The winners of the History of Parliament Trust’s Gunpowder Plot competition spent a day at Westminster on March 21 2006, where they were given a tour of the Houses of Parliament and presented with their prizes by Deputy Speaker Rt hon Sir Alan Haselhurst MP.
The competition was launched in October last year by the Trust and the 24 Hour Museum, at the same time as the Gunpowder Plot website, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the famous conspiracy to blow up Parliament.
Elisheva Shafritz won the 7-11 year-olds’ category with a colourful 'Wanted' poster featuring ‘Cunning Catesby’, one of the conspirators. Jack Cottrell won the competition for 11-14 year-olds for his innovative re-creation of a newspaper from the time of the plot.
“Jack and Elisheva really deserved to win this competition, their entries were fantastic,” said Show Me editor Anra Kennedy. “When they arrived at Parliament it quickly became clear that they were both very interested in history, so touring the building with them was a real treat.”
Elisheva and Jack went on a tour of the Palace of Westminster, including the Parliamentary Archives and the Speaker’s House, then sat in on a session in the House of Commons.
The Acts Room was particularly impressive, with piles of scrolls - on which Acts of Parliament are written - reaching from floor to ceiling.
For the winners’ tour, several documents were laid out on display, including the ‘Act of Attainder’ that was passed for the execution of Catherine Howard. Dated 1542, her husband Henry VIII’s large wax seal is still clearly intact on it – quite unusual for a document of that age.
“Elisheva’s sheer delight at seeing Henry VIII’s signature and seal was a potent reminder of why archives should be striving to make their material accessible to children – she was captivated,” said Anra.
In Speaker’s House, Jack and Elisheva were shown the famous bed that was missing for most of the 20th century and eventually found in the bedroom of a Welsh farmer! In fact, it had been sold off in the 1930s and was recovered after a campaign to find it.
Sir Alan Haselhurst presented Jack and Elisheva with certificates and book tokens in Speaker’s House as the Speaker himself, Michael Martin MP, was not well.
Asked how she felt when she heard she had won, ten-year-old Elisheva said: “I couldn’t speak – I felt really, really, really happy and I couldn’t wait to get home from school and tell Mummy.”
Elisheva wants to be an interior designer or an actress when she grows up and found the tour very interesting, but the interior of Speaker’s House was not really her cup of tea: “I liked the furniture, but I wouldn’t pick it for my house,” she said. "I like more modern things.”
When he heard he had won, 13-year-old Jack danced around the kitchen, said his dad. His winning newspaper was very detailed, with a sports page and Jacobean fashion tips - as well as the report about the failed Gunpowder Plot.
Asked if he was considering a career in journalism, “I enjoy it,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s a professional career that would be any good for me.”
He added that he would rather follow his hero Michael Wood and be a TV historian: “Michael Wood is a legend,” he said, before adding that he's also inspired by Richard Hammond of Time Commanders and Top Gear.
A selection of other competition entries can be seen on the 24 Hour Museum's kids' site, Show Me.
The competition was inspired by the Gunpowder Plot website commissioned by the Parliamentary Archives and produced by the 24 Hour Museum with support from the History of Parliament Trust.
The History of Parliament Trust is working on a project to create a comprehensive resource about the history of the British Parliament since their origins in the 13th century. The Trust's website is at www.history.ac.uk/hop
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