Church and Woolsthorpe Manor

We started the day with a class period devoted to student presentations. Every student was asked to become our resident expert on each site we visited during our class tours. This was a great way to learn more about each site visit and provided a great introduction into discussions of what they liked and didn't like about each site.
After class we all walked into Harlaxton (the village) and attended church at St. Mary and St. Peter Church. 

 Here we are on a footpath through Harlaxton (the village) that runs behind some houses in town.

This church dates to 1185, when William the Conqueror's granddaughter, Matilda provided the land. There were approximately 40 parishioners already at the church when we arrived. We chose to sit on one side of the main aisle but within two minutes of the start of the service, the Rector Kevin Hanson, asked that we "even out the church" and moved us all into the center aisle.

We stayed through communion but needed to leave before the service ended to make sure we had time for lunch and to catch our taxis to Woolsthorpe Manor.

Woolsthorpe Manor is the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton. During the plague years of 1665-1666, he returned to the family farm and produced some of his most important work on physics and mathematics here, including his crucial experiment to split white light into a spectrum of colors. We could even see his famous apple tree.

 One nice part of visiting during May was that the apple trees are in bloom. The main apple tree split in 1840 but the roots were fine and the current tree grew out of the roots. The low two foot barrier was only put in 4 years ago to protect the root structure of the tree.

 Here is the Newton farmhouse. The floors are original and the National Trust is beginning to have issues with thousands of tourists walking on the very fragile upstairs floors made from a combination lye and straw.  We were still able to tour the entire house, including upstairs.

 In addition to the original farmhouse, the National Trust has converted one of the barns into a science discovery center. The students had fun playing with all of the toys teaching basic physics.

 We also met with Jeanette Warrener, the conservator (main administrator) of Woolsthorpe Manor. This is a very small site with only two year-round, full-time employees. She gave a wonderful overview of the marketing structure the National Trust employs at each of their sites. In addition, she shared her vision for a much larger discovery center to highlight the importance of Newton to modern life.
For dinner this evening, Harlaxton hosted a BBQ in the conservatory for all summer students. In the following picture you can see the conservatory with all of the white framed windows on the right.

 I took a walk around the gardens and loved the views from the Italian gardens.

 Here are the girls having fun in the gardens at Harlaxton.

We had another hour class, this time focusing on London. We will be leaving tomorrow for our last four days in the UK. Our time at Harlaxton has been great but very quick. I think most of the students would have liked to spend a few more days here.

We are off to London!!

The Royal National Hotel we are staying at does not have very good internet service so the blog might be put on hold. I will try and update it when possible.