The Mystery of Brackstone Manor

It was Tuesday morning at Brackstone Manor Primary School. Billy and Thomas were sitting at the back of the class, listening to their teacher Miss Mooney explaining their new project for the term.

'This term class, we’re going to be looking into the local history of our school. You may not know, but there are stories that Brackstone School is built on the ruins of and old Roman fort. Over the next few weeks we are going to become mini detectives and see if we can discover what secrets lie buried beneath the school….

Billy turned to Thomas and whispered, ‘Wow, maybe there’s a skeleton or a giant Woolly Mammoth buried under our carpet!’

Billy giggled, ’Or one of Ronan’s mouldy old cheese sandwiches!’ They both laughed. Miss Moody stopped talking and looked over the top of her glasses at them both, ‘I hope you two were listening at the back.

‘Yes Miss Moody, or course Miss Moody’ chanted the two.

‘Good, then you can both make a start after lunch. Now, open your reading books everyone, page twelve..’

The two boys turned and looked at each other open mouthed. They had been so busy chatting that they hadn’t heard what they should be doing after lunch.

‘Don’t worry,’ whispered Thomas, ‘I’ll asked Sunita at lunchtime. She listens to every word Miss Moody says. She’s bound to know what we’re supposed to be doing.’

At lunch Billy at Thomas tried to find Sunita. They couldn’t see her anywhere in the dining hall. Finally, they managed to spot her outside. She was busy playing five-a-side football in the playground. The two boys watched at the side and kept trying to attract her attention. ‘SUNITA, SUNITA!’ they chanted.

Sunita heard the boys calling her name, but she just thought they were cheering her on. She took a deep breath and tried an extra hard tackle on Danielle Scrivon, a tall Year Six girl with a mass of twizzly blonde hair.

The bell for the end of break rang loud and clear across the playground. The children made their way back to class. Billy and Thomas rushed to Sunita’s side. ‘What have we got to do in class this afternoon Sunita? What did Miss Moody say we have to do?

‘Honestly,’ gasped Sunita, still out of breath from the game, ‘You’re supposed to be digging up a corner of the school garden to see if there are any remains of the old Roman fort. You should really listen to Miss Moody you know, she’s a really good teacher. I’ve learnt loads from her. Only the other day she explained……’

The boys left Sunita as they entered the classroom, and headed for their desks at the back of class.

Once afternoon registration was over, Thomas and Billy found a corner of the school garden so they could start digging. It wasn’t as easy as they’d first thought. The school garden had been the idea of the old Headteacher, Mr Woolacot. Over the twenty years since he retired, the school garden had become a mixture of old bits of rotting carpet, a broken filing cabinet and a few depressed looking daffodils.

The two boys chose the corner of the garden nearest the school and set their trowels into the sort brown earth. They dug down, uncovering old roots, stones and a few interesting worms, which Billy put in his pocket to add to his collection. After about twenty minutes of digging, the earth became more solid and difficult to work. ‘I think we’ve found something!’ panted Thomas, grinding his trowel into the solid ground. They put their tools to one side and brushed the soil aside, to reveal what seemed to be the remains of a wall. It was clearly very old, made of uneven, roughly made rocks and boulders. As the two brushed more dirt away, something glinted in the afternoon sun. ‘It’s a Roman coin!’ shouted Billy, ‘Look it‘s got the name Constantine on it. He was a Roman Emperor. Lets dig down a bit further and see if we can find something else.’

They carried on removing soil and stones from the hole. The Roman wall became clearer and clearer as they dug deeper and deeper. And then another shape began to emerge from the dirt…..

Now it’s your turn to tell the story. What do the boys find at the bottom of the hole? What will it mean to Brackstone Manor School?

Write your own ending