Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson.

My name is Mrs. Tipping.

I'm really looking forward to learning with you today all about Bronze and Iron Age Britain and how life changed during that time.

So shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe how the use of iron impacted farming during the Iron Age.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are crops, ard plough, sickle, wildwood, enclosed.

I'm gonna say those again and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Crops, ard plough, sickle, wildwood, enclosed.

Good job.

Let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are some definitions for each of our keywords.

Plants grown for food are called crops.

An ard plough was an iron tool used by Iron Age farmers to create lines in the soil for planting seeds.

A sickle was an iron tool used by Iron Age farmers to cut crops when they were ready to harvest.

Forest or woodland areas growing naturally are called wildwood.

If an area is enclosed, it is surrounded by a wall or fence.

Pause the video here to make a note of the keywords.

And when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson.

We're going to take a look at the introduction of iron farming tools and clearing the wildwood.

In the first learning cycle, we will explore the introduction of iron farming tools.

During the Iron Age, Britain was inhabited by Celtic tribes whose main way of life was agriculture.

They kept animals such as cows, sheep, goats, and hares.

The animals were used for milk, meat, wool, and animal skins.

The Celts also grew crops such as wheat and barley, which were used for food and trading.

Agriculture is the process of farming animals and crops.

Alex is having a look at these Iron Age tools.

What do you think they are made from and what do you think the Celts use them for? So we've got the ard plough and the sickle.

Hmm.

I wonder.

Well, Laura says that during the Iron Age, people began making tools for farming out of iron like the ard plough and sickle.

Hmm, interesting.

Well, the ard plough had an iron blade and a wooden frame.

It was pushed through the soil to create a long straight line to plant seeds when growing crops.

The ard plough would've been pushed by the farmer or pulled by animals such as cattle.

The ard plow's sharp iron blade made it much easier for farmers to prepare the ground for planting.

Today, farmers use tractors and other modern machinery to help them with this task.

The sickle was another important iron tool developed at this time.

It had a wooden handle and a curved iron blade to cut down crops when it was time to harvest them.

In the Iron Age, harvesting was all done by hand as there was no modern machinery to do the job.

The iron sickle was strong and sharp, and it made this job easier for farmers.

So it's a good job that the farmers had these iron tools because their jobs would've been quite tricky and difficult, wouldn't they? Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you match the tool to the correct job? We've got the ard plough and the sickle.

What were they used for? To chop down crops to create lines in the soil for planting seeds.

Have a quick discussion with your partner.

Which tool did what? Pause the video and restart when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Did you manage to match them up? Let's take a look.

The ard plough was used to create lines in the soil for planting seeds.

And so the sickle was used to chop down crops.

Well done if you matched the tool to the correct job.

The use of iron tools had further important impacts on farming in the Iron Age.

The iron ard plough could be used in much heavier soil and wetter conditions so different types of crops could be grown including oats, rye, barley, and flax seeds.

It also meant more land could be used including soil that had been previously too wet or too heavy to plough by hand, which meant farmers could increase the size of the land they farmed and grow even more crops.

Also, the new iron tools meant farming tasks could be completed much more quickly and easier than before.

So farmers were therefore able to farm more land and grow more crops.

Let's take a moment to have a go at your first learning task for this lesson.

You'll need a pen and some paper, so be sure that you're ready with those.

Finish the sentences to show the impact of iron tools on farming during Iron Age Britain.

So the start of the sentence, the ard plough could be used in heavier clay soils and wetter conditions so.

Farmers were able to farm more land and grow more crops because.

So have a go at writing out those sentences and completing them and pause the video here and restart it when you are ready to find out the answers.

How did that go? Did you manage to finish those sentences? Let's take a look at the kind of thing you could have written.

The ard plough could be used in heavier clay soils and wetter conditions, so more different types of crops could be grown and more land could be used for farming.

Farmers were able to farm more land and grow more crops because the new iron tools made jobs quicker and easier.

Fantastic.

Well done for completing that learning task.

We're now ready to move on to the second part of this lesson.

We're going to explore clearing the wildwood.

Before the Iron Age, large parts of Britain were covered in wildwood.

These areas were covered in trees, plants, and thick undergrowth, which meant that farmers had not been able to grow anything here before.

But now, because Iron Age farmers had iron tools to make their work easier and faster, they wanted more land so they could grow more crops and keep more animals.

So the farmers looked to the wildwood for more space.

They began to cut down the wildwood to make more fields and land for farming.

So you can see in this image here of the wildwood how many trees and plants and undergrowth that there was.

But the farmers needed more land in order to grow their crops and farm their animals.

So they chopped some of that down.

Farmers used a tool called an axe to clear the wildwood.

The axes had an iron blade and wooden handle.

The iron axe was much stronger than a bronze axe, so it cut through the wood much easier.

And this meant the wildwood could be cleared quickly.

Let's pause for a moment and check our understanding.

Can you tell a partner why and how farmers in the Iron Age cleared the wildwood? Aisha has some words here that you could use.

Space, crops, animals, iron axe, quickly.

And Alex is reminding us to listen carefully to our partners.

Can you add any information to what they're already saying? So take a moment now, pause the video, and restart it when you are ready to continue.

How did that go? Should we have a look at an example answer? You could have said something like this.

Farmers cut down and cleared the wildwood to make space to farm animals and grow crops.

They used an iron axe to clear the wildwood quickly.

So we know why and how farmers in the Iron Age cleared the wildwood.

Well done.

As the Celtic farmers cleared more wildwood for farming, they wanted to show which farmer owned which piece of land and to stop anyone else from farming that area.

Owning a piece of land is called land ownership.

The farmers also enclosed their land to keep their animals in and other tribes and wild animals out.

Soon, settlement started to become enclosed too for further protection.

Remember, a settlement is a place where people have settled to live.

The farmers enclosed their land by marking out the boundaries of their fields using fences.

The fences were built from wooden poles and smaller twigs woven through the poles.

Another technique was to dig out long trenches around the edges of the fields, and these were called ditches.

Farmers still use ditches and wooden fencing today to show land ownership and to help keep their animals in.

Have a look at the images there.

We've got a photo of a wooden fence and a photo of a ditch.

Have you ever been in the countryside and seen either of those things? Well, that shows that the farmers are marking out their land ownership.

Lucas is wondering how the Celtic farmers built the fences for their enclosed settlements.

Hmm, that's a good question.

What do you think? Well, Izzy has said that they would've used the new iron axe.

Of course, it would've made chopping the wood needed for the fences easy and quick.

The iron axe was a very helpful tool for Iron Age farmers.

Let's pause and check our understanding.

During the Iron Age, farmland and settlements became enclosed.

Is that true or false? Take a moment to think.

Hmm.

If you said that that was true, you're absolutely right.

Well done.

And how do we justify our answer? Take a look at these statements.

Iron Age farmers built wooden fences around their land and settlements.

Iron Age farmers built iron fences around their land and settlements.

Hmm.

Have a discussion with your partner.

Which of these two statements helps to justify your answer? Pause the video and when you are ready to restart, press play.

What did you think? Which of these statements helps to justify your answer? If you said Iron Age farmers built wooden fences around their land and settlements, you're absolutely right.

Well done, good job.

They didn't build iron fences, but they did use an iron axe to chop up the wood to create their wooden fences.

Here's another question.

How did farmers in the Iron Age enclose their fields? Did they, was it because of built wooden fences that they dug ditches? They built brick walls, they dug holes.

How did the farmers enclose their fields? What did they do? Have a quick discussion with your partner.

What do you think? If you said that they built wooden fences, you're absolutely right, but they also dug ditches.

So well done if you remembered that it was both of those ways that farmers were able to enclose their fields.

That brings us to our final learning task of this lesson.

I'd like you to create an advertisement for the iron axe.

Can you include an eye-catching title, a description of the axe an explanation of why an iron axe is helpful for iron Iron Age farmers.

So can you include all of those three things onto your advertisement? So you're going to need a pen and some paper, and you can draw the iron axe, and then have a go, including a title, a description, and an explanation.

Give yourself enough time and when you are ready to restart the video, press play.

How did that go? Did you manage to create an advertisement? Well, you could have written something similar to this.

Introducing the incredible iron axe.

The axe has a sharp, strong iron blade and a wooden handle.

Calling all farmers of the Iron Age, if you want more land, this is an iron tool you simply cannot do without.

It has a very sharp iron blade to cut through the toughest wildwood.

It has a long, comfortable wooden handle, which is easy to hold.

With the iron axe, clearing the wildwood for farmland will be easy and quick.

You can also use it to enclose your farmland by building a fence to show off the land you own.

Well done for completing that learning task.

I'm sure that your advertisement would sell the iron axe.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we've learned about the changing agriculture in Britain during the Iron Age.

Iron allowed the creation of new farming tools like the ard plough and sickle, and this meant that a greater variety of crops could be grown such as oats and barley, and crops could be harvested more quickly.

Iron also allowed the creation of stronger tools such as axes, meaning farmers could clear the wildwood.

And clearing the wildwood meant farmers had more land for farming.

With more land to farm, land ownership became more important as farmers built fences and ditches to enclose their land and settlements.

Thank you for joining me in today's lesson.

We have certainly learned a lot about the changing agriculture in Britain during the Iron Age.

I look forward to seeing you for the next lesson.

See you next time.