Ella: Young Archaeologists Club Takeover Day at Pontefract Castle

Ella:

Archaeology Club – takeover day! The event which let kids run Pontefract Castle…

The day was spread our both the day and the afternoon. We had the full working day experience!

We were given lots of options to get involved with. These included helping with a Dungeon Tour, running a craft activity, completing groundskeeping and organising the shop. We even got to plant our own archaeology handprint with yellow flowers!

The day allowed us to work together and have an experience of what it is like to be part of the Pontefract Castle team. I took part in all the events and I loved them all!

For the Dungeon Tour we worked with a member of the Visitor Experience team. We showed visitors around and helped to tell them fun facts about the dungeon. I really enjoyed this event because we could share our knowledge and pass on our love of local history to adults and children alike.

We dared to go down into the dungeon!

Then, it was time to get creative at the craft activity session! For this opportunity we helped visitors make various crafts. These included a catapult, colourful shields and jester hats!

This was the perfect opportunity to show our creative side. Many archaeology club members thrived here.

Some of the craft activities at Pontefract Castle

We then put our strength and initiative to the test with some groundskeeping. And, of course, got muddy along the way!

We were tasked to do some weeding and even cleaned the pebbles and dirt out of the Castle Visitor Centre's guttering. We were helped by Site Officer Joe. She was really nice and made our tasks fun and easy – showing kids can do anything!

It helped us appreciate the behind-the-scenes work put in to protect historic places like this, so people of the future can enjoy it all too.

Every little helps - including cleaning the guttering!

If you like shops, then helping in the Castle's Gift Shop would have been the thing for you. We had the opportunity to catalogue and even chose what we wanted the shop to order next time! We ticked off the products we liked in a magazine.

We created a display for the shop floor. We got to stamp our own siege coins as a souvenir too!

Our shop display full of goodies!

Finally, to leave a lasting impact on Pontefract Castle's history, we were able to leave our mark. We worked as a team to make a floral handprint out of primroses. The staff were lovely and everyone shared our enthusiasm for this special occasion.

We received certificates and stickers and even had our club mentioned on the Castle's notice board.

Leaving our mark on Pontefract Castle!