Kate Loveman and James Harrod offer new insights into the Great Fire of London by focussing on the inclusion of Deaf history in this popular topic. They shares the online teaching resources created in their joint partnership between the University of Leicester and the Museum of London.

Each year thousands of children study the Great Fire of London as part of Key Stage 1. For many, it’s a formative encounter with history. More than ten years later, they can still tell you that Samuel Pepys buried his cheese in the garden; they remember the cat that he saw rescued, and the Lord Mayor who failed to act. Much of what the public knows about seventeenth-century history ultimately filters through their (or their children’s, or grandchildren’s) memorable experiences learning about the Great Fire when they were six or seven.

With this in mind, the University of Leicester and the Museum of London teamed up to produce new learning resources, drawing on the latest research on seventeenth-century life. We created two sets of online resources in consultation with teachers: one for Key Stage 1 teaching of the Great Fire and one, which has wider age range, introducing Deaf history in the seventeenth century...