Martello Towers History Detective Pack

A history detective pack for ages 11 to 14: what happened at Mortella in 1794, and why do the sources tell it differently? Six short quoted sources with provenance, an evidence table, reading the dates when the sources disagree, open questions, what Britain built next, a judgement question and full answers.

What’s inside:

- Teacher page

- Background: invasion fears and a tower in Corsica

- Glossary

- Sources A to F: short quotations with provenance from Historic England, Royal Museums Greenwich, English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland and the Wish Tower Friends, with source-weighing grids

- Task 1: evidence table

- Task 2: reading the dates, where the sources do not agree

- Task 3: open questions, where the sources give no single answer

- Task 4: what did Britain build next?

- Task 5: your judgement, with a planning prompt

- Full answers with sources

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 13 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from English Heritage, Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Royal Museums Greenwich, Parks Canada, the James Joyce Tower, the Wish Tower Friends and the Department for Education (checked 3 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Where the evidence gives no single answer, what each source says is shown with its source.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs, not reconstructions of any real tower, not to scale, and not copied from any site plan, map, guidebook, print, photo or book. Not affiliated with English Heritage, Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, Royal Museums Greenwich, Parks Canada, UNESCO, the James Joyce Tower, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, the Landmark Trust, the Friends of Martello24, the Wish Tower Friends, the Seaford Museum and Heritage Society, the UK government or any museum. Their names, and the names of the places they look after, are used only to identify the places and sources we quote.

Licence: personal and single-classroom use. You may print as many copies as you need for your own family or your own class, and share it with your class through a password-protected platform. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For school-wide use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind martello-towers.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.