Suffragettes use to gain the vote?
Political reform in 20th century Britain
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What was Chartism?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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What was the significance of the Match Girls’ Strike in 1888?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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Who was Noor Khan?
What can documents reveal about her role during the Second World War?
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Why did the Luddites protest?
Political reform in 19th century Britain
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Why was radical writer Thomas Paine significant?
Political and social reform in 18th century Britain
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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 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?