Riddles of the Magna Carta

What has no hinges, key, or lid, but inside gold is hid?

This riddle was set by a pupil from Curry Mallet Primary School near Taunton whilst working on 'The Riddler' Storywalk with me over the last few weeks. I'll let you work a little before giving you the answer, but I didn't get it for ages! 

So why am I working with Curry Mallet Primary School?

It was over a year ago when the school began it's preparations for the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta being June 13th 2015. They lined up a whole series of projects with Heritage Lottery Funding and Somerset Art Works and it was through this connection that they approached Storywalks about creating a trail. You may be aware that Baron William Malet, Lord of Curry Mallet was one of the 25 signatures on the original manuscript and so the village has been gearing up for celebrations for some time.

So what are storywalks?

The easiest way to explain is to describe a book being ripped up page by page and placed on trees down an avenue. To read the book you must walk down the avenue stopping at each tree and page in turn. Storywalks do this but digitally, so rather than breaking up a real book (which would be a shame) we choose which trees, or more specifically which location a text will trigger.

Within minutes the pupils understand how the system works and are off, running across the school fields, revealing the stories. It becomes like a treasure hunt with story and narrative revealing at different spots as the gold. It is quite something to see and I relish the reluctant readers taking their turn to lead the pack and trigger the content. 

But storywalks is only a small segment of the day, a lot of the session is class based, writing and crafting their own riddles or stories to pop into the Storywalk engine. Once this is done we then head out again and reveal their own words tethered to their school field.

So three days are already complete with the school at Curry Mallet, with two still to go and we've already started on 'the biggy', it's called 'The Weaver of Curry Mallet' and is a fictional tale set in the village. 

There once lived a weaver, in Curry Mallet, Somerset, whose skills were used to repair cloth and clothes for well pursed people. So great and desired was her craftsmanship that a poem or ditty would often follow her about. 

When the wear of time is such a to do,

And the weft and weave have run right through.

She'll sew a seam so straight and true,

And stitch a patch as good as new. 

Well one day a young man brought her a drawer of tapestries, which were in dire need of her skills and although this box was very heavy he did not seemed burdened by its weight and lightly placed it down in her workshop. She then set to making him a ticket and valuing the job before her.

The story continues asking the weaver to walk with him in the evenings whilst the tapestry is in her care and tell stories as they walk. This is where the pupils step up to lace and weave their own tales along the trail and inside the Storywalk. This formula plays to the strengths of each child's imagination, it energises their reading and writing skills and opens possibilities of narratives which before were not possible. 

For example you can ask the reader to stomp on the bridge to wake the troll, or not to whistle along the path as the wild dogs will be summoned, or even perhaps to walk around the font three times just for luck. All these things you can do in a Storywalk, interactions within a storyline which seem much dryer in the classroom.

This story will begin at the gate of Curry Mallet School and reveal as you journey along the path into the village, following the stream much of the way. The fabric of the tale sits inside a world before the modern day but not too long ago, perhaps when fields were hoed by hand and horses set to the plough, some time in the past 800 years perhaps.

On the story trail expect to meet talking cattle, warty toads and mischievous dragons. I would hope that the children of the old Curry Mallet village being excavated during the festival, would enjoy these just as much as you today. For me those long passed residents feel like the audience for this project in a peculiar and curious manner.

So join us on Saturday 13th June, but make sure you have a clear head to solve riddles, keep a bright eye out for the Forest Tree King and what will happen in The Tale of the Weaver of Curry Mallet.

More details about the events here http://www.currymallet.org/magna-carta/curry-mallets-magna-carta-celebrations/

For Storywalks on the day, http://currymallet.storywalks.info and open in your smart phone then journey to the trail head.

See you on the 13th to find out, oh and the answer to the riddle - An Egg!