1. What were Medieval Towns really like?

2. Using pictures as historical sources 1.In this lesson you are going to use two pictures to help you work out what medieval towns were really like. 2.You are going to think about why sources about the past can vary so much.

3. First Activity  Draw a table like this one in your exercise books.  Use the picture of the French town.  Make a list of what you can see in the picture in the first column.  What can you work out or infer from the picture about what life in the town was like?  Write this in the second column. What I can see What I can work out

5. Were towns really like this?

6. Main activity  Divide a whole page of your exercise book into four and label each section.  Look at the picture of dirty old town pages 68/69 in Clare.  Write down what you can see in each of the four categories. AnimalsAccidents People/jobsPollution

8. What does your information tell you about town life in the middle ages?

9. 1.Write a full sentence about what you think you can work out about town life from the picture. 2.Now think up your own title for the picture and write it down.

10. So what do we think now?  What do you think town life was like?  What titles did you write?  Why are the pictures so different?  Do the pictures agree about anything?  Which of the two pictures is more accurate?  What do we need to find out?

11. Homework  Write a short report by a modern health inspector on a medieval town.  Use today’s class work to help you.