Our Year 3s have been studying The Romans and luckily for us, just down the road in St Albans, is one of the best Roman locations in the country. Verulamium was once one of the most important Roman towns in the country. In those days the posh Romans lived in Hemel Hempstead (there are a number of villas that have been excavated here) and the less well off were in Verulamium. Today there is a fantastic museum https://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/visit/verulamium-museum that shows off the artefacts found in the local area. The pupils had a fantastic artefact handling session – thank you Virginia, where some of them, much to Oliver’s amusement got dressed up as typical Romans. Some of the artefacts they handled were Roman, some of them were reproductions. They then went around the museum seeing some of the wonderful mosaics on show and even had a go making their own. One of the favourite exhibits were the skeletons, unearthed locally, of local dignitaries and unfortunately, young babies who did not survive their childhood. The pupils also managed to see the hypercaust in a villa that had been excavated. Under the mosaic floor of this villa are a series of hollow pipes that carried hot air from furnaces to ensure the villa was always warm, not bad for almost 2000 years ago. Many thanks to Mrs Roberts, Mrs Forshaw and Mr Bowker for taking the trip.
