19.10.23

Year 5 have had such an eventful first half term! We started the year off strong by embarking on our first school trip to the Alfred Gillet Trust. The Alfred Gillet Trust is an independent charity which preserves heritage collections which tell the stories about the family, people and business behind shoemaking in Street.

This trip aids our knowledge as we started our first History topic – Small Town Big History. We had such an enjoyable (and busy!) day visiting local areas in Street that held prominence in the Clarks family’s life. We started at Crispin Hall, where many events were held for the community, and which was paid for by William Stephens Clark. We also learnt that Crispin Hall is named after St. Crispin – the patron saint of shoemaking! We then moved onto the old library – this was built in 1925 to encourage workers to read. Next, we moved on to Greenbank Pool, which was opened in 1937. Alice Clark commissioned this pool in order for there to be somewhere in Street for women and children to go swimming; the men used the River Brue! After that, we stopped at the Bear Inn for a spot of lunch.
Then, we visited the Quaker meeting house – the Clarks family were Quakers and believed in core values such as equality and peace. We then visited Clarks HQ and learnt that the bells in the clock tower are named after the 4 Clarks daughters. We ended our trip at Millfield school where we had lunch, took part in some timeline activities and were lucky enough to look around Millfield house! We learnt of a secret door that was used to slip out the living room during long dinner parties – we thought this was very funny! We had a fantastic day with the brilliant staff at Alfred Gillet Trust.