• Man’s dream of a horseless carriage led to experiments with sail, steam and pedal power before the invention of the internal combustion engine changed our world.
• Follow the development of the car from the dawn of motoring to the present day or focus on specific periods in motoring history.
• Suitable for KS1, 2, 3, 4 and for children / students / adults with special educational needs.

Britain since the 1930s

• Recall the days when food was wrapped in paper, before decimalisation and metric weights, providing a fascinating insight into life in 20th century Britain.
• Particular attention is paid to the motor car in war and peace, developments in car design and life in a local garage.
• Suitable for KS1, 2, 3, 4 and for children / students / adults with special educational needs.

Motoring fun

• This entertaining programme lifts the lid on some of the quirkier aspects of motoring history. Sit in an orange, find out about the weird and wacky, marvel at Bluebird.
• Suitable for KS1, 2, 3, 4 and for children / students / adults with special educational needs.
• Optional car ride available. Please as at time of booking.

The Art of Motoring

• This programme allows you to explore motoring design through history. You’ll see items from the Beaulieu objects collection and Shell Art collections first hand.
• Suitable for KS3, 4 and for children / students / adults with special educational needs.
• Includes object handling.

Palace House has been in Lord Montagu's family ownership since 1538 and, concentrating on the Victorian period, offers a number of fascinating study days for children.

Houses and Homes

• Experience the atmosphere of a Victorian country house with one of our Victorian house-hold servants. Based on people who lived and worked at Beaulieu in the 19th century.
• Dress up in smocks and collars and learn about familiar and unusual objects of Victorian times in this ‘hands-on’ programme.
• Suitable for KS1, 2, 3, 4 and for children/ students/adults with special educational needs.

The Victorians

• Children take on the role of Victorian school children seeking employment as housemaids, kitchen maids, footmen or chauffeurs.
• Find out about etiquette, spittoons and iron ranges and many more aspects of life in a Victorian country house.
• Discover where to buy petrol, how to steer a car without a wheel or a windscreen and why a red flag was important to Victorian motorists.
• Suitable for KS2 and 3 and for children/ students/adults with special educational needs.

Victorians and their Toys

• Look around the family home of the Montagus with one of our Victorian household servants and find out about the people who lived in Victorian Palace House.
• Dress in smocks and collars.
• Discover some of the toys the Montagu children played with in Victorian Palace House. Are they similar of those today? Are they different? If so, how? Why?
• Learn how some of the toys worked and find out why we use replicas and not originals for handling.

• Suitable for KS1 and 2 and for children/students/adults with special educational needs.

Originally the grounds of Beaulieu Abbey, Palace House Gardens have developed over the centuries as “pleasure grounds” for the Montagu family and as a source for the supply of food and decoration to Palace House. Now they also provide further options for our popular Victorian and War Years programmes.

The Victorian Kitchen Garden

• Role play tours of the gardens in which children learn about life as a Victorian gardner and what was grown for the Palace House tables.
• Find out the origins of trees and plants in the Beaulieu gardens and how they were introduced to Britain.
• Suitable for KS1, 2 and 3 and for children/students/adults with special educational needs.

War-Time Gardens at Beaulieu

• Role play tours f the gardens in which the children learn about “digging for victory” and the contribution of the Land Army girls.
• Find out how people grew food to supplement their rations and found 101 uses for carrots!
• Suitable for KS1, 2 and 3 and for children/students/adults with special educational needs.

Each garden option is a ½ day programme or can be combined with either a Victorian programme or a War years programme to make a day’s activities.

The War Years

• Discover the part Beaulieu played in the training of the war time secret agents of the Special Operations Executive and learn about life on the Home Front in our role play programme.
• Spies, evacuees, blackout, war-time motoring and rationing are just a few of the topics covered in activities designed to convey something of the difficulties and dangers of the time, and of the bravery and sacrifice of those involved.
• Optional Jeep ride available. Please ask at time of booking.
• Suitable for KS2, 3 and 4 and for children.

Covert Operations

• During World War II men and women from the European Resistance trained in utmost secrecy at Beaulieu. These members of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) were then 'dropped' back into occupied territory to disrupt the German forces.
• Groups participating in this hands-on programme find out about the role of 'agents' and gain an insight into the sabotage and subversion methods taught at 'The Beaulieu Finishing School'.
• Code breaking and problem solving are just some of the team activities involved

A Cistercian Abbey built in 1204 and partially demolished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The Domus survived and provides an ideal base for Medieval and Tudor study days.

Monastic

• Children take on the role of novice minks to learn about life in a medieval monastery.
• ‘Hand-on’ workshops on calligraphy, wool (spinning/felting/weaving) and building/surveying can be included in the programme.
• Suitable for KS2 and 3 and for children/students/adults with special educational needs.

The Tudors

• Children take on the role of guests of the 3rd Earl of Southampton, patron of William Shakespeare.
• ‘Hands on’ workshops on calligraphy and wool (spinning/felting/weaving) can be included into the programme.
• Suitable for KS2 and 3 and for children/students/adults with special educational needs.