Castles, Knights & Dragons

Pre-visit resources—teacher’s notes Background: imagine you are a Knight or maiden and you are go-ing to be visiting the Luttrell family at Dunster Castle. You will ride on your trusty steed and will need to have a shield with you to show that you are friend, not foe. You might want spend some time in class exploring further some of the history surrounding coats of arms, chivalry, jousting and the medieval times.

Activities: Sir… (what would your Knightly or maiden name be?) Name your trusty steed Family motto Design a shield

Sir/Lady… During the jousting activity, the session leader will ask each child for their name pre-fixed by a ‘Sir’ or ‘Lady’. The names are usually their normal Christian names but if they’d like to be more creative then that’s fine. Name your trusty steed A Knight or maiden would need to have a strong horse by his or her side, particularly if re-quired to participate in any jousting contests. Let the children think of a name (they might also like to think about how the horse would look and what it’s character might be) and note it down so they can remember it when they visit Dunster Castle.

Family motto Most families would have a motto that would be cited on their family crest or shield. At Dun-ster, the Luttrell family motto is ‘Gained by strength, held by skill” Ask the children to think about what their family motto might be.

Design your own Coat of Arms A coat of arms illustrates the values of the person they represent. They date back to the Mid-dle Ages when developments in armour and Knights’ helmets meant that it became hard to tell armed soldiers apart. Knights and soldiers then started to add colours or marks to their shields so that they could be identified on the battlefield and overtime this developed to proper designs on shields that became symbols of the soldier and his family. Having your own coat of arms became very popular and you could even have artists design them for you. Such designs could then be applied to tunics, flags, banners or on buildings. There are many different designs using colours, animals, symbols to create a personal coat of arms for Knights. Pupils could investigate heraldic colours, heraldic animals and heraldic symbols to help their designs. Its also useful to think of their school logo or badge of their favourite sports team. There is a shield template and some heraldic symbols on the following pages. We’d love for the children to bring their shields to show us as part of their visit.

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