The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays the art collections brought together by the first four Marquis’ of Hertford and the son of the 4th Marquis, Sir Richard Wallace. The boys walked through rooms filled priceless treasures in the open – pictures, porcelain and furniture. The collection also houses the finest collection of princely arms in Britain. 

My group looked at ‘A soldier’s life in Tudor Times’ – a hands on armour session! We studied a portrait of Robert Dudley and discussed his Tudor costume. We then went to The European Armoury and learnt how armour developed through the ages up to the modern day (including body protection worn by troops in Afghanistan – twice as heavy as a full suit of Tudor armour). We studied Lord Buckhurst’s armour c1587 and learnt why less than a third of an army in Tudor Times fought wearing full plate armour. We also learnt to name different elements of a suit of armour. The highlight was for the boys to try on original armour and body protection which was incredibly heavy! The boys are photographed wearing different pieces. The boys also produced some wonderfully detailed sketches of the patterns on the armour. They were extremely well behaved and, thankfully, no priceless porcelain was damaged!

Mrs Fellowes 

 Please click here for a slideshow of the photographs