Crown, Church and country, 1509–1745
What did the Reformation do to your nearest old church?
Can you find evidence of the break with Rome in a building near you?
Watch first
An English teaching video on this topic from The Time Map. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
What you need
Tick each one as you find it — 0 of 3 ready.
Plan the fair test
- Change: Which building you study (pre-1600 versus later)
- Measure: How many pre-Reformation features survive, and what replaced them
- Keep the same: The same four features checked in the same order in both buildings
Objectives this evidences
- Understand the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745, including the English Reformation and its impact
- Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance
Do it, one step at a time
Step 1 of 5
- Step 1. Before you go, write down four things a pre-Reformation Catholic church would have had: statues of saints, wall paintings, a stone altar, a Latin inscription.
- Step 2. Visit or study photographs, and record which of the four are present, missing, damaged or replaced. Note the date of anything obviously newer.
- Step 3. Look for empty niches, plastered-over walls and blank stone bases - removal usually leaves a shape behind.
- Step 4. Do exactly the same recording for a second building: a Victorian church, or a chapel built after 1700.
- Step 5. Write one paragraph answering the question, quoting two specific features you recorded.
What should happen
Older churches usually keep the shape of what was removed rather than the thing itself: empty niches, whitewashed walls, a wooden communion table where a stone altar stood. That absence is evidence.
Think about: Missing statues could mean Reformation removal, Civil War damage, or Victorian restoration. How would you find out which? That uncertainty is normal historical work, not a failure.
Write up your result
A sentence or two is enough to save it.
The lessons behind this practical
Each one opens with the same short film, and the film has a written transcript underneath if reading is easier than watching.
Now the quiz for this topic
Questions come from the lessons behind this practical, so nothing is asked that has not been taught.
Quiz
Crown, Church and country, 1509–1745 quiz
4 questions from the lessons in this stage. No timer, and you can try again as many times as you like.