IT was a feast fit for a Tudor king - or queen.

Lanercost Primary School pupils tucked into the banquet to mark the end of their Tudor topic.

The whole school - nursery through to year six - descended on Naworth Castle last week to bring the period to life.

Dressed in full 16th century costume - from the rich and privileged to the man on the street - the 79-strong brigade of pupils tucked into an authentic historical banquet drawn from a menu of Tudor recipes.

Headteacher Alison Clarricoats was thrilled with how much the children enjoyed their day.

“The children had a wonderful time. You should have seen their little faces as they walked into that great hall,” she said, adding, “That drawing in of breath and just going ‘this is amazing’.’’

Mrs Clarricoats was certain it was an experience that will stay with the children.

“I would imagine the children will never forget it.

“It will be one that they’ll probably regale to their own children when they have children themselves,” she said.

“It embeds learning so that the learning will stay.

“It won’t just be something they do for one term and then forget.”

Mrs Clarricoats felt the experience helped cement the children’s term of lessons.

“It made the learning they’ve been doing in the classroom come to life,” she said.

Mrs Clarricoats explained that the schoolchildren had tried their hand at making a Tudor meal earlier in the month.

“At the banquet, our PTA, the Friends of Lanercost School and our cook from school, Julie, prepared the food but used some of the recipes children had used from a couple of weeks before.

“We had two ladies come along, they call themselves the Tudor Kitchens.

“They came along dressed as Tudors, and they showed the children how to make the Tudor food.”

Some of the items on the menu included Blancmanger chicken, a popular medieval casserole made from chicken and rice, as well as jelly of fish and prune tarts.

Mrs Clarricoats added that the history of Tudor food was full of discovery too.

“They discovered the potato during the Tudors, and they didn’t really know how to cook potatoes,” she said.

“So they would boil them to complete mash, and they they recognised it looked a bit like cheese curd, so they put it into a tart.

“They called it the Bishop Auckland cheese tart.”

The story of Tudor food also has royal connections, Mrs Clarricoats continued.

“Interestingly, the children learned that it was only when Catherine of Aragon came over to be the first queen of Henry VIII that people of that time ate raw vegetables.

“So she brought salad across with her.”

Mrs Clarricoats said that the local area is reflected in the school curriculum.

“We choose our curriculum carefully, in mind of what we have in our local area,” she said.

“Hence the reason that we choose topics like the Romans and the Tudors, because we know we’ve got access to bringing it to life for the children.”

The pupil’s next topic however is much more modern.

“We go on to mega-structures,” Mrs Clarricoats said.

“We have a trip to London, and we’re going to meet one of the architects who designed The Shard, and chat to her about what processes go on when designing a very large mega-structure.”