Day 2: Monday, 4 July

Cultural Visits, Pit Display Build & Welcome Dinner

Today the teams undertook visits to buildings of historical and cultural significance in Coventry and Stratford Upon Avon. This included, St Mary’s Guildhall, St Michael’s Cathedral ruins and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. St Mary’s Guildhall: Building started on part of the site of the former Coventry castle around the year 1340, and was completed by the time of the first recorded meeting of the guild of St. Mary in 1342. The building grew in size and embellishment during subsequent decades, as Coventry’s richest merchant guilds amalgamated, and selected the building as their common administrative and ceremonial base. By 1414, as home to the united guild of the Holy Trinity, the Guildhall had reached its present size. The merchant guilds were fraternities for the city’s leading businessmen, which regulated trade in the city, influenced civic government, and promoted sound moral and religious principles among the townsfolk through charitable acts and the cycle of ‘mystery’ plays. The Guildhall acted as the focus of guild business, chiefly as a ceremonial space, meeting place, and banqueting hall. Source: http://www.stmarysguildhall.co.uk St Michael’s Cathedral Ruins: St Michael’s, a 14th-century Gothic church later designated cathedral, remains a ruined shell after its bombing during the Coventry Blitz of 14 November 1940 by the German Luftwaffe. The tower, spire, the outer wall and the bronze effigy and tomb of its first bishop, Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs, survives. Our students visited the ruins of St Michael’s Cathedral where a group photograph of all teams was taken. Anne Hathaway’s Cottage: Anne Hathaway’s Cottage is a twelve-roomed farmhouse where Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, lived as a child in the village of Shottery, Warwickshire, England, about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Stratford-upon-Avon. Spacious, and with several bedrooms, it is now set in extensive gardens. The earliest part of the house was built prior to the 15th century; the higher part is 17th century. The house was known as Hewlands Farm in Shakespeare’s day and had more than 90 acres (36 hectares) of land attached to it. After the death of Hathaway’s father, the cottage was owned by her brother Bartholomew, and was passed down the Hathaway family until 1846, when financial problems forced them to sell it. However, it was still occupied by them as tenants when it was acquired in 1892 by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which removed later additions and alterations. In 1969 the cottage was badly damaged in a fire, but was restored by the Trust. It is now open to the public as a museum. Whilst visiting the cottage our students enjoyed readings of classic poetry by actors, archery and a BBQ lunch. Pit Display Build & Welcome Dinner: The late return of teams from their cultural visits delayed the Pit Display Build but Team Australia took it in their stride and didn’t allow this or some minor problems with faulty booth framework to deter them from their task. Our team displays are fine examples of the best on offer. Once completed, teams enjoyed a Welcome Dinner consisting of miniature versions of traditional English fare such as fish and chips, pies and trifle. As this post is being published, our teams are madly fine-tuning their Verbal Presentations and preparing themselves for a full day’s judging tomorrow followed by the Awards Presentation. Live Webcast: Don’t forget to watch the live webcast of the Land Rover 4×4 in Schools World Finals 2016 starting at 09.30am local time tomorrow, Tuesday 5th July 2016 or 6.30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. Click here to watch!