Place the period in context, linking it to times previously studied. We often call this period the Middle Ages. Why? Show on a time line how it lies in the middle, between classical and modern times.

Find out what students already know about the Middle Ages. Get them to do a brainstorm and write down all the words they associate with the period. Look out for these details while watching the programme.

Watch and note down:

• Defensive features and positioning of castles

• Details that confirm or clash with their image of the Middle Ages

• Ways in which the Norman Conquest changed the landscape and people's lives

medieval, Normans, motte and bailey, cathedral, gatehouse, monastery, monks, plague

Re-cap and consolidation:

• What kinds of buildings have survived from the Middle Ages?

• What other evidence of life in the Middle Ages can we still see today?

• Why did the Normans build castles?

• Where did they build them?

Locate the following website:

Public Records Office: Domesday Book

http://www.pro.gov.uk/education/learningcurve/domesday/dbwhat1.htm

With reference to the website, complete the following tasks:

• Note down key information and compare it with two other sources - for example a textbook and the television programme, Flying Through History.

• Organise information on a chart and use it to develop a piece of explanatory writing about the origins and features of the Domesday Book.

Most established settlements contain traces of their medieval past in the form of place names, street plans and general layout. Use this street map of Devizes in Wiltshire, or investigate your own area, using Ordnance Survey maps, or a sketch map from the Tourist Information Bureau.

Where was the nearest castle? Do any traces of the town walls or gates survive? Where was the market place? What do street names tell us about their original function? Is there any evidence of the religious life of the town? Look for place names containing the word monk, nun, friar, prior, convent, abbey or grange. They are signs that the land originally belonged to the church and would probably have changed hands during the Reformation.

Extend the activity with book-based research and compare the usefulness of books and the television programme in establishing a picture of change in Medieval England.