Shropshire Routes to Roots

7. Resources for teachers

National Curriculum

The Shropshire's industrial heritage theme provides a comprehensive background to Industrialisation in Shropshire. The theme is not intended for online access by a primary school audience. However, many elements of it can be linked with the National Curriculum for History.

In parts, it ties in with History Key Stage 3, Unit 11: 'Industrial Changes: Action and Reaction' and Key Stage 2, Unit 11: 'What was it like for children living in Victorian Britain?' and Key Stage 2, Unit 12: 'How did life change in our locality in Victorian times?'

Approaches

To make the resources from the Shropshire's Industrial Heritage theme accessible to a Primary audience, you may want to use selected aspects of the images and text. The following resources are particularly illuminative. Note that all links will open in a new browser window:

• Images of Tankerville Mine, Snailbeach mine and Snailbeach mine pit head.
• A map of Shrewsbury Industry in the Nineteenth Century and a photo of a cobbled street.
• A picture of the Wem tanning yards and a poster advertising the price of beer.
• The Industrial development Timeline (Opens in a new window), which provides a simple background chronology to the Industrial Revolution.

For interesting anecdotes, the story of the Snailbeach mining disaster (Opens in a new window) offers a vivid illustration of the dangers of the industrial life, whilst the tale of Ned the Harpist (Opens in a new window) shows some of the humorous superstitions of the time.

Worksheets for Key Stage Three

There are two prepared tasks a Key Stage 3 class could do with the material:

• Making a newspaper (Opens in a new window). Pupils are given a collection of different headlines, pictures and 'news' stories taken from the Shropshire's industrial heritage theme. They are given a template of the front page of a newspaper and by cutting and pasting elements can create their own front page.
• A spooky story (Opens in a new window). Pupils write their own miner's folk tale, along the lines of the Ned the Harpist story.

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