Family Walks : Bramhall Hall

At the moment we are looking at the Tudor period of history, and we are very fortunate to have a stunning Tudor mansion a short drive away from home. Ideally, we would have taken a tour of the building, but current circumstances mean that it’s closed, so we had to instead make do with taking a walk around the outside and enjoying the estate.

Learning about Tudor Homes

At the start of the week we look at the start of the Tudor reign with King Henry VII and his success at the Battle of Bosworth Field. We talked about what England looked like at that time, and the children drew out a Tudor Village and a Tudor Town. We talked about how society and the prosperity of England changed during the Tudor era and how we can still see a lot of Tudor buildings around us now.

We have visited the lovely Little Moreton Hall a few months ago and we would have headed back there again, had circumstances allowed to compare with what we had learnt about Tudor Houses. I used the Tudor information pack from the Teaching Packs website and it was really fantastic for talking the children through what the villages and towns would have looked like, as well as the houses. It’s by far the most comprehensive pack I have found about the Tudors.

Before we went, I asked the older two to predict what the Tudor Mansion might look like, based on what we had learnt. They both said they thought it would be black and white, that it would have glass in the windows (due to it being a mansion) and that they expected it would have tall chimneys. They thought the top would overhang the bottom of the building and that there would be a knot garden.

Finding Bramhall Hall

Bramhall Hall is easy to find and is well signposted. There are brown tourist signs as you make your way there and there are two car parks, a smaller one as you enter into the estate and a larger one towards the top. There are parking charged but these are suspended at the current time so I didn’t get the opportunity to look at the cost.

The house itself is very striking and we spent a good while walking around and seeing if we could spot the things that the children had predicted. We talked about what we thought the various rooms might have been used for and mused as to where the servants might have lived. The children spotted some carvings on the outside and I need to research more about what they represent.

They were right in their predictions and we especially enjoyed the chimney stacks – so tall and very ornate! Beautiful detailing in them.

The Estate

There is a good bit of land to walk around on the estate, and just opposite the hall itself, there is an area that usually houses a cafe and small gift shop (but understandably closed at the moment).  There’s a large grassy area to picnic on and there are benches beside the pond where we enjoyed watching the nesting ducks and moorhens and Em snapped some pictures of the squirrels too!

We walked around into the woodland and the children had a lot of fun here. We talked about what sorts of animals might have lived here during Tudor times, and decided perhaps Deer, Wild Boar, hares and rabbits as well as the grazing animals that we expected the family had for dairy and meat produce.

We spotted lots of animal homes including what we think are the entrance to badger setts.

Bringing History to life

Visiting places like Bramhall Hall really brings a topic to life, and it was great for the children to see the things that they’d read actually in front of them. We then made up this Tudor House from the teaching ideas website. I can’t wait to be able to take the children inside Bramhall Hall and bring another aspect of Tudor living to life for them.