If you haven’t seen this amazing series of films that highlight Herefordshire at war, then you should, they’re just brilliant! 

The Rural Media Project contacted us back in 2010 to ask us to help them with Royalists and Roundheads; a heritage and animation project that would enable young people from across Herefordshire to explore one of the most violent, bloody and dramatic periods of English history.

Working with filmmakers, Herefordshire Archaeology and History Squad, young people from Lord Scudamore, Goodrich, Ewyas Harold and Luston Primary Schools all visited Civil War sites close to their schools and toured some of the better-known Civil War sites such as Goodrich Castle.

The History Squad then visited each school for an energetic day that included pike drilling, dressing up in Civil War uniform and an impressive musketry display. 

Then working with an animator, each school took what they had learnt and turned it into a fabulous animation.  Each school devised and wrote the stories they wanted to tell about the Civil War, then built and designed the set and characters for each animation.  Having heard the stories about the war, feeling the weight of the armour and witnessing the sight and smells of a musket being fired, the children set about designing beautiful backdrops, and creating castles and horses and armies of pikemen and musketeers. 

The project was a fantastic way to engage and teach young people about the history that is often just on their doorstep.  One of the benefits of History Squad’s flexibility is that they can carry out local research and incorporate it into their workshops on request. 

Adrian Lambert of the Rural Media Company said of the History Squad “your input was absolutely perfect. The combination of different styles and forms worked really well”