Medieval Fun Day
An educational event was initiated and organised by myself with John Sherlock, custodian of Caernarfon castle (CADW), administrative support from the College of Arts and Humanities and Bangor University Library and Archive Services, which brought more than 500 primary school children and their teachers from the local schools into the castle to learn from academic research on manuscript books, storytelling, history, design, and performance /art.
Underpinning research: My research into late medieval culture, and in particular the reading of manuscript books including Arthurian legends, and the making of such books informed the workshops I gave to the pupils and their teachers (in groups of 50); my publications on these topics informed my impact work and they were the very reason why John Sherlock contacted me to organise the event.
Beneficiaries: The beneficiaries were primary school pupils aged 6-10 from the local schools and their teachers, but also staff at the castle and staff and postgraduate/undergraduate students from Bangor University who helped. The reach of this impact activity has gone beyond the numbers (500 pupils), as the letter attached shows: John talks about CADW Continuing Learning picking up the model and spreading it across Wales, and about a visible increase in visits to the castle by members of the local community who learned either first hand, from the participants, or from the local press.