On 21^st October 2011, Year 5 visited Manchester Cathedral and the Library at Chetham’s School of Music to learn more about life in Tudor times. In the cathedral we learnt about how the cathedral was important in Tudor times because of family links to Henry VIII.  We looked at the many wooden carvings and counted the Minstrel Angels on the ceiling, there were 14. We also learnt how much of the cathedral was destroyed by German bombs in World War II and how it was rebuilt. There is a lovely stain glass window with pictures of flames and fire to help people remember what happened. Chetham’s Library was fascinating. It is a very old building, the wooden doors have small holes cut in them so that in Tudor times the cats could run through the building and catch the rats! We saw that the books in the old library were chained to the shelves. This was to stop them from being stolen because in Tudor times books were very expensive. We also learnt that only rich people learned to read and that girls didn’t go to school at all! We were also very lucky to see 2 old books; one had belonged to Henry VIII and the other to Queen Elizabeth I. Henry VIII’s book was a very large book of maps and Queen Elizabeth’s was covered in red velvet. We also looked at an old printing press and discovered that they used wee to clean off the old ink! We had a lovely time and learnt lots of interesting facts. Thank you to all the staff and volunteers that helped to organise the trip and look after us on the day. Report by, Laura, Leila, Oliver and Georgia from 5K © Rosehill Methodist Primary School