Motte & Bailey Castles KS2 Topic Pack

A motte-and-bailey castles topic pack for Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 11): the Normans and 1066, the motte and the bailey, label-the-castle, build-it-in-order and motte-or-bailey cut-out cards, a true-or-false quiz, a crossword where every answer is a real fact, a word search, a Bayeux-style comic strip, a colouring page, a certificate and full answers.

What’s inside:

- Teacher page: how the pack fits KS2 history (Department for Education wording)

- What is a motte-and-bailey castle? (The National Archives, Britannica and English Heritage facts)

- The Normans arrive: 1066 and the Bayeux Tapestry, reading and questions

- Label the castle (our own drawing)

- Two parts of one castle: the motte and the bailey, reading and questions

- Build it in order: four cut-out step cards with our own step drawing

- Motte or bailey? twelve cut-out sorting cards

- True or false quiz

- Crossword where every answer is a real fact

- Word search

- Bayeux-style comic strip to draw

- Colouring page

- Castle Explorer certificate

- Answer keys

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 17 (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. The KS2 order and sorting cards are meant to be cut out.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from English Heritage, Historic England, The National Archives, the Bayeux Museum, Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Department for Education (checked 30 Oct 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs or copies of real objects, buildings or maps, not to scale, and not copied from any plan, print, photo or book, or from the Bayeux Tapestry. Not affiliated with English Heritage, Historic England, Cadw, Historic Environment Scotland, The National Archives, the Bayeux Museum, Encyclopaedia Britannica or the Department for Education. Their names are used only to identify the 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 motte-and-bailey.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

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