HISTORY MYSTERY The Great Fire of London 1666 - Primary evidence detectives.

This lesson asks the big question ‘why did the Great Fire of London Spread so far and so fast in 1666?’. Your students have to evaluate the evidence available to decide what they think was the biggest contributing factor. Students have to infer and reach a reasoned judgement based on the evidence at hand. This includes primary sources and secondary reports.

The class works in pairs or groups to decide why the Great Fire of London was able to spread so far in such a short space of time. They assess the evidence to decide whether the main reason was:

-Human mistakes,

-Weather conditions

-Housing

-Firefighting equipment.

The evidence is not given to them all at once, instead the teacher drip feeds it throughout the lesson. This is in a bid to challenge preconceived ideas and see if pupils will change their minds when faced with new data or sources.

The lesson also works well as a station activity with the children moving around the room to gather information.

The last task is to write an extended piece (like a DBQ) explaining what the different factors were and what they believe was the biggest contributing factor to the fire spreading in this way. The video clip that I use when teaching this is from the BBC drama Charles I The Power and the Pas

The lesson fits with the common core requirement for students to analyse, evaluate and consider causation. The grade descriptors are skill based ie: identify, then describe then explain then evaluate at the top end of ability.

The zip file contains:

• fully animated and annotated PowerPoint

• Clues from the scene worksheet

• Answer worksheet

• Full lesson plan description

This is a fun and memorable lesson that can be taught as a stand alone or as part of a project for example on Stuart housing. I have had teachers tell me that they used this to create a whole day of historical enquiry.

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