BBC Teach - Class Clips - 4-What was life like for the poor in the towns of Elizabethan England?

Based on Ian Mortimer’s popular ‘A Time Traveller’s guide to Elizabethan England’ series, these worksheets provide a useful note taking scaffold for KS3 and KS4 students. The set of resources could be used as a useful overview to the Edexcel 9:1 GCSE - Elizabethan England 1558 - 88 supporting the syllabus topics: Challenges to Elizabeth’s rule & Life in Elizabethan England. Each film clip is around 10 minutes in duration making them an ideal flipped learning task, starter or plenary activity. using the BBC link below:

Search - BBC Teach - Class Clips -History KS3: What was life like for the poor in the towns of Elizabethan England?

On his travels Ian Mortimer explores various aspects of town and city life in the sixteenth century, including the markets, which drew so many people in from the surrounding countryside. He also looks at how the Elizabethans tackled the problems of crime and disease, which were such a prominent feature of life for the urban poor. Although life could be tough, he discovers that the introduction of the Elizabethan poor laws did go some way to alleviating the worst times.